Collection

2008 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Navarun Gupta; Buket Barkana; Sarosh Patel; Lawrence V. Hmurcik

horrible accidents whenhumans contact high voltage. In this article we cite 3 cases of high voltage accidents.Each accident teaches something different about electricity and electric safety.Let us first begin with some clarifications. By formal definition, high voltage is definedas any voltage above 600 volts. Below 600 volts, one should consult the NEC (NationalElectric Code) for the rules of electrical installation and safety [1]. Above 600 volts, thebetter safety code is written by OSHA [2]. This should not in any way diminish thedanger of low voltage circuits. People die in their homes every day from electrocutioncaused by 120 and 220 volt sources. Furthermore, we have personal experience ofvisiting factories and other sites where electricity

Collection

2008 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Bassem Alhalabi; M. K. Hamza; Ali Abu-El Humos

Distance Education: Remote Labs Environment Bassem Alhalabi 1 M. K. Hamza 2 Ali Abu-El Humos3Abstract – Since the invention of the Internet, research for [capable] virtual lab experiments has been thetarget of higher education’s distance learning research; however, the very nature of real experimentation(real elements and real instrumentation) was not possible or missing from much of the acclaimed virtual labexperiments. Nonetheless, in the past decade or so, countless scholarly writings asserted the availability of[real] or virtual laboratories that mimic real laboratory experimentations. Within these virtual experiments’infrastructures, the elements of real experimentation- in comparison to conventional laboratories

Collection

2008 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Hudson V. Jackson; Evelyn A. Ellis

Early and Continuous Exposure to Engineering as a Profession: Career Imprinting in Grades PK-12 Hudson V. Jackson, PhD, P.E and Evelyn A. Ellis, Ed.D United States Coast Guard Academy, New London, Connecticut, U.S.A.AbstractIn recent years, there has been much discussion about declining interest in engineering programsthroughout U.S. colleges and universities. Several possible causes for the decline have been identified andare fodder for debate: (1) PK-12 educational systems are not adequately preparing students tocomprehend the connections among science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) andfuture career opportunities and (2) College engineering curricula need to be more

Collection

2008 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Philip L. Brach; Ahmet Zeytinci

experimentally after it was shown geometrically, theyoungsters cut out symmetrical geometric shapes and hung them with a plumb-line from two points ondifferent lines of symmetry confirming that their intersection was the center of mass as shown in Figure-1. Through simple qualitative discussion and demonstration the students were introduced to the fact thatfor every object, regardless of its shape and size, when freely suspended from any point on the shape, aplumb line will always pass through the center of mass. Using two points not on the same line of “masssymmetry” will result in an intersection which is the mass center of the object as illustrated in Figure-2.During this experiment the principal of gravity and how it works was explained and

Collection

2008 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Ismail I. Orabi

course Std. 8.9 9.4 9.7 2.3 11 Dev Online Mean 89.16 75.99 89 84.5 71 course N 58 58 58 58 58 Quizzes Std 10.56 9.3 13.9 6.8 21.7 (30%) Dev Table 1: Assessment Method MeansTable 1 shows means, standard deviations, and cell sizes for the student scores on the commonhomework, quizzes, projects, and final reports for both the traditional classroom and the online courses.The much larger standard deviations

Collection

2008 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Bahram Nassersharif

environment are described in this article.Background & MotivationThe College of Engineering at the University of Rhode Island introduced a freshman engineeringexperience in 1996 consisting of a 1-credit semester course covering the foundations of engineeringduring the fall semester and a 2-credit engineering problem solving/programming course during thespring semester. This change was made for all eight engineering programs such that all engineeringstudents would experience a common curriculum during the first year. Many benefits have resulted fromthis change over the past decade including the following highlights: • Retention of engineering students from the freshman year to the sophomore year increased from ~60% to ~72% (see figure

Collection

2008 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Mir M. Atiqullah

materials that leads to a composite that exhibit superior properties than any one ingredientalone.While composites can be made out of a number of components, most composites are made of just two.One of them is known as matrix phase which is continuous and surrounds the other one known asdispersed phase. Mechanical properties of composites are a function of those of the ingredients, as wellas their relative fraction amounts, and how the dispersed phase is distributed. The distribution ischaracterized by type/shape of the dispersed phase particles, size of the particles, as well orientation anddistribution.Distribution of fibers in fiber-reinforced composites is varied as per the application or load to be carried.These types are (1) continuous fiber

Collection

2008 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Wei Cao; Yanqing Gao; Jason Robert Mace

Robots and Mobile Robots An intelligent robot is different to the traditional mobile robot. The traditional mobile robot uses apowerful microcontroller to control the movement, with the help of sensing devices it normally is able tomake a tactic decision but could not do any sophisticate thinking since the limitation of the computationpower provided by microcontroller. The left of Fig.1 shows the Stamp Bobot which is equipped withStamp microcontroller and light, touch and other sensors. Fig.1 Traditional Mobile Robot (left) and Intelligent Robot (right) However, in order to enhance the capability, the intelligent robot adds a separate layer ofcomputation core, such as a laptop or a single motherboard, on the top of the movement

Collection

2008 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Shih-Liang Wang

insufficient figures to illustrate these rules. This paperwill discuss the author’s attempt to address this problem.Force on a spur gearWhen two spur gears are meshed shown in Fig. 1, and the left one is the driver, the contact pointmoves along a line as the gears rotate, as shown in Fig. 2. The line of action is sometimes calledthe pressure line. The force pushing the driven gear is shown in Fig. 3, and will always be alongthis line of action. The type of force is bearing (pushing) force, applying pressure to the matingtooth. From the principal of force transmissibility in statics, we know that any point along theline of action will still create the same torque about the gear. Therefore, we can use a fixedcontact point (pitch point) to simplify the

Collection

2008 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Arthur Heinricher; Brian Savilonis; David Spanagel; Robert Traver; Kristin Wobbe

-1-provide a solution, and that great problems will be solved only through the efforts of many smallsolutions coming from many disparate directions.There is a national trend toward more active, project-based learning in engineering education thathas been (slowly) gaining momentum for more than 40 years. (See Felder, 2004.) A recent, andwidely publicized, illustration of the trend was the creation in 1997 of the Olin College ofEngineering. The Olin Foundation made a $300 million investment to establish a new college ofengineering that would integrate project work in all four years of the new curriculum.(Somerville, et al, 2005).For almost 20 years, there has been significant investment by the National Science Foundationintended to increase

Collection

2008 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Ali Setoodehnia; Kamal Shahrabi; Anthony Manno

Collection

2008 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

John Adams; Charles Kochakian

1 Inclusion of RFID in a BSEE CurriculumJohn Adams and Charles Kochakian, Merrimack College Department of ElectricalEngineeringAbstractThis paper discusses the evolution of a course in RFID which is now a required part of thecurriculum in Merrimack College’s BSEE program. In 2004 the department identified RFID as animportant emerging technology that would be timely to introduce at the undergraduate level.Initially, the department sponsored two seminar series with sessions taught by industryprofessionals, followed in 2007 with a full course in RFID. Advantages of RFID as a requiredcourse include using it to introduce

Collection

2008 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Dean M. Aslam; Zongliang Cao; Cyrous Rostamzadeh

on a restructuring of schoolscience around real-world problems [1], inquiry based studies [2][3][4][5] including Design-Based Science(DBS) [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] and Learning By Design (LBD) [16][17][18], augmented reality(AR) [19][20][21][22][23][24][25], and Technology Assisted Science, Engineering and Mathematics (TASEM)[26][27][28]. A unique feature of the TASEM program is that it, encompassing a number of inquiry-basedhands-on ideas, focuses on current and future technologies and it is capable of dealing with a variety of learningconcepts and environments studied by other researchers [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39]. BecauseTASEM is based on technology, it can address (a) technological learning issues in a

Collection

2008 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Elif Kongar; Paul Kontogiorgis; Nancy L. Russo; Tarek Sobh

create anawareness of the skills and job roles required for future labor workforce demands in the engineering andtechnology services industry and argues that these current and future roles makes them more appealing towomen.Keyword: STEM, Women in engineering, U.S. Education, IT services, Service industries.1. IntroductionServices have surpassed agriculture and manufacturing as the leading contributor to gross domesticproduct in the world today. As the global economy has become more integrated, and the demand for aworkforce required to run service-focused organizations in an efficient manner grows, the level andvariety of skills needed in this new service economy have also changed and grown. Specifically; inregards to science, technology

Collection

2008 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Richard J.H. Gash; David Fedroff

content means making tough choices about what to remove in order tomake room. This paper proposes a viable method for weaving a green environmentality into a standardundergraduate reinforced concrete design course without sacrificing course content. The United States Green Building Council has established an industry standard in Green BuildingRating Systems with their Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. TheLEED certification process involves earning credits for environmentally friendly construction processesand materials and the use of efficient building systems. The certification has several tiers (gold, silver,etc.) for different levels credit.1 One way LEED credit can be earned is through use of recycled

Collection

2008 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

David I. Schwartz

Motivating Engineering Mathematics Education with Game Analysis Metrics David I. Schwartz Rochester Institute of Technology Department of Information Technology GCCIS, 70-2509 +1 585-475-5521 dis[at]it[dot]rit[dot]eduAbstractIn this paper, I develop a system for computational analysis of games that uses scoring functions tomotivate engineering mathematics education. Although many modern videogames have abandoned pointsas an archaic form of representing victory (or defeat

Collection

2008 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Linda Ann Riley; Charles Thomas

probability of these students choosing a STEM major incollege is low. This ultimately will affect the production of U.S. scientists and engineers needed to solveour future technological and research challenges. 1To place the K-12 mathematics and science scenario in perspective, when compared to foreign countries,the U.S. significantly lags most with respect to performance. Table 1 presents a compilation ofmathematics scores of 15 year olds enrolled in secondary education institutions in OEDC (Organizationfor Economic Cooperation and Development) countries. This international comparison of mathematicsperformance by 15 year olds indicates that the U.S. falls almost at the bottom of the comparator

Collection

2008 ASEE Zone 1 Conference

Authors

Jean-Paul Brice; Matthew Stein

A 3D Manipulation Robot for Internet Use with Sensory Substitution Jean-Paul Brice Roger Williams University Matthew Stein Roger Williams UniversityAbstract The Ihands project [1] at Roger Williams University is an online robot that allows Internet usersto manipulate objects through a graphical user interface. The robot resembles a hand with two pairs ofopposed fingers and a perpendicular thumb. The fingers are integrated with sensors to provide hapticfeedback to the users. Users also have visual feedback and are able to move the hand and grab objectsplaced on a

Collection

2008 ASEE Zone 1 Conference

Authors

Linda Ann Riley; Charles Thomas

probability of these students choosing a STEM major incollege is low. This ultimately will affect the production of U.S. scientists and engineers needed to solveour future technological and research challenges. 1To place the K-12 mathematics and science scenario in perspective, when compared to foreign countries,the U.S. significantly lags most with respect to performance. Table 1 presents a compilation ofmathematics scores of 15 year olds enrolled in secondary education institutions in OEDC (Organizationfor Economic Cooperation and Development) countries. This international comparison of mathematicsperformance by 15 year olds indicates that the U.S. falls almost at the bottom of the comparator

Collection

2008 ASEE Zone 1 Conference

Authors

Arthur Heinricher; Brian Savilonis; David Spanagel; Robert Traver; Kristin Wobbe

-1-provide a solution, and that great problems will be solved only through the efforts of many smallsolutions coming from many disparate directions.There is a national trend toward more active, project-based learning in engineering education thathas been (slowly) gaining momentum for more than 40 years. (See Felder, 2004.) A recent, andwidely publicized, illustration of the trend was the creation in 1997 of the Olin College ofEngineering. The Olin Foundation made a $300 million investment to establish a new college ofengineering that would integrate project work in all four years of the new curriculum.(Somerville, et al, 2005).For almost 20 years, there has been significant investment by the National Science Foundationintended to increase

Collection

2008 ASEE Zone 1 Conference

Authors

Paul G. Ranky

above requirements.In this paper we focus on our generic methodology, and illustrate someengineering applications ([1], [2] and [12]). As a generic, object-orientedengineering management problem solving method, as with all cases in ourlibrary of cases, we are committed to the following approach: Analyze the needs and the requirements, the demonstrated processes, methods and systems they try to, or have to satisfy. Analyze the actual methods presented. Find the core methodologies, the mathematical models, the underlying engineering (and/or other) science foundation. Analyze the technologies involved. (How is science turned into a practical solution/ engineering and/or computing technology?) Analyze and review the actual

Collection

2008 ASEE Zone 1 Conference

Authors

Marie-Pierre Huguet; Tom Haley; Sehnaz Baltaci-Goktalay

Institute; email: TomHaley@aol.com3 Co-author, Professor, Uludag University; email: sehnazbg@uludag.edu.tr 1 American Society for Engineering Education ASEE Zone I Conference, United States Military Academy, West Point, NY, March 28-29, 2008present and discuss than would be feasible if part of a long lecture. The balance of blending varies for everycourse depending on the type of course, student characteristics, and instructor background2.At most colleges and universities, engineering courses have high enrollments and are taught in traditionalformat with passive lectures. Unfortunately, students in high-enrollment lecture courses neither

Collection

2008 ASEE Zone 1 Conference

Authors

Aaron S. Bradshaw; Gary N. McCloskey; Franklin Miguel

wealthier citizens reside adjacent to others living in extreme poverty. Many of thepoor neighborhoods originated from the occupation of land without permission (i.e. squatters). Theseland invaders or “Invasores” as they are called in the local community staked their claims by buildingsmall shacks on parcels of land. These dilapidated houses were built quite literally using any materialsthat the people could get their hands on. Over time these communities grew as the walls of one housebecame the walls of the next. One of these neighborhoods, called Luz Consuelo, is shown in the satellitephotograph in Figure 1. Notable is the poor condition of the houses as compared to the wealthiersurrounding neighborhoods. Figure 2 shows some of the materials that

Collection

2008 ASEE Zone 1 Conference

Authors

Rashmi Jain; Keith Sheppard; Elisabeth McGrath; Bernard Gallois

. The SDOE graduate program(http://www.stevens.edu/sse/academics/graduate/sdoe/ ) has been very well received and delivered inmodular form world-wide to industry and government agencies that are involved with complex systems.The program was initially a certificate program directed to practitioners and working professionals butthis has subsequently expanded to include masters and doctoral degrees. The faculty and scope of theprograms has grown rapidly leading to the recent formation of a School of Systems & Enterprises  1(http://www.stevens.edu/sse) with a significant national and international impact in the systemsengineering field.The presence of a strong graduate-level activity in the

Collection

2008 ASEE Zone 1 Conference

Authors

Mir M. Atiqullah

materials that leads to a composite that exhibit superior properties than any one ingredientalone.While composites can be made out of a number of components, most composites are made of just two.One of them is known as matrix phase which is continuous and surrounds the other one known asdispersed phase. Mechanical properties of composites are a function of those of the ingredients, as wellas their relative fraction amounts, and how the dispersed phase is distributed. The distribution ischaracterized by type/shape of the dispersed phase particles, size of the particles, as well orientation anddistribution.Distribution of fibers in fiber-reinforced composites is varied as per the application or load to be carried.These types are (1) continuous fiber

Collection

2008 ASEE Zone 1 Conference

Authors

Christopher W. Swan; Julia Carroll

globalization and sustainable design anddevelopment. The course format consisted of three, 50-minute class meetings per week for the13-week semester (39 total class meetings). Class meeting times were used for lectures,workshops, and term project presentations. The first offering of the course was to a class of 16engineering seniors. COURSE TOPICS Course topics and the number of lectures, assignments, workshops, and in-class exercisesdedicated to them are presented in Table 1. Most topics involved traditional, stand-uppresentations. Often these presentations included in-class exercises that forced students toconsider and respond to the subject matter instantaneously. At other times, take-home mini-assignments were used to reinforce lecture

Collection

2008 ASEE Zone 1 Conference

Authors

Sarosh Patel; Manan Joshi; Lawrence Hmurcik

range, friction varies nonlinearly with N but linearly with A.Suggestions are made for extending the function of this experiment to measure the friction of othermaterials. Also, we present techniques to limit the nonlinear behavior of N and to eliminate severalkey sources of experimental error. INTRODUCTIONThe conventional way to teach friction is based on several classical concepts, which wereformulated by Amontons and Coulomb [1,2]. These can be summarized by the equation f = μ N. (1)When an object slides on a second object, the force of friction (f) is directly proportional to thenormal force (N) and the coefficient of friction (μ

Collection

2008 ASEE Zone 1 Conference

Authors

Sarosh Patel; Khaled Elleithy

infrastructure networks. Most protocols in place suffer from low quality of service and overload the network with a large percentage ofoverhead (control data) when compared to the data packets. Any improvement in the routing protocol should be anextendible architecture to support high number of mobile units and at the same time ensure a good quality of service. Mobile routing protocols have been attracting the attention of a major section of the research community as isevident from the large number of ongoing projects at various universities and institutions on this topic. Numerousachitectures have been proposed such as the ExScal project in OSU [1], the Terminodes project in Switzerland [2],and the Roofnet project at MIT [3], the Waypoint Routing

Collection

2008 ASEE Zone 1 Conference

Authors

Diana Schwerha; Chang Liu; Sertac Ozercan; Tripura Vadlamani; Lev Neiman

groups who communicated themost during the exercise and proceeded with the game only when everyone understood the concepts,scored the highest. This paper will discuss pedagogical issues with learning in virtual worlds, discuss theeffectiveness of the game, and suggest methods to improve learning. Future research will focus on theuse of Second Life for expanded statistics sessions and for human factors and ergonomics labs.1. IntroductionThe purpose of this study was to enhance Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE) 306 with technologywith the intended goal of improving student learning during homework sessions. ISE 306 is the firstcourse in a two-course sequence in engineering probability and statistics. It is a required course for allISE

Collection

2008 ASEE Zone 1 Conference

Authors

NADIYE O. ERDIL; KOENRAAD E. GIESKES

(non-learning community) sections in order to identify thepotential benefits that the Learning Community environment provides. In addition, student-drivenprojects that were only carried out in the Learning Community sections are discussed.IntroductionIn an ever-changing world, the importance of engineering and technology continuously increases.However, compared to other disciplines, enrollment in undergraduate engineering degree programs in theU.S. shows no significant changes within the last two decades.1 In an effort to increase interest inengineering fields, non-traditional approaches may help attract more students. As a starting point,increasing the motivation for existing engineering students may both increase student success andimprove