Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

John A. Fillo

professional manner. Over each of the past several years between 25-30 Binghamton students havepursued their MS or Ph.D. thesis research at Universal Instruments Surface Mount Laboratory. A word ofcaution is necessary when we talk about industrial research applied towards thesis work. It must satis~ thecriteria set forth for a Master of Science thesis, and not simply be a project that does not forward the basicknowledge or understanding of a discipline. 4) Industrial Exposure. While industry research opportunities are improving for graduate students (aswell as for faculty) and their access to them, the opportunity for the student to work in industry during his or hergraduate program is also becoming available. The GOALI program is again an

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

William W. Predebon; Peck Cho

commissioned by Michigan Technological University (MTU) to develop anew teaching assistant (TA) training program for the Department of Mechanical Engineering and EngineeringMechanics (ME-EM). At that time we had a TA training program that was administered by the University Centerfor Teaching Excellence and offered to new TA’s from all departments during the week preceding the first day ofclass. The program consisted of a two-hour long session on “what to do on the first day of class” followed by atwo-hour long practice session. Foreign TA’s underwent additional six-hour long discussion session onAmerican classroom culture. These sessions were thought to be inadequate in preparing TA’s for effectiveclassroom and laboratory instruction, and we were

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Craig Gunn

asgraduate students. It would be foolish indeed not to tap this source of valuable expertise and use it toimprove communication skills at the undergraduate level. It is important, though, to take formal steps toplace graduate students into the role of communication mentors.Implementation Four laboratory courses in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Michigan State Universityare targeted in the communication effort: Heat Transfer, Vibrations, Controls, and Fluid Mechanics. Twenty-five teaching assistants will eventually grade both technical and composition areas. That is, the TA’s willgrade not only the technical abilities of undergraduates but also the methods that these students use topresent that information completely, clearly, and

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Arvind Ramanathan

not aware of how various modalities of bioengineeringaccomplished this. Thus the goals set for the course matched very well with student expectations as well. Perhaps a course of this type will be appropriate in a specialized biomedical engineering department also.Even though students pursing an undergraduate degree in BME many specialized courses, it might be quiteuseful to offer an overview of the field in a semester long course. The function would be to serve as a birds eye-view of BME, thus allowing aspiring bioengineers to gage the field in its entirety, before selecting advancedclasses. To draw a parallel in the graduate setting, it is not at all unusual to offer a laboratory course withexperiments in several areas of research

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

T. N. Jones; P. K. Allen; P. A. McCoog; J. P. Crosby

, runtime algorithm codes, live and canned digital imagery, interactive modification of program parameters and insertion of student developed code for certain parts of the tutorial. It aims to translate a research paper in robot vision into a usable and understandable laboratory exercise that highlights the important aspects of the research in a realistic environment that combines both simulated virtual components and real camera imagery. The task the tutorial uses to demonstrate some basic principles of robotics and computer vision is the “pick and place task” which is implemented using a movable robot mounted camera that produces stereo imagery inside a robotic workcell. 1 Introduction The Virtual Vision Lab (VVL) is a project

Conference Session

Hands-on Approach to Teaching: Computers (3532)

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Ruth D. Fogg, United States Air Force Academy; George W. P. York, United States Air Force Academy

. 3,August 1987, pp. 135-141. AuthorsGEORGE YORKGeorge graduated from the US Air Force Academy with a BSEE in ‘86 and from the University of Washingtonwith a MSEE in ‘88. He developed guidance computers for missiles at USAF Wright Laboratories from ‘88-’92. Then he served two years as an exchange engineer at the Korean Agency for Defense Development.Currently he is teaching Microcomputer System Design courses at the US Air Force Academy.RUTH D. FOGGRuth D. Fogg currently teaches the Digital Logic Design and Electrical Circuits courses at the US Air ForceAcademy. She earned a BSEE (‘83) and MSEE (‘85) from the University of New Hampshire and a Ph.D fromthe University of Colorado (‘95) where she

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Rick L. Homkes; Kevin D. Taylor

digital counter laboratory resulted in a(college) freshmen design project. In this case, two high school teachers played the role of “customer” inmaking the design specifications. Without performing a longitudinal study assessing the results of this program, is difficult. However,several of the teachers involved have performed pre- and post-testing of the students with positive results.Future Plans We feel the project is well developed after this second successful year. The primary concern iscontinuing to fund VISION. It is anticipated that the Eisenhower grant obtained for VISION 95 will not berenewed since it was previously funded. Current plans are to solicit funds from businesses who do not wish tobe hosts. At present, the plan

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Jerry W. Samples; Colonel Kip P. Nygren

. Page 1.86.1 - $iiiii’ }- 1996 ASEE Annual Conference Proceedings ‘..,~yyc,? . Figure 1. Teacher Development Model. Our teachers are not lecturers in the classic sense. As a matter of fact, they are excellent facilitators,using a myriad of techniques in the classroom. They use many of the eight lecture methods outlined in Lowmanlas they take their classes through their paces. Relevance is ensured through introduction of equipment andthrough laboratory exercises. The normal classroom is interactive and fin. Group discussion is important in theadvanced courses and team projects are the norm in the design courses. These

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Betsy M. Aller

was usuallybecause that student knew a lot about the topic and cared deeply about passing that knowledge on to others. Iincreasingly became aware that a key problem with poorly-written papers was the lack of “ownership” by theirauthors, many of whom were uneasily just “killing ink” on an unfmiliar topic in order to get a grade. This can hold true with engineering repom as well, as many of us have experienced. If even seniorstudents in a capstone laboratory course don’t understand the audience for their report, the objectives of theirexperiment, what data they ‘re supposed to end up with and what it means when they do get it, they tend toproduce poorly written reports--vague, unsure of claims, disorganized. They ‘re uncomforrdble writing

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

R. Boyd; P. Dutta; K. Pugsley; J.T. Demel; Audeen W. Fentiman

an elevated bonus zone beyond the finish area. The robots aretested, both individually and in head-to-head competitions, at the end of the ten-week quarter.Points earned in the individual runs and the head-to-head competition contribute to the team’s course grade.Other activities that are graded throughout the quarter include written and oral reports and laboratory exercisesrelated to various robot subsystems.At the beginning of the design project, each team is required to prepare a detailed design schedule. Theschedules are reviewed by the faculty and suggestions are made to help students prepare realistic schedules.Teams in the first pilot group (Spring 1995) were expected to follow their schedules, and faculty informallymonitored their

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Samuel S. Lee; R. Narasimhan; M. Lewis Temares

will be introduced to variousdisciplines by working in selected laboratories and machine shop areas. This course will consist of threeelements, namely, Engineering Design Process and Problem Solving techniques, Shop Practice and LaboratoryExperience, and Group Design Project. They are described in more detail below.a) Engineering Design Process and Problem Solving Techniques Problem Solving is the foundation of all engineering activities. This part of the course is designed to helpstudents develop problem-solving skills and to understand the general process in engineering design. Therewould be lectures on this subject and illustrations by case study. Certain relevant topics such as Product Safetyand Liability, Professional Ethics and

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

James A. Jacobs

audience.NOTE: This experiment was initially presented at NEW: Update 95, Oak Ridge National Laboratory,November 8. 1995.References:Jacobs, James A. and Thomas F. Kilduff. Engineering Materials Technology. 3rd cd., Prentice- Hall, Inc. 1997.ASM International. Advanced Materials & Processes. Selection and other volumes.ASM International. Engineering Materials Handbook - desk edition. 1995. Page 1.315.2Many supplementary ideas for pre-college level are found in Resources in Technology: Volumes 5-9. Order from International Technology Education Assoc. 1914 Association Dr. Reston,VA 22091.Journal Entries Observation

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Jerry Watts; George E. Piper; Carl E. Wick; Svetlana Avramov-Zamurovic

later course work, or a student or student team will adopt theproject for their own capstone design experience. The course that this design exercise was used in is a course in the Systems Engineering department of theUnited States Naval Academy that provides students with theoretical and practical aspects of closed-loop control.Fundamentals of statistical measurements, sensors, motors, motor drivers, and closed-loop control are all subjectsthat are introduced in the classroom and reinforced in the laboratory through several practical experiments. Thus,the subject matter of the course provides a near perfect environment for an applied design project. Furthermore,all of our system engineering majors know that they must successfully

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Max Rabiee

assignments prior to actual buildingof the circuit(s) in the laboratory. This paper intends to familiarize the reader with simulation software, inparticular, with the Electronic Workbench for Windows version 4.0.Introduction: We will first explain the commands, and the method of drawing an electric circuit on the EWB 4.0 screen. Then,we will describe the Component Icon groups, and the Instrument Icons. Five examples will show the convenienceand the speed of Electric and Electronic circuit simulations. In the first example we will discuss the use of afunction generator, oscilloscope, multimeter, ammeters, and voltmeters to supply and display AC and DC signals.The second example will be a two-stage amplifier with a voltage gain of two. In the third

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Robert L. Drake

collect data and to do control operationsis demonstrated in the laboratory experiments. Certain elements of the course touch upon the following:(1) Measurements of physical quantities. Here the student is introduced, for the first time in some cases, to the concepts of Page 1.389.2 imprecision and noise corruption in practical measurements. ?&iii’ ‘..+,ym } 1996 ASEE Annual Conference Proceedings “y,..’” 1

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Ph.D., P.E., Peter A. Keen

,” Harvard Business School Press,Boston, MA., 1991. VI. Biographical InformationPETER A. KOEN recently joined Stevens Institute of Technology as a full time Associate Professor in theManagement and Engineering Management Department. Dr. Keen’s background includes over 19 years ofexperience in companies such as Becton Dickinson and AT&T Bell Laboratories. Dr. Keen is supporting theInstitute by doing this survey in order to better align curriculum initiatives with the needs of the employers. Page 1.496.5 $iiii’ F 1996 ASEE Annual Conference Proceedings

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

M. Dayne Aldridge

. Rust, Jon P., Hamouda, Hechmi, Hewitt, Elizabeth R., Shelnutt, James W., and Johnson, Thomas, "Quality Improvement Partnerships with Industry Using Student Teams," Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 84, No. 1, pp. 41-44.16. Miller, Gregory R. and Cooper, Stephen C., "Something Old, Something New: Integrating Engineering Practice into the Teaching of Engineering Mechanics," Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 84, No. 2, pp. 105-115. Page 1.129.6 1996 ASEE Annual Conference Proceedings17. Beaudoin, Diane and Ollis, David F., "A Product and Process Engineering Laboratory

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

S.v. Babu; S.M. Ross; I.I. Suni; D.H. Rasmussen

how people use computer systems so that better systemscan be designed which more closely meet users' needs" (Preece, 1993). The importance of usability studies of newlearning technologies such as hypermedia has already been noted (Grice and Ridgway, 1993). Understanding emerges from studying user interaction with computer systems in particular workenvironments, in this case PC-equipped computer laboratories on the campus of a technological university. Usabilitystudies typically attend to four elements of HCI: o the user o the task or job o the context o the computer system (Preece, 1993).The exploratory usability testing reported here collected and synthesized information about the needs andcapabilities of

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Ralph O. Buchal

Exploration The classroom lecture is usually a highly-structured forum for delivering information from theprofessor’s notes to the students’ notes. The course content is compiled and organized by the teacher. The newmodel places responsibility with the student to seek and explore information from many sources, and tosynthesize a deeper knowledge and understanding of the material.Passive Absorption vs. Apprenticeship Too often, traditional engineering education relies on the passive absorption of information. Engineeringproblem solving tends to be mechanistic, relying on highly repetitive solutions of simple, idealized, linearproblems. Laboratory experiments frequently have a cook-book approach, with little opportunity for

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Jennifer M. Jacobs; Elizabeth A. Eschenbach

engineering classroom. Participants develop skills for teaching in a diverse classroom. 2 1996 ASEE Annual Conference Proceedings Page 1.171.2 Teaching Topics Participants choose two different sessions from the following sessions: Teaching and Assisting in the Laboratory, Leading a Recitation, Grading, Tutoring and Office Hours, Writing as Learning Engineering, and Presentation Skills. Microteaching Sessions A TF videotapes four TAs, while each TA teaches a short lesson and other TAs play the role of engineering students. The group reviews the video tape and the TF

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Merl Baker

patterns of employment for scientists and engineers. This pardcuku ASEE audience is especially interested in graduate education for scientists and engineers, but all Ph.D. programs must be assessed in the context of changing world conditions and job markets, and be altered accordingly. The traditional Page 1.372.2 programs have and will continue to be effective in producing Ph.D.s for academe, national laboratories, and ?$iiii’F 1996 ASEE Annual Conference Proceedings ‘..,pyyc

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Ph.D., Joel L. Cuello

instruction and laboratory investigations forprospective engineers and technicians. It should not be forgotten that the United States MilitaryAcademy at West Point, founded in 1802, placed its main emphasis on the training of engineersafter 1817. The American Literary, Scientific, and Military Academy, a civilian school foundedin 1819 in Vermont, also trained soldiers and engineers.27Thus, the demand for the democratization of American education, among others, eventually ledto the establishment of true universities in the United States, with the concomitant privileges ofexpanded, utilitarian curricula, availability of elective courses and the freedom of universitiesfrom sectarian control. Thus, the "horizontal expansion" of American higher education

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Vijay K. Madisetti; James H. Aylor; David P. Wilsey; Anthony J. Gadient

implemented using VLSItechnology4,5. These designs require very little software beyond that for simple setup and control. In thecurrent paradigm, there is little link between advanced theoretical algorithms designed within laboratories andtheir final implementation to meet an application-specific need. The curricula of the early 1980’s reflected thelevel of digital design complexity of the late 1970’s. At that time the need for shorter design times, the needfor hardware/software codesign, and life cycle cost issues, brought on by increasing design complexity, had notbecome apparent. However, by the late eighties, the tremendous advances in electronics manufacturing technology andconcomitant increase in the complexity and capability of the

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

R. Rinker; J. Peterson; H. Hess; Richard Wall; Kathy Belknap

curriculum development and on departmental committees, e.g., thepower curriculum subcommittee, the digital electronics subcommittee, the laboratory developmentsubcommittee, etc. Promotion and tenure requirements for UI faculty are identical at both locations.Unified procedures, including discussion and voting, and a single promotion and tenure committee at eachlevel (department, college, and university) and a single administrative chain apply. BSU has its ownpromotion and tenure system for its assigned faculty. With the faculty reporting administratively to the director in Boise, and academically to thedepartment chair in Moscow, there are bound to be times of conflict, the "serving two masters" problem.Specific examples of such situations

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Denis Proulx

, they also have the opportunity to visit the industrial partners. This allows them to see, question, verify,and corroborate the different aspects of a multifunctional design project. While visiting a snowmobilemanufacturer, students were briefed on the role of the marketing department in that company. They later hadthe chance to tour a research laboratory, talk with the researchers concerning the nature of their work, and lookthrough an electronic microscope. Students were introduced to a production environment while visiting agarage door manufacturer. “How many doors can you build in one day?”. “What happens if there is a powerfailure?”. “What does that automated machine do?” Finally, they visited a company making rubber strippingfor car doors

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Gordon W. Couturier

student enrollment and financial difficulties until the Fall of 1995. Duringthis time perio~ a Superbowl raffle and reception of a senior class gift aided in purchasing the CASE tool,the C/CH development tool, the SUN server and 2 workstations. A Hewlett Packard gift provided a10BaseT hub to set up the initial network. With the recovery of enrollment in 1995, the university was ableto complete the financial matching portion of the NSF grant.The NSF grant was for laboratory equipment only. With the lack of fi.mds, the co-project directom andseveral upper-class students had to learn the SUN SOLARUS operating system and CASE tool on their own.Luckily, the SOLARUS OS is a UNIX system and one of the project directors was reasonablyknowledgeable in

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Richard Magin; Margery Osborne; Bruce Bertram; Bruce Wheeler

, write up, andsubmit their computer laboratory reports at one sitting at a campus computer site. A drawback of the exercises was their restriction to a single computer platform, which necessitated moststudents to visit the campus computer sites even if they had network linked computers in their dorm rooms.For that reason we are replacing the exercises with equivalents which are integrated into the course webpages.Conferencing and Bulletin Boards We have used conferencing software (PacerForum) in the first course offering and found that it wasuseful for exchange of files in group projects. Students were able to post their term papers, andsuccessively and successfully edit them into finished documents. However, with the small class it

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Lynn Kiaer

, mechanics, electricity and magnetism, twoquarters of general chemistry, engineering statics, graphical communication, computer science andengineering design. It has served approximately one fourth of the entering class of first year students for thelast six years. From the inception of the program, many of the synchronicities between mechanics anddifferential calculus have been well-exploited. In the past two years, additional opportunities to coordinate thetreatment of chemical kinetics, electricity and magnetism, and integral calculus have been identified, and anumber of classroom, laboratory and homework experiences have been designed to assist students inunderstanding the relationships between these topics. A number of these activities are

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Robert M. Briber; James Lochary; David I. Bigio

) which include non-Newtonian fluid dynamics, polymer processing, laminar mixing theory,polymer characterization, polymer blends, etc. The topics are introduced in logical order as they areneeded for the project and as they are brought up by the students in response to their needs for makingprogress on the project. The course combines work in the classroom, at the industrial manufacturing site and in on-campus laboratories. The classroom time is spent developing the basic background needed tocommunicate on the topics, anchor teaching of key concepts, formulating the project and presentationsby guest lecturers (largely from industry).Introduction One of the most common complaints heard from engineering students, particularly at the

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

D.E., Lt. Col. Randall K. Liefer

built a full scale construction laboratory wherecadets experience building design and construction methods by doing it themselves. The AeronauticalEngineering Department teaches flight test by putting cadets in Cessnas and having them do flighttest. Those of us teaching Astronautical Engineering, here and at other schools around the country,face an especially difficult challenge in this regard. We can’t put our students in space and it is verydifficult and expensive to put their projects there. Space educators and experimenters are nothing if not innovative. They’ve used a variety ofmethods to get student projects into space, close to space, at least, into a regime that’s a lot like space.Sounding rockets in a variety of sizes are used