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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Ray Bachnak

two weeks of the semester are devoted to discussing the basic fundamentals and programming of microprocessors and microcontrollers. < The next 7 weeks of the semester are devoted to teaching microcontrollers, with Page 6.491.6 emphasis on laboratory experimentation. < The last 6 weeks of the semester will be devoted to teaching microprocessors, without lab exercises.The instructor is also considering a project-based approach for the course. Projectsdrawn from real-world industrial control applications will allow students to improvemany of the skills they

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Scott von Laven; X. Qian; A. Jalloh; Zheng-Tao Deng; Amir Mobasher; Ruben Rojas-Oviedo

Alabama Supercomputer Authority Huntsville, Alabama E-Mail: scott@asc.eduAbstractThe power and utility of personal computers continues to grow exponentially through (1)advances in computing capabilities through newer microprocessors, (2) advances in microchiptechnologies, (3) electronic packaging, and (4) cost effective gigabyte-size hard-drive capacity.The engineering curriculum must not only incorporate aspects of these advances as subjectmatter, but must also leverage technological breakthroughs to keep programs competitive interms of their infrastructure (i.e., delivery mechanisms, teaching tools, etc.).An aspect of these computing advances is computer modeling and

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

William Szaroletta; Lloyd Ewing; Nancy L. Denton

Session 2168 Analog to Digital Mechanics Lab Conversion: Lessons Learned Nancy Denton, Bill Szaroletta, Lloyd Ewing Purdue UniversityAbstractTo upgrade the laboratory supporting an introductory sophomore-level strength of materials courseto reflect current industry practice and address student requests, the authors have begun convertingthe current experiments from analog instrumentation with hand-recorded data to NationalInstruments LabVIEW based testing. This paper reviews the challenges encountered during theconversion of one experiment; a three-point beam bending experiment

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Thomas Andre; Connie Hargrave; Scott Chumbley; Kristen Constant

StateUniversity (ISU) and a Scientist at Ames Laboratory, the Department of Energy national laboratory located on theISU campus. His expertise is in the field of electron microscopy. He teaches the undergraduate MaterialsCharacterization class and graduate level classes on electron microscopy.C.P. HARGRAVEConnie Hargrave is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Iowa State University.She conducts research on teachers’ conceptual development in instructional technology and science education. Sheteaches undergraduate educational computing courses and graduate instructional technology courses.K. CONSTANTKristen Constant's is an Associate Professor in Materials Science and Engineering Department at Iowa StateUniversity. Her

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Stuart Steele

librarybuildings and outside areas.For CS 1114, Table I shows the four class types or teaching models, used at PolytechnicUniversity in the Fall of 2000 and the notebook use. Use of Notebooks in large Lectures indicatethat the instructor and the students are both designing and solving problems using notebooks atthe same time. Notebooks as Labs indicate the full laboratory utilization is laptops. Notebooksin Labs mean that the basic PC laboratory is complemented by notebooks. Notebooks as toolsindicate that the students are using the notebook extensively out of class in a very mobilemanner. In all cases it is possible for the instructor to use a power-point generated presentationfor the class that is then web accessible.Students felt that the mobile

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Bina Ramamurthy; Pratibha Gopalam; Alexander N. Cartwright

Copyright © 2001, American Society for Engineering EducationOur present understanding of teaching styles and awareness of design patterns and frameworksfor software development allows us to set forth a suitable framework for developing userconfigurable educational tools. This framework will ensure that any user configurableeducational tool developed will invariably adhere to guidelines identified for effective teachingstyles. This framework is the compilation of the collective experiences from the fields ofeducation and software engineering and will allow for easy development of powerful teachingaids in engineering education.Framework for Developing User Configurable Virtual Laboratory AppletsDeveloping user-configurable virtual laboratory Applets

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Dennis Anderson

at Pace. In an effort to maximizethe efficient use of the university’s limited teaching resources and to ensure that the coursecontent of CIS101 is consistent across all sections and lays an appropriate foundation formore advanced study of computer science and information systems, the principalinvestigator conducted a pilot study substituting computer-based training (CBT) for thetraditional, instructor-led laboratory that supplements lectures in the course. The studyindicated that this substitution deserves much more attention from academics andadministrators.I. IntroductionTraditionally, CBT programs have been used for corporate training since they are lowercost and ensure a certain level of competency. The academic world has been skeptical

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

John Olson; Georgia Ehlers; David Lovelock; Ali Mehrabian

to study SMET. The result of their efforts is Program ACCESS (Accessing CareerChoices in Engineering and ScienceS).Program ACCESS is a three-year project sponsored by the National Science Foundation and TheUniversity of Arizona, and is housed in the Department of Mathematics. It is a multi-disciplinary program involving faculty, staff, and graduate and undergraduate students withphysical disabilities from the College of Science, the College of Engineering and Mines, theGraduate College, the University Teaching Center, the Disability Resource Center, and theDepartment of Career Services.The program’s goal is to promote a high level of academic and professional success in SMETfields among students with physical disabilities by encouraging the

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Jose Saldivar; Ighal Mehmedagic; Siva Thangam; Richard Cole

. COLERichard B. Cole is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology and the Coordinator ofthe dual-degree program with New York University. Dr. Cole received his Bachelors degree in MechanicalEngineering from Cornell University, Masters degree from Princeton University, and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineeringfrom Stevens Institute of Technology.IGBAL MEHMEDAGICIgbal Mehmedagic is currently a doctoral student at Stevens Institute of Technology. He received his diploma inMechanical Engineering from Sarajevo University (Bosnia) and Masters in Mechanical Engineering from StevensInstitute of Technology. In addition to research, Igbal is a laboratory teaching assistant for the thermal and fluidsciences courses

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

William Charlton; Marsha Creatchman; Carl Beard; Sheldon Landsberger

Nuclear and Radiological 1560Graduate Distance Learning in Nuclear and Radiation Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin Sheldon Landsberger, William Charlton, Carl Beard and Marsha Creatchman University of Texas at Austin, Nuclear and Radiation Engineering Program, Nuclear Engineering Teaching Lab, PRC R-9000, Austin, Texas 78712AbstractIn 1998 the Nuclear and Radiation Engineering Program (NREP) at the University of Texasat Austin (UT) began offering a Masters of Science in Health Physics via distance learning.Originally the courses were taped and delivered by mail to the students, which proved to betime-consuming and cumbersome. This

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Jeffrey Higgins

meet the specific industryapplications and to take advantage of equipment and materials available at the industrylocation. This last third of the curriculum forms the General Engineering Technologydegree emphasis: telecommunications, semiconductor processing, electronics for theaerospace industry, etc.On-site Delivery StrategiesDuring the new program review process many faculty at the College expressed concernthat the courses would be delivered exclusively with adjunct personnel, selected morebecause of their geographic proximity to the industry site than their academic expertise.A common refrain was that these adjuncts would not teach according to “the VTC way.”In response, the President of VTC and the Head of the Technology Extension

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Eric Warmbier; James S. Fairweather; P. David Fisher

circuitapplications. Students are also introduced to digital logic fundamentals and gain experience indesigning, building and testing simple logic circuits. A three-hour/week laboratory providesactive learning experiences for the students.Initial Process for Assessing the Course Learning ObjectivesECE 345 did not have a good reputation. Students who took the course and the faculty memberswho taught it shared this opinion. Students had difficulty learning the material and seeing how itcould be applied within their major fields of study. Faculty members teaching the course felt thattoo many topics were covered at a superficial level. Feedback from one student captures thegeneral sense of both the students and faculty: “This class was really presented at

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Robert Hendricks

Session 1332 An Undergraduate Microchip Fabrication Facility† Robert W. Hendricks Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State UniversityAbstractA microchip fabrication facility for teaching the elements of semiconductor processing to amultidisciplinary cohort of about 500 students per year from all areas of engineering, science,and even the humanities is described. The laboratory comprises an approximately 1,800 ft 2,Class 10,000 cleanroom with house vacuum, distributed process gases (Ar, O2 and N2), and an18.3 MΩ de-ionized water system. It has been equipped with

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Marie Plumb; Jerry Fong; Arnold Peskin

scientific articles, and has completed courseworkfor a teaching degree in secondary science education (at Elmira College.) He is the leader of the UpstateNew York Operation Chemistry ACS Outreach team and holds a B. Sc (with honors) from the College ofChemistry, University of California at Berkeley, and both an M.Sc. and Ph. D from the University ofMichigan at Ann Arbor, in Physical Chemistry.Arnold PeskinArnold Peskin is a Senior Scientist and past Head of the Information Technology Division at BrookhavenNational Laboratory. He is also the Deputy Head of Brookhaven’s Center for Data Intensive Computing.His primary research interests are scientific data visualization and collaborative computing environments.Mr. Peskin is a Senior Member of the IEEE

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Rosalyn Hobson; Esther Hughes

Page 6.1128.3always monitored either by the instructor in class or teaching assistants in the laboratory. 46% of Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright  2001, American Society for Engineering Educationthe students reported that their team working skills had improved, 46% reported that theirteaming skills remained neutral and 8% reported that their team working skills did not improvesince taking ENGR 101. 33% of the students reported that they were neutral about the producttheir team produced, 50% were very satisfied with their end product and 17% were dissatisfiedwith their final product. Given the ratings of Poor, Below Average, Average, Good

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Andrew Rose

develop improved student writing skills. The “Writing Assignments for TechnicalCourses” workshop sponsored by the Liberal Education Division at the 2000 ASEE Conferencediscussed how student peer review can be used with well-designed writing assignments intechnical courses. Based on this workshop, writing assignments in a junior level civil engineeringtechnology course have been used to help students improve their writing skills. Writingassignments varied from transmittal memos, technical memos, laboratory reports and a five toseven page research paper on topics that time constraints prevent from being covered in class. Tocompare the effectiveness of peer reviewed writing assignments with non-peer reviewedassignments; the peer review process was

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Douglas H. Baxter

SESSION 3238 Examining the Benefits of a Self-Taught Solid Modeling Course Douglas H. Baxter Rensselaer Polytechnic InstituteIntroductionAll engineering students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are required to take a one-credit course in solid modeling. This course, Engineering Graphics and Computer AidedDesign (EG&CAD) teaches the skills of using a solid modeling system to create parts,small assemblies, and documentation. More importantly, EG&CAD also emphasizes theuse of vectors in creating solid models and thereby provides students reinforcement oftheir linear algebra

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

John Kemeny; Bryan Zeitler

. Interactivity is anotherimportant element of the engineering classroom experience. One of the challenges in developingthe online course was to develop an approach that can effectively capture these classroomelements. In addition, the rock lab provides a hands-on, kinesthetic experience for the students,as well as a writing experience in the form of laboratory reports. The second challenge was todevelop an innovative approach to capture these important laboratory experiences.Several innovative multimedia components have been adapted to meet the challenges describedabove. For the lecture portion of the course, an approach that utilizes streaming audio and vectorgraphics was adapted. The streaming audio comes from actual lectures, and animated

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Elliot Douglas, University of Florida

standardintroductory materials curriculum (diffusion, strengthening mechanisms, eutectic phasediagrams, etc.). Rather, its goal is to teach engineering applications of fundamental chemistryconcepts. This course consists of four basic units: atomic, molecular and supermolecularstructures; synthesis and processing; stability of materials; and biological materials. Each ofthese units consists of topics designed to show how fundamental concepts in chemistry can beapplied to engineering problems. For example, liquid crystal display technology is used to teachthe concept of molecular shape. The course also contains a laboratory section. This paper willdescribe the detailed contents of the course and its relation to the engineering curriculum.1. IntroductionThere is

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

William Szaroletta

-private course web page and a course email listserve including all registered students. This technology implementation has been tested for asophomore-level strength of materials class for the purpose of improving the communicationsloop times between the students and professor and improving student satisfaction.The public portion of the web page includes a course outline, lecture and laboratory syllabi, dailyhomework assignments, examination schedules, and email access to the professor. The privateportion of the web page (available to only registered students with valid computer accounts)includes homework problem solutions, examination solutions, common laboratory data, andother potentially copyrightable course material. Hyperlinks are liberally

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

John Anderson

Session 3563 Real World Learning in Distance Education John C. Anderson, PE Mechanical Engineering Technology Dept., Purdue University, 1417 Knoy Hall, W. Lafayette, IN 47909-6219 Ph. (765) 494-7526 email: jcanderson@tech.purdue.eduAbstractObtaining and maintaining laboratory equipment in technology courses is a constantproblem. This paper proposes an alternative to the use of simulation or to buying laboratoryequipment for a school laboratory, and uses a course in Programmable Logic Controllers(PLC) to illustrate the concept.With the reduction in pricing of

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Josette Rice; Thad Welch

electrocardiography (ECG) and electromyography (EMG)signals. With the advent of real-time data acquisition and signal processing technology, it is nowmuch easier to develop instrumentation lab experiments for student use. The current hardware andsoftware enables our students to achieve highly accurate measurements, perform time domain andfrequency domain analysis, and store the data for subsequent use, analysis, and design. This paperdiscusses some of the methods developed for implementing these labs. We believe our techniqueshave greatly enhanced the ease of teaching and learning these important topics in instrumentation.1. IntroductionThis paper describes how student laboratories using data acquisition, measurement, and analysis ofphysiological signals has

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Steve Schreiner; John Burns

synergy between engineeringexperts and pre-college educators – the overarching philosophy of workshop was that bothgroups need to come together as equal partners to successfully bring biomedical engineeringconcepts into the pre-college students’ curriculum. Time was spent each day on activity called“putting it into practice” in which the pre-college teachers presented ideas of how to fit the topicpresented the previous day into their own teaching plan. Essentially, this became an outline for afull lesson plan. At the end of the workshop the teachers developed at least one full lesson tobring back to their classroom. The teachers reconvened in the Fall of 2000 to discuss how wellthe new lessons worked. The workshop was a success with many teachers

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Ravi Athale; John Treichler; Dave Munson; Sally Wood; Geoffrey Orsak; Scott Douglas; Mark Yoder

UniversityAbstractThe INFINITY Project (www.infinity-project.org) is a nationally recognized partnership betweenleading universities, industry, and K-12 educators to help school districts incorporate modernengineering and technology in their high school curricula. This effort aims to develop a novel andinteractive curriculum emphasizing the engineering fundamentals and the fun of the modern high-tech age.This paper outlines the goals and technology elements of the INFINITY Project. Implementationissues of the program are addressed, including textbook and laboratory creation, teacher training,and online classroom support.Math and physics high school teachers are teaching this curriculum in 14 Texas schools at thistime. This paper presents the early results of

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Tim Coppinger; Ray Bachnak

realworld problem. This paper describes the laboratory environment, discusses the projectguidelines, and presents the projects implemented in fall 2000. The paper also analyzesthe project-based approach and concludes that the project is an essential component of acomprehensive learning experience when teaching PLCs.I. IntroductionPLCs have been used extensively in a wide range of industries. As a result, manymechanical, electrical, and manufacturing engineering technology programs teach PLCsand their applications [1-8]. This paper describes the development and implementation ofa new course that employs a project-based approach using an “out-of-the-box” integratedPLC. A major goal of the project is to prepare students to apply effective problem

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Edward Chaloupka; Stephanie Farrell; Robert Hesketh

teaching has been rewarded by receiving several educational awards including the 1999 RayW. Fahien Award, 1998 Dow Outstanding New Faculty Award, the 1999 and 1998 Joseph J. Martin Award, andfour teaching awards.Edward C. Chaloupka is Associate Professor in the Department of Health and Exercise Science at Rowan University Page 6.481.5in New Jersey. He is the Co-Director of the Exercise Science Research Laboratory and teaches courses in humanProceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition Copyright2001, American Society for Engineering Education

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Nicholas Massa; Gordon Snyder; Fenna Hanes; James Masi; Gary Mullett

of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition Copyright  2001, American Society for Engineering Education 5. ensure the continuing technical competency of faculties who teach telecommunications-related programs in the Northeast and nationally.Other educational partners are located at exceptional institutions throughout the Northeast andthe Center’s Business and Industry partners are listed at the end of this summary. The educationaland industrial collaborators together is addressing the needs of business and industry for aneducated workforce in telecommunications technologies by designing, developing, andimplementing a new infrastructure for telecommunications

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Alan Sahakian

all seen at work in afamiliar electronic device. Seven laboratory experiments are included to reinforce the lectures.Our experience after two offerings has been positive, with both EE and non-EE engineeringstudents enrolled.I. IntroductionThe traditional entry-level course to an Electrical Engineering (EE) curriculum is circuits. Herestudents learn important concepts and tools which serve them well in later courses and theircareers, but they are not exposed to the many exciting areas of EE which are reshaping the world.Some may not see the relevance of this material and begin to lose their enthusiasm.We have introduced a new EE core curriculum starting with a fundamentals course, ECE 202,which introduces the breadth and applications of EE1

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Paul Flikkema

, and neural networks.Though it might be convenient (at least for faculty) to attempt to simply cover more technicalmaterial in the curriculum, we believe that updating the learning process is equally important.Several years of experience in teaching communications and signal processing at both under-graduate and graduate levels, as well as discussions with colleagues, have provided the authorconvincing evidence that engineering educators should make a major effort to show how abstractsystems principles can be applied to real-world problems. This leads to a more general and moreimportant concern: students cannot use these concepts effectively unless they can move beyondmere comprehension and develop the higher-order skills of analysis

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Zhongming Liang

internship rather than of summeremployment.I had a good record of industrial experience before these two summers. I worked for ten years ina manufacturing company as a mechanical engineer from 1968 to 1978. I became a registeredprofessional engineer in my state in 1993. Nevertheless I felt that I gained a lot of newknowledge and new ideas during the summer interns.The four areas in which I benefited from the summer interns were: • Teaching method improvement • Teaching material enrichment • Continuous professional development • Application of mathematics in manufacturing technologyEach of them will be slightly discussed in the following sections.The summer interns were in two large orthopedics manufacturing companies. The