Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Behnam Bahr; Kurt Soschinske; George Gray

numerical controlled (CNC) machining. A recent acquisition ofdonated equipment from Haas Machine Tool equipment consisted of two vertical machiningcenter and a turning center was worth $250,000 1. However, even though the focus of each institution is concentrated on a core area(engineering science / design with WSU and applied design / manufacturing with WATC), abasic understanding and familiarity of the manufacturing, measurement, and technology skillstaught to WATC students must be understood by WSU ME students in order for them as newengineers to effectively develop marketable product designs. This manufacturing experience isnot fully accessible to WSU ME students for their design development activities due to multiplefactors including

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Day W. Radebaugh

1 Complexity in Engineering: The Silent Killer Day W. Radebaugh Assistant Professor of Philosophy Department of Philosophy Wichita State University Wichita, Kansas 67260AbstractA review of the list of recent technological disasters suggests that the risk to society oflarge-scale engineering projects has grown in proportion to the complexity of thedesigned system. Illustrative cases include the Challenger explosion, the power gridblackouts of

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Kimberly H. Henthorn

participation, and feedback to theinstructor and students. In 2006, the 3-hour lab block associated with the course was reorganizedinto 3 1-hour problem solving sessions. This modification greatly increased students’ retentionand understanding of the material by efficiently utilizing class time, which resulted in anoticeable improvement in overall course grades.CollaborationOne of the most important and hardest skills to teach students is collaboration. Many youngerstudents in engineering were at or near the top of their high school and freshman college classesand have learned that they work most effectively by themselves. However, the problem-basedcourses they encounter in engineering are very different and many students who do not learn towork

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Ana Goulart; Charles Watkins; Robert Hegedus

to new technologies through network simulation.1 – IntroductionIn the design of new systems, modeling and simulation allow us to verify new architecturesbefore their actual implementation. In the analysis of existing networks, modeling and simulationallow us to identify bottlenecks and evaluate the impact of new users, applications or changes tothe network infrastructure. Using OpnetTM as a software tool to simulate and model computernetworks, our course on Communication Networks Modeling, Simulation and Testing, in theTelecommunications Engineering Technology program at Texas A&M, teaches our students toevaluate and identify limitations in network architectures and protocols.Moreover, one of our goals is to teach them to integrate new

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Theodore W. Manikas; Gerald R. Kane

industry and academia is essential for all engineering fields. Engineeringstudents benefit from intern programs, as these provide practical experience and developmentalmaturity 1. By working in an industrial engineering environment, students learn how to translatethe theoretical background of their coursework into actual product development. In addition,students are exposed to the interaction of engineering design with corporate concerns such asproject managements, finance, and manufacturing.Employers are more likely to hire engineering students that have some experience and haveacquired a basic knowledge on how their specific industry works. Also, the internshipexperience will increase students' confidence in their engineering abilities, and will

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Ramazan Asmatulu; Waseem Khan; Humphrey Wamocha; Adebayo Adeniji

, devices and/or systemsat the near-atomic or nanometer levels (roughly 1 to 100 nm). A nanometer is 10 angstrom orone billionth of a meter - nearly 100,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. Thistechnology involves fabrication, imaging, measuring, modeling, and manipulating matter at thislength scale. The goal of nanotechnology is to control individual atoms, molecules or particles tosignificantly improve physical, chemical, physicochemical and biological properties of novelmaterials and devices. It is impacting broad ranges of highly multidisciplinary fields, such asengineering, materials science, colloidal science, physics, chemistry, medicine and biology [1-3]. There are several nanomaterials created using nanotechnology or

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Surendra Singh

to a B.S. degree, students have to takealmost two years of math, physics, humanities and other required courses, thereby, leaving thejunior and senior years for courses in their major. Some programs include a two-semestersequence of senior design course [1], which allows the students to design and build circuits orsystems. There is hardly a component in the education process where the students are able to getpractical work experience. Of course, some students find summer employment in theirhometown or get an internship in one of the national laboratories. But for the most part, there isno formal work experience built in the educational process. To quote Zdunek [2], “Formalcourse work is only part of an engineer’s education; training for

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

W. Roy Penney; Rachel M. Lee; Meagan E. Magie; Edgar C. Clausen

principles.Rating a Jeep Grand Cherokee Cooling System RadiatorObjectiveThe purpose of this project was to rate a 2006 Jeep Grand Cherokee radiator relative to the dutyrequired to cool the engine.Equipment and MaterialsFigure 1 shows a photograph of a section of the junk radiator that was used in calculating therating. The photograph shows a cut-away of the tubes through which the ethylene glycolsolution flowed, as well as the perforated fins over which the air flowed. Figure 2 shows aMicrosoft Visio schematic of the radiator section that depicts the dimensions of the tubes and theair fins, as determined by direct measurement, using the help of the Chemical EngineeringDepartment Machinist. Dimensions are shown in Table 1. Figure 3 shows both a

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Larry A. Glasgow

opportunities to explore forces, causal factors, and effects inthe real world. Diminished opportunity to physically experience produces diminished ability toperceive. The predictable result is that students in engineering and the applied sciences struggleto critically evaluate their work in problem-solving exercises. In the fall of 2006 efforts were undertaken to reconnect undergraduate chemicalengineering students with the physical world. Four groups of volunteers (27 students) from ChE530, Transport Phenomena 1, were provided with a large-scale field experience in which waterwas: 1) pumped through a series of nozzles (trading pressure for kinetic energy), 2) pumpedinto a 325 gallon tank to test the delivery rate achieved by the pump (and the

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Christi Patton Luks; Laura P. Ford

whoreview the technical aspects of each project as well as cultural and health concerns.All new projects must be approved by the TAC. The application process for a newproject ensures that all projects: 1) agree with EWB-USA’s mission; 2) benefit the community and do not discriminate against sub-groups; 3) involve the community; 4) have a well-defined scope of work; 5) are of reasonable cost for volunteers to fundraise; and 6) avoid serious safety concerns and do not involve travel to any country under state department warning.The project application asks students to consider both positive and negative impacts tothe economy, the environment, the culture and the ecosystem. The students must discussthe social and governmental

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

J. Oh; B. Kissick

. • Value people, hard work, humor, knowledge and service.1 O’Donovan, E. “Professional learning communities” District Administration 43.3 2007 Vol.2 p942 Kraat, S. B. Ed. Relationships between Teaching Faculty and Teaching Librarians. New York: Haworth20053 Elmborg, J.; Hook, S. Ed. Centers for Learning: Writing Centers and Libraries in Collaboration.American Library Association 20054 Information literacy in action: collaboration, retrieved February 2007, from Association of College andResearch Libraries Web site:http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlissues/acrlinfolit/infolitresources/collaboration/collaboration.htm5 Oh, J.; Collins, J.; Kissick, B.; Starkey, A. “Information Literacy Teams: Bridging the Fluency Divide”2005 ASEE Conference

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Stephan A. Durham; W. Micah Hale; Seamus Freyne

Distributing Course Materials Through Online Assistance Stephan A. Durham1, W. Micah Hale2, Seamus Freyne3 1 University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center / 2University of Arkansas / 3Manhattan CollegeAbstractOften times a professor encourages students to review lecture topics, book chapters, and papersprior to class. This preparation allows students to become familiar with the lecture subject andprovides opportunity for in-class discussion. It is also ideal in a laboratory setting to distributeexperimental data to the entire class with minimal effort. The author currently utilizes a web-based educational tool called Blackboard ™. This online

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Christi Patton Luks; Laura P. Ford

Outcomes. The IAB is viewed asproviding input from both alumni and employer constituencies.IAB surveys for the Program Objectives, Courses, Curriculum, and Program Outcomes will bepresented. We have completed only the first year of this two-year cycle, so only the ProgramObjectives and the Course Objectives will be discussed.Assessment ProcessesThe assessment processes of the department are described in the flowcharts of Figure 1, in theAppendix. The Program Objectives, Course Objectives, Curriculum, and Program Outcomes arereviewed in turn over a two-year period. Each review process includes the measurement of howwell the students are meeting each item and the consideration of those results by the faculty andthe Industrial Advisory Board (IAB

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Abu S.M. Masud; Don E. Malzahn

other issues, program objectives (evaluation/ review), curriculum/laboratory update, and any program-related issue that may arise. • Odd Years, College of Engineering administers the Alumni Survey, the results of which are distributed to departments. PROGRAM EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES AND ASSESSMENTBased on ABET statement [1], our working definition of the program educationalobjectives (PEOs) is that these are statements that describe the expected accomplishmentsof graduates in the first few years after graduation. Program objectives can be of twotypes: (a) what all graduates will do, and (b) what some graduates will do. Programobjectives are written to be used as descriptors of the program and are such

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Leroy R. Cox; Katie Grantham Lough

skills of engineers duringtheir academic preparation, Artemeva, et al. aimed at developing a course tailored toengineering’s specific communication needs and difficulties.1 Significantly, these authorsimmediately identified that “the first challenge is to recognize that these students usually bringwith them a resistance to the notion of engineering as a profession that requires literacy.”1 Thesetting of an engineering class in which the technical writings are of the students’ choosing basedupon their subject matter was an interesting means to overcome the challenge. Specifically, thecourse provided the context whereby students could acquire the rhetorical skills and strategiesnecessary to integrate into a discipline-specific discourse community

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Yahong Rosa Zheng; Sarat K. Chitneni; Daryl G. Beetner

) curriculum. The importance of DSP design and its integration in to the undergraduatecomputer engineering curriculum is considered critical for educating the 21st century computerengineers and preparing them to be on par with the ever increasing contribution of DSP in manyreal-world applications today. However, incorporating DSP into CmpE curriculum presents twomajor challenges: the limited number of lecture hours allocated to the DSP component and theintegration of the DSP component with other CmpE components. The curriculum guidelines [1] Proceedings of the 2007 Midwest Section Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education 2suggests

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Brandon W. Olson

between theory and practice are notclear, students are often left attempting to build their own associations between ideas andmathematics that seem unrelated or oversimplified when compared to their hands-onexperiences. The current paper details an application of composite exercises in a sophomore levelthermodynamics course. Specifically, exercises are presented for: 1) phase behavior andthe property tables and 2) the ideal gas law. Organizational outlines are presented alongwith recommendations for future improvements.Introduction Engineering pedagogy has traditionally been defined by lecture style materialpresentation interspersed with a handful of lab courses. While this presentation formatpermits high volume material coverage, from the

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Jeff Parker; Ping Liu

equalization first verified in Matlab on PC. It is further collaborated afterprinciple [1],[2], especially when source alphabets from a M - being implemented on TI TMS320C6713 DSP board in C.PSK constellation. Since proposed by [1],[2], CMA has beenextensively studied. An excellent review about this algorithm II. S YSTEM M ODELcan be found in [3]. The convergence property of CMA has Consider a widely adopted input/output model in a commu-been analyzed [4]. Connection between CMA and Wiener nication system with a blind equalizer [5], which is shown inreceivers are also build based on a novel geometrical concept Fig. 1:[5]. It has been proved that the zero cost can

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

William A. Kline; Thomas Mason

, to havestudents think of themselves as contributing professionals and to start and stop projects at anytime. In addition, six years of data will be used to summarize key steps in program compositionand evolution, history of student involvement, and measured outcomes of the program forstudents and the Institute. Annual assessment data will be used to demonstrate the high level ofstudent satisfaction with the experiences offered, as well as the important educational benefits.1. Program History and BackgroundRose-Hulman Institute of Technology is a private institution that offers mathematics, science andengineering degrees at the bachelors and masters levels. From its origins in the late 19th century,the school has emphasized the integration of

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Keith L. Hohn; LaVerne Bitsie-Baldwin; Julia Keen; Hani Melhem; Anil Pahwa; Jan Wiersema; Barb Licklider

2 Learning Communities Focused On Student Learning and Teamwork SkillsKeith L. Hohn1, LaVerne Bitsie-Baldwin1, Julia Keen1, Hani Melhem1, Anil Pahwa1, Jan Wiersema2, and Barb Licklider2 1 College of Engineering, Kansas State University/ 2College of Human Sciences, Iowa State University 2AbstractEngineers are increasingly being valued as much for their ability to learn new things and operateas a member of a team as for their technical skills. For this reason, a significant goal ofengineering education

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Roy Myose

foraccreditation in Aerospace Engineering, a program must show that students have the "ability todesign a system, component, or process to meet desired needs within realistic constraints such aseconomic, environmental, social, political, ethical, health and safety, manufacturability, andsustainability."1 At Wichita State University, the Aerospace Engineering program includes the traditional mixof general engineering core, aerodynamics and propulsion, dynamics and control, and structurescourses followed by a two-course capstone design sequence. In addition to the capstone designsequence, aspects of design are covered in a multitude of non-capstone classes starting in thesophomore year. Many of these non-capstone classes utilize a series of class

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Douglas R. Carroll; Hong Sheng

themicrophone for a few seconds so it can automatically adjust to his/her voice volume. Aheadset microphone plugged directly into the computer is inexpensive and works verywell for the office hour sessions. Office hours can be conducted with the faculty memberseated in a chair; a wireless microphone is not necessary. Figure 1 illustrates the student’s screen during a Webex® session. The left two-thirds of the screen shows one of the shear stress problems that was assigned forhomework. Through Webex®, the faculty member controls the left two-thirds of thescreen. The students put the chat box on the right side of the screen, as illustrated in thefigure. The students use the chat box to communicate with the faculty member and askquestions. The

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Jason Moore; Mitchell A. Thornton; Ronald W. Skeith

havecompletely grasp the text manipulation since they will need it for the final project that combinestext manipulation, web development, and Object Oriented process (OOP). The final project is assigned in two parts. The first part is a Unified Modeling Language(UML) diagram and the second part is the working website. Collecting the first part of theproject separately accomplishes two goals: • Forces students to go through OOP methods before completing the project. • Gives time to fix problems that students may be having with web development.Figure 1 shows a potential student top level UML diagram. 1 Page

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Saeed M. Khan; Gregory Spaulding; Deanna Livengood; Paul Benjamin; Justin Schemm; Kenton Dreilling; Chase Maxton; Fred Kreiman

Cantenna (Fig. 1) was taken up by students as a classproject for the Communication Circuit Design (ECET 420) course. Chief amongthe motivational factors influencing their choice seemed to be a desire to learnmore about cantennas that could potentially help them share internet access withtheir friends that lived reasonably close. In the early part of the research cycle wecame upon the world record1 for "unamplified" Wi-Fi distance (125 miles). Thisfeat was accomplished by linking two dishes antennas (10 feet and 11 feet) indiameter. Each antenna was attached to a Zcom PCMCIA card with a built inpower of 300mW. This record influenced the design team to start thinking aboutbuilding a high-gain Wi-Fi antenna that would be able communicate over

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Raju Dandu; John E. De Leon

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Meader Woo; John M. Watkins

,signals and systems, communications, and control systems. Yet despite this significant exposureto and need for the frequency response, many undergraduate students have limited intuition onwhat it means and represents. As we have learned in other areas of engineering education, forstudents to understand a concept they need to work with it, either in simulation, or ideally inexperimentation. Unfortunately, equipment for measuring the frequency response, such as adynamic signal analyzer or frequency response analyzer, is often too expensive and complex fora typical undergraduate engineering lab. Furthermore, it does not allow to students toexperiment in simulation, when an experimental lab is either not feasible or desired.Consequently, in Watkins 1

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

R.L.A. Jordan

were both paper exams that were given and graded in theconventional manner. For the exams, an Excel spreadsheet was used to determine theunderstanding of the students and what objectives for the exam and course were met. Forfuture courses, automated methods for assessment are being researched. Table 1 shows thegrading sheet that was used for the mid-term exam. The names have been replaced to protectthe student’s privacy. As can be seen the right most column gives some indication of howwell the class understood the particular topic. 5 Table 1. Grading for Exams Objectives Value 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Percent Problem 1 Overall

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Walter O. Craig

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

J. Collins

Information Literacy, distributed cognition, and virtual teaming in a linked writing/general education chemistry assignmentIntroductionInformation literacy is an umbrella concept encompassing library instruction, computerliteracy, critical thinking, communication, ethics, and lifelong learning. How mightinformation literacy contribute to teamwork? Information Literacy enables learners to“master content and extend their investigations, become more self-directed, and assumegreater control over their own learning” 1 . In a teamwork situation, can individual skillswith information gathering and synthesis contribute to the work of the group? We knowfrom communication and composition journals that a teamwork assignment

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Waleed K. Al-Assadi; Mandar V. Joshi; Sagar R. Gosavi; Daryl Beetner

presents our experience in incorporating Altera DE-2 FPGA boardequipped with Altera Cyclone-II FPGA demo boards into variety of computer engineeringcourses at the University of Missouri-Rolla. The paper details application of Altera DE-2 boardinto sophomore and senior courses. The sophomore course, the digital systems design,incorporates embedded systems using the 8051 microcontroller, and in senior courses such asVLSI design and computer architecture, where designs utilizing multiple-components (system-level design) can be prototyped and verified. The paper presents the benefits of introducingindustrial-standard design tools to our students so that students will focus on whether they havedesigned their circuits correctly.1. Introduction FPGA