Conference Session

Learning to Communicate with Engineers and Non-Engineers

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Leslie Potter, Iowa State University; John Jackman, Iowa State University; K. Jo Min, Iowa State University; Matthew Search, Iowa State University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

. Page 13.71.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2008 A New Engineering Communications Course Based on a Professional Communications ProcessAbstractGiven the nationally recognized need to improve engineering students’ communication skills, anew engineering communication course was developed by the Industrial and ManufacturingSystems Engineering department at Iowa State University and offered in the Fall of 2007. Initialassessment results provide insight into student learning needs related to specific professionalcommunication skills. The course is characterized by a high degree of interaction and formativeassessment of students along with a unique core professional communication process consistingof (1) Analysis

Conference Session

Off the Beaten Path

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Edward Gehringer, North Carolina State University

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

assigned. It may be collected,but it counts for nothing, or almost nothing. Seemingly because of this, cheating on homeworkis often tolerated. But cheating on exams may be punished severely. Practices seem to varywidely among institutions, but the penalties are generally similar: zeros, failure in course,suspension from school.1. IntroductionInternational students now constitute a majority in most engineering programs. We as facultyare familiar with them as individuals. Although we discuss research and course material withthem, we rarely ask them about their expectations of the educational system, and if we do, it isonly after they have been here awhile and we have gotten to know them. Yet coming to Americais culture shock for almost all

Conference Session

Trends in Construction Engineering Education I

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Enno Koehn, Lamar University; James Koehn, Chadron State College

Tagged Divisions

Construction

Page 13.969.2teaching them some of the more advanced technical tools.” Another study suggests that studentsindicate only moderate support for group or team work13.Table 1. Teaching Methods and TechniquesStudent perception Mean Standard Medianof teaching techniques Value deviationFormal lectures 3.2 1.9 3.0Lecture/discussion/problem solving 1.2 0.6 1.0Thought-provoking questions and discussion 2.3 1.1 2.0Opportunity for student input 1.8 0.6 2.0Challenged by the subject matter 2.0 1.1 2.0Group Interaction

Conference Session

Best of the NEE

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Edward Gehringer, North Carolina State University

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

educators in dealing withthese awkward situations. They tell us that it is best to be honest with students and admit yourmistakes. Students will recognize that you are human, and besides, errors and changingrequirements crop up on the job too, so learning how to handle them is good experience for reallife. Often a mistake in an assignment or lab can be turned into a learning experience. There aremany options in dealing with test questions that don’t work out for some reason. The weightingof questions can be adjusted in various ways, or homework assignments can be given to give thestudents a second chance to learn the material.1. IntroductionAs any new engineering educator knows, there are a lot of things that can go wrong in class. Alecture may

Conference Session

IT-based Instructional Technologies

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Edward Gehringer, North Carolina State University

Tagged Divisions

Information Systems

AC 2008-1484: ASSESSING STUDENTS' WIKI CONTRIBUTIONSEdward Gehringer, North Carolina State University Page 13.230.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2008 Assessing Students’ Wiki Contributions Edward F. Gehringer North Carolina State University efg@ncsu.eduAbstractPerhaps inspired by the growing attention given to Wikipedia, instructors have increasingly beenturning to wikis [1, 2] as an instructional collaborative space. A major advantage of a wiki isthat any user can edit it at any time. In a class setting, students may be restricted in

Conference Session

Accreditation Issues

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kenneth Van Treuren, Baylor University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

world news. More specifically, if contemporary issues pertain to thediscipline of engineering, students will do little to maintain their knowledge apart from what isdiscussed in the classroom context. In reality, this topic must be more intentionally interjectedinto the curriculum to show application of engineering principles.Two categories of courses come to mind that should adequately support “soft” outcomes. Onesuch course would be a senior capstone design course. Berg and Nasr discuss such a course.1 Itis true that the capstone design course should be the pinnacle of an engineering program, wherestudents are able to integrate all aspects of their education into a challenging project. It is anatural place to discuss topics in the

Conference Session

K-12 Engineering and Pre-College Outreach Poster Session

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Marilyn Barger, University of South Florida; Robin Little, Douglas L. Jamerson Jr. Elementary School; Richard Gilbert, University of South Florida; Charles Parsons, Douglas L. Jamerson, Jr. Elementary School; Debbie O'Hare, Douglas L. Jamerson Jr. Elementary School; Pat Van Driessche, Douglas L. Jamerson, Jr. Elementary School; Kim Parsons, Pinellas County School District

Tagged Divisions

K-12 & Pre-College Engineering

Douglas L. Jamerson, Jr. Elementary School Center for Mathematics and Engineering. He earned a B.A. in Elementary Education from the University of South Florida. His experiences include over 30 years teaching in Kindergarten through fifth grade classrooms and 1 ½ years as a resource teacher. Chuck has curriculum writing experience and has presented at various state and national venues.Debbie O'Hare, Douglas L. Jamerson Jr. Elementary School DEBORAH O'HARE is a 4th and 5th grade teacher at Douglas L. Jamerson, Jr. Elementary School Center for Mathematics and Engineering. She earned a B.A. in Elementary Education from Florida State University and has National Board Certification. In 2006, she

Conference Session

Innovations in Biological/Agricultural Education-II

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

George Meyer, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Tagged Divisions

Biological & Agricultural

student.Thirteen topic areas of the course are presented in Table 1. The student begins with a study duringweek 1, the analysis of static and dynamic signals using an oscilloscope. Background is furtherenhanced by learning about features and capabilities of signal processing circuitry and digitalacquisition. From that background, the student can select modern data logging equipmentaccording to specifications which work best for obtaining measurement information for theproblem at hand. Automation of measurements not only includes hardware but software.LabVIEW® (www.ni.com or National Instruments, Austin, TX) programming is introduced usingBishop (2006). During the first five weeks, there is a concurrent and intensive introduction toLabVIEW and a review of

Conference Session

Focus on IE Principles and Techniques

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sharon Johnson, Worcester Polytechnic Institute; Bryan Norman, University of Pittsburgh; Jean Fullerton, Elizabethtown College; Susan Pariseau, Merrimack College

Tagged Divisions

Industrial Engineering

specific tactics, which fit naturally as subtopics withinexisting courses, students often encounter lean tactics in a piecemeal fashion, making it difficultfor students develop an integrated understanding of the underlying philosophies. Courses Page 13.1340.2dedicated to lean are generally aimed at senior-level students. Opportunities to practice processdesign are often the domain of senior-level capstone projects as well.To improve the teaching of lean concepts, as well as to develop students’ ability to designeffective processes, several IE faculty at one university (referred to as Site 1 here) developed alean laboratory to support an

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics I

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

M.P. Sharma, University of Wyoming; Robert W. Peters, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

, government, and national laboratories is a must. The proposal solicitation lists the following stated activities and specific areas of interest: “The extent of integration of sustainability into the engineering curricula at institutions of higher education in the United States may be identified by several key activities and indicators including but not limited to: (1) curricula development activities such as new core courses or electives or amending existing courses to include sustainability themes; (2) centers and institutes on campus related to sustainability; (3) conferences related to sustainability developed and hosted by faculty, departments, or engineering schools; (4) institutional support and funding for research relating engineering

Conference Session

Improving Mechanics & Structural Modeling Courses

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Junling Hu, University of Bridgeport; Linfeng Zhang, University of Bridgeport; Xingguo Xiong, University of Bridgeport

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

Meshing CAD Geometry 4h 1h 1h Surface Clean-up 2h Volume Meshing Post-processing • • 8h CFD Solution Fig. 1 An application of CFD in industrial design process16.Commercial CFD software STAR-CCM+STAR-CCM+ is a new product from CD-adapco, the same company which developed

Conference Session

Student Recruitment and Retention

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jennifer VanAntwerp, Calvin College; Rachel Reed, Calvin College; Crystal Bruxvoort, Calvin College; Neil Carlson, Calvin College

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

forstudy: 1) Cultural influences, including family and friends 2) Recruitment activities to engineering, as experienced before entering college 3) Participation in engineering-related activities 4) Self-perception and self-efficacy 5) Motivations for studying engineering 6) Definitions of success, personally and academically 7) Perceptions of the learning environment.For each factor, a set of Likert scale survey stems was developed. In addition, demographic datawere included. The stems were reviewed by an expert panel in accordance with best practice inthe field of educational psychology, and the resulting instrument was pilot-tested with 224engineering undergraduates. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA

Conference Session

Physics Education Research (PER) Relevant for Engineering Education

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David Meltzer, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

chemistry courses. In this paper I willcompare the initial knowledge (before instruction) of students enrolled in this course with thepost-instruction knowledge of students finishing the introductory calculus-based general physicscourse. Both courses were taught at a large Midwestern state university, where the introductorycourse is populated primarily by engineering majors. (A substantial portion of the workpresented here has been published in other venues,1 but it has not yet been collected together andpresented as an integral whole.)Assessment Data: First-Law ConceptsWe1 and others2 have recently reported results which indicate that students finishing introductoryuniversity physics courses emerge with significant learning difficulties related to

Conference Session

Course-Based Approaches to Entrepreneurship

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Andrew Gerhart, Lawrence Technological University; Donald Carpenter, Lawrence Technological University

Tagged Divisions

Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation

survey was administered. Acomparison of the pre and post-course surveys yields a shift in perceptions.Six methods of creative problem solving were explored by the students. The methods, whichvary in number of steps from four to eight, were compared and broken into five general steps. Atthe conclusion of the course, the students analyzed the effectiveness of the course.1. IntroductionHistorically, entrepreneurship at Lawrence Technological University (LTU) arose from twoseparate programs – one in the College of Engineering and the other in the College of Arts andSciences. In the College of Engineering, it was recognized that graduates play many roles inindustry, all of which require business and entrepreneurial skills. In response to this

Conference Session

Thermodynamics, Fluids and Heat Transfer - II

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Andrew Gerhart, Lawrence Technological University; Philip Gerhart, University of Evansville; Robert Fletcher, Lawrence Technological University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

, and consequences of three vs.four credit hours. One university has a four credit hour thermodynamics and a three credit hourfluid mechanics, while the other university has exactly the opposite. Through student surveys,course objectives/outcomes, course syllabi, instructors’ experiences, and average grades,conclusions are drawn on the effects of course length. Other issues are examined such aschallenges facing instructors who have previously taught a four credit hour course that now mustcover the same material within a three credit hour allotment. Finally recommendations are givenfor instructors that are allotted less than desirable credit hours.1. IntroductionEach undergraduate Bachelor of Science Mechanical Engineering program in the United

Conference Session

1553 FPD3 - Computer & Programming Tools in First Year Instruction

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Robertson, Arizona State University; Sarah Roux, Arizona State University; Vivek Ramanathan, Arizona State University; Mark Rager, Arizona State University

Tagged Divisions

First-Year Programs

paper presents a combined student-faculty appraisal of analternative approach that covers these issues within the context of systems projects as the core ofa 3-credit freshman class. The outcomes affirmed that a freshman group could analyze complexsystems and that it is a good way to stimulate interest in electronics as a career.A new approach to electronic systemsIt is all too easy to take the steady evolution of electronics technology for granted. The 43-year-old rhythm of Moore’s Law 1 continues to provide products with greater functionality at vastlylower cost and better reliability. It is the drumbeat of technology development that leads to morecomplex systems at affordable cost and thus to increased productivity and wider applications

Conference Session

Civil Engineering Teaching Part Two

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kevin Dong, California Polytechnic State University

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

exercise called the point, theline, the plane, and the mass. (Figure 1) Students are first required to develop a system tostabilize a shape and then quantify it second. The goal is two fold, one to understand the conceptof stability or how things stand up and secondly to explain how these basic shapes areextrapolated to real world items, such as a beam or column for the line, a floor for the plane, anda building for the block. The students are also exposed to tension members such as string,compression/tension members such as sticks, how systems are formed using these types ofelements, and the concept of buckling for members under compression.Figure1: Point, Line and Plane SeriesJuniorsBy their third year, students are immersed in framing schemes

Conference Session

Contemporary Instrumentation Poster Session

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Robertson, Arizona State University; Barbara Rampel, Arizona State University; James Edwards, Raytheon

Tagged Divisions

Instrumentation

Page 13.672.2number of case studies were undertaken. They are drawn from the activities of acombined industry-academic team that oversees the scope, content and outcomes of aseries of industry short courses on instrumentation 1. The purpose of this paper is topresent the outcomes of three use-cases, to infer skills and techniques that need furtherdevelopment and to show how the conclusions are being used to shape the content andpriorities of a degree program.To answer the question posed in the title of the paper, measurement productivity hasincreased by many orders of magnitude over the past two decades. The effort to make ameasurement can now be assessed in units of “nano-engineers”. There have been fewdramatic breakthroughs but each new

Conference Session

Professional Practice and AEC Education

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kevin Dong, California Polytechnic State University

Tagged Divisions

Architectural

Conference Session

Embedded Computing

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Michael Holden, California Maritime Academy

Tagged Divisions

Computers in Education

device (DAQ) with Labview as well as a standalone data logger in a measurement systems course. ‚ Be the cornerstone of mechatronics laboratory robotics work.There are many systems that could satisfy these requirements. For example, the Basic Stamp [1]is a popular microcontroller for educational uses. Simple systems like the Atmel Butterfly [2],GumStix [3] computers, and the Brainstem controller [4] would all work, although some can bemore costly than specified. But it is so easy to design a new microcontroller system that acustom circuit board is also an attractive solution. A circuit board to support a microcontrollerdoes not need many components and is inexpensive and easy to assemble.A microcontroller experiment board that was

Conference Session

Applications of Engineering Economy

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Robertson, Arizona State University; Michael Kozicki, Arizona State University; Slobodan Petrovic, Arizona State University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Economy

of itsapplications. However, these features are also its greatest weakness. Hardly a weekpasses without some new nano-product or material being touted as the miracle solutionthat will drive the next wave of high-tech development 1. The reality is that few of theseclaims will be realized in the form predicted. Even the developments that eventuallysucceed will have a tortuous and demanding evolution path. How does anyone make abalanced assessment of new technology that captures its novelty and the imagination ofthe innovators but at the same time acknowledges that realistic business criteria will alsobe applied? This paper describes a simple process to derive a measure of the maturity ofnew technologies in many economic as well as technical

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Amy Chan Hilton, Florida State University

AC 2008-1516: ADAPTATION OF GROUNDWATER PHYSICAL MODELS ANDACTIVITIESAmy Chan Hilton, Florida State University Page 13.147.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2008 Adaptation of Groundwater Physical Models and Activities for Enhanced Student LearningAbstractStudies have shown that using a variety of teaching techniques to address the spectrum oflearning styles enhances student learning. The goal of this project is to improve student interestand learning of groundwater topics relevant to environmental engineering. Specifically, theobjectives are to: 1) adapt physical models and classroom demonstrations and real-worldactivities to

Conference Session

Intellectual Property and Entrepreneurship

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Harpal Dhillon, Excelsior College; Salahuddin Qazi, SUNY Institute of Technology; Sohail Anwar, Pennsylvania State University-Altoona College

Tagged Divisions

Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation

& D andcommercialization projects.Nanotechnology OverviewThe term “nonotechnology” covers processes associated with the creation and utilization ofstructures in the 1 nanometer (nm) to 100 nm range. Nanofabrication involves engineeringat the atomic length scale. Engineering at this scale makes it feasible to create, atom byatom, fibers which are very small in diameter but extremely strong. In the health caredomain, extremely minute probes can detect disease by examining individual strands ofDNA. Nanofabrication makes it possible to manufacture capillary systems for providingnutrients to man-made replacement organs.The nanofabrication process has been used for creation of new chemical and biological

Conference Session

Faculty Attitudes and Perceptions

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Cathy Burack, Brandeis University; John Duffy, University of Massachusetts Lowell; Alan Melchior, Brandeis University; Eric Morgan, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

benefits. Thereare many other definitions in the literature, for example, service-learning is the integration ofacademic subject matter with service to the community in credit-bearing courses, with keyelements including reciprocity, reflection, coaching, and community voice in projects (Jacoby,1996)1. Service-learning (S-L) has been shown to be effective in a large number of cognitiveand affective measures, including critical thinking and tolerance for diversity, and leads to betterknowledge of course subject matter in such classic studies as Eyler and Giles (1999)2 and Astinet al. (2000)3.Service-learning in engineering has been a little slower to take hold. There were just a fewfaculty, courses, and institutions using S-L a decade ago (Tsang

Conference Session

International CIase Studies: Collabs, Exchanges & Interactions

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sohail Anwar, Pennsylvania State University-Altoona College; Patrick Favier, IUT Bethune, France; David Jouglet, IUT Bethune, France

Tagged Divisions

International

a global, economic, environmental, and societalcontext (criterion 3 of ABET).The engineering and engineering technology graduates of The US educational institutions Page 13.91.2must be prepared to work in multicultural teams in multinational corporations, some ofthe education preparation they need will come from international collaborativeexperiences that develop abilities and familiarity with information technology, teamwork, international collaboration, and design methodologies in a global environment [1].International engineering design collaboration can occur in several different forms. It canrange from a parallel design program in which students

Conference Session

Creative Engagement and Developmental Tutoring Method

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Virgilio Gonzalez, University of Texas-El Paso

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering

step identifies dependencies among the tasks creating the critical path where thetwo major constraints are time and resources required. For more than half a century, engineershave used the Critical Path Method (CPM) to identify the vital chain of events to finish a project.The critical path is the main sequence in a series of tasks where delays in any of them willholdup the entire project. For example the critical sequence is identified for a set of severalcourses in Figure 1, with the required times for completion and the PERT times. Critical Path

Conference Session

Venturing Out: Service Learning, Study Abroad, and Criterion H

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Duffy, University of Massachusetts Lowell; Carol Barry, University Massachusetts Lowell; Linda Barrington, University of Massachusetts-Lowell; David Kazmer, University of Massachusetts-Lowell; William Moeller, University of Massachusetts Lowell; Cheryl West, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

meeting real community needs. In engineering thestudents become better professionals and better citizens while the community benefits. There aremany other definitions in the literature, for example, service-learning is the integration ofacademic subject matter with service to the community in credit-bearing courses, with keyelements including reciprocity, reflection, coaching, and community voice in projects (Jacoby,1996)1. Service-learning (S-L) has been shown to be effective in a large number of cognitiveand affective measures, including critical thinking and tolerance for diversity, and leads to betterknowledge of course subject matter, cooperative learning, recruitment of under-representedgroups in engineering, retention of students, and

Conference Session

Web-Based Learning in Engineering Technology

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sohail Anwar, Pennsylvania State University-Altoona College; Harpal Dhillon, Excelsior College

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Technology

the next 15 years[1]. It is necessary that science and technology graduates develop a good understandingof this rapidly expanding technology. They should be able to integrate the key conceptsof nanotechnology into their knowledge bases. Academic programs in nanotechnologyshould be interdisciplinary in nature and must include several academic disciplines suchas chemistry, materials, biology, mechanics, and electronics.Realizing the need for providing nanotechnology education and training at theundergraduate level to technicians and technologists, Excelsior College, a well respecteddistance learning institution in higher education, has recently embarked upon a plan todevelop and implement an on-line 4-year nanotechnology degree program

Conference Session

Challenges of CE Education in a Global World

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

James Hanson, California Polytechnic State University; Senro Kuraoka, Nippon Koei Co., Ltd.

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

student’s predominantlearning style and the predominant teaching style. Various systems have been developed todescribe learning styles. Learning styles are categorized using six common systems: Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)1, The Kolb Learning Cycle2, the Felder and Silverman’s Index ofLearning Styles3, the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument4, the Dunn and Dunn LearningStyles Model5, and Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences6 [Table 1]. Table 1. Summary of Learning Style Systems MBTI Based on 4 preference dichotomies including: energy source (introversion vs. extraversion), perceiving mental process (sensing vs. intuition), judging mental process

Conference Session

Contemporary Instrumentation Poster Session

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mustafa Guvench, University of Southern Maine; Joshua Ward, Fairchild Semiconductor; Robert N. MacKinnon, Yarmouth Water District

Tagged Divisions

Instrumentation

forinterfacing, communication, data acquisition and control between a personal computer andthe test setup via the GPIB bus and the USB and serial ports. The LabView programwritten controls the injection time of the gas to be sensed, monitors the flow rate, measuresand controls the temperature of the chip and monitors and records the frequency of theelectro-mechanical oscillations generated in the MEMS resonator. The development of thetest system was done by a team of students as a part of their undergraduate senior designprojects in electrical engineering at USM.1. IntroductionThe project reported here comprises the design and development of a computer-controlled testsystem to measure and characterize the responses of MEMS-based resonant sensors to