Conference Session

Curriculum Development in Computer/Communications ET

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Chandra Sekhar; Jai Agrawal; Omer Farook

introduction of newerprotocols. The two buildings are approximately 500 meters apart. The free-space optical link uses1550 nm wavelength in normal usage but has a wireless link operating at 2.4 GHz as the back-up.The line of site alignment will be achieved using telescopes initially but will have automatictracking alignment system. The wireless back-up link is used only in very dense fog conditions.This paper presents the design of only the free-space optical connection, some parts of which areimplemented in laboratory setup.I. Introduction The technology of establishing a high-speed networking between two buildings orcampuses is one of the three: 1) copper wire, 2) wireless and 2) optical fiber technology. Thecopper technology is low

Conference Session

Emerging Trends in Engineering Education Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Francis Derby; Stephen Frempong; Willie Ofosu

The Pennsylvania Stet University are compelled to modify course content to include latestinnovations in the technology. Although it is easy to modify the lecture component of thecurricula, laboratory exercises can only be done in small scales within controlled environmentwhich does not justify the expense for some of the equipment. For example, a laboratoryexercise in digital aerial photogrammetry requires an aircraft equipped with an on-board GPSreceiver, digital aerial camera and many other accessories. It is obvious that the expensesinvolved in acquiring the equipment for this exercise far exceed the financial resource of theprogram. There is therefore a need to find innovative ways to expose students to the equipment,technology, and

Conference Session

Issues in Digital Signal Processing

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

John Watkins

. The inputand output signals in the time domain and the magnitude and phase of the frequency response areplotted in real time.To run the virtual DSA in simulation mode requires only SIMULINK. However, if combinedwith the Quanser WinCon software and hardware input/output board, it can be used formeasuring the frequency response of experimental apparatus in the laboratory. If the linear Page 10.106.1 Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering Educationsystem is mechanical, the students can compare the

Conference Session

Potpourri Design

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Bryan Laffitte; David Ollis

Cross-College Collaboration of Engineering and Industrial Design Brian Laffitte, David F. Ollis, and Rebecca BrentIndustrial Design, NCSU, Raleigh, NC/ Chemical Engineering, NCSU, Raleigh, NC / Education Design, Inc., Cary, NCAbstract We report the piloting and initial assessment of a novel cross-collegecollaboration in which exploration of modern consumer and household devices in anengineering ”device dissection” laboratory is utilized to enhance student learningobjectives and achievement in a junior-senior Studio course in Industrial Design (ID).The electric guitar and the compact disc (CD) player were chosen as first round devices.The ID students first explored these devices in teams of

Conference Session

Emerging Trends in Engineering Education Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Glen Dudevoir; Carl Fossa

course includes lecturescovering topics unique to the engineering design process such as project management, designeconomics, and engineering ethics. It also includes laboratory exercises designed to give thestudents practical skills they do not typically acquire during the core electrical engineeringcourse sequence. Examples of these laboratory exercises include designing a printed circuitboard, packaging circuits, and integrating sensors with microcontrollers. Both the senior projectand the laboratory exercises reinforce the technical, economic, political and social aspects of theengineering design process. The course today provides students with the skills they need tosuccessfully perform as part of an interdisciplinary design

Conference Session

Virtual Instrumentation in ET

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Terrance Lovell; Dale Litwhiler

ofUSB data acquisition units in an electromechanical engineering technology laboratoryenvironment. Features, advantages and disadvantages of the hardware are discussed. TheLabVIEW™ software tools (virtual instruments) developed to interface with the USB device arepresented. Examples of sensing and control systems experiments and projects are also given.IntroductionThe Universal Serial Bus (USB) has quickly found its way from consumer electronics (cameras,scanners, printers, cell phones, etc.) to laboratory equipment. The ease of connection andrelatively high data rate of USB makes this technology very useful for portable data acquisitionunits. Several units are now available at very reasonable cost from companies such as LabJack,Measurement

Conference Session

Teaching Strategies in Graphics

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Douglas Baxter

]. The first six weeks are spent learning how to create solid models of parts,one week is spent on assemblies of parts and the remaining five weeks are spent oncreating engineering drawings. Students also create hand sketches of parts creating bothisometric and orthographic projections. An additional textbook[7] is used to supplementthe hand-sketching portion of the course. The last two weeks of the semester arededicated to work on the final project. Each of the twelve lectures has an associatedlaboratory session where students work problems based on the lecture material. Thelaboratory sessions are two hours long. As EG&CAD is a one credit course, no additionalwork is assigned outside the laboratory; the goal of the lecture and laboratory is

Conference Session

Curriculum Development in Electr-Mech ET

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Michael Powers; Mary Fran Desrochers

™ is taught as the programming language andinterfaced with two different systems, sensors and controls. One system uses Vernier®instrumentation and data acquisition and the other uses National Instruments® PCI interfaceboards and a variety of discrete sensors and controls. These systems will be compared andcontrasted to expose the reader to two approaches to teaching data acquisition systems. Anoutline of suggested laboratory experiments and related objectives is included.Introduction:While the Electrical Engineering Technology (EET) and Mechanical Engineering Technology(MET) curriculums are very different, we have found a common ground in our treatment of dataacquisition and control. We both use LabVIEW™ to teach sensors, data acquisition and

Conference Session

Assessment Issues in 1st-Yr Engineering

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Mark Urban-Lurain; Taner Eskil; Marilyn Amey; Timothy Hinds; Jon Sticklen

2005-1601 Multi-section Freshman Classes with Laboratories: Lecture as Intro vs. Lecture as Wrap-up Jon Sticklen, Mark Urban-Lurain, Timothy Hinds Taner Eskil, Marilyn Amey Michigan State UniversityIntroduction A common instructional model for freshman engineering is the lecture/laboratory model.In this model, students usually spend two to four hours per week in a large lecture sectiontypically of one hundred or more students, and three to six hours per week in smalllaboratory (or recitation) sections typically of twenty or fewer students. Although not universal

Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Dale E. Schinstock

above focuses on the control systems area, it is common in many advanced topics inengineering. By integrating the learning of advanced mathematics, engineering science, andengineering application into a single course earlier in the curriculum the actual amount ofmaterial learned is increased. This does however require the reduction of specific topicalcoverage in any one of the single areas.The course described here is a first course dealing with feedback control systems, which isfrequently a required course in mechanical, electrical, and aerospace engineering programs. It istypically taken in the senior year of such programs. In our program, the course is a requiredlecture/laboratory scheduled to be taken in the junior year of the Mechanical

Conference Session

Mathematics Curriculum in Transition

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Nathan Klingbeil

The WSU Model for Engineering Mathematics Education Klingbeil, N.W., Mercer, R.E., Rattan, K.S., Raymer, M.L. and Reynolds, D.B. Wright State University, Dayton, OH, 45435Abstract This paper summarizes progress to date on the WSU model for engineering mathematicseducation, an NSF funded curriculum reform initiative at Wright State University. The WSUmodel seeks to increase student retention, motivation and success in engineering throughapplication-driven, just-in-time engineering math instruction. The WSU approach begins withthe development of a novel freshman-level engineering mathematics course (EGR 101). Taughtby engineering faculty, the course includes lecture, laboratory and recitation

Conference Session

Assessment & Quality; Accreditation in Engineering Education

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Youssef Shatilla; Adnan Zahed

staffmembers, and 155 faculty members. There are nine departments offering graduate- andpostgraduate-level education. Each department has well equipped laboratories, libraryfacilities and well developed computer laboratories and other necessary infrastructure. Someof the facilities at the university level and in the college of science are also utilized. Tomotivate and activate all the students and staff members and to prepare the necessarydocumentation according to ABET prescribed format was a challenge of mammothproportions.Financial and physical resources were of little importance compared to the intellectual inputsand other efforts rendered by staff members. These efforts and experiences are brieflyrecounted here under the following sub-sections

Conference Session

Emerging Trends in Engineering Education Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Daniel Hart

Society For Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright  2005, American Society for Engineering Educationinspired, I proposed an optional laboratory project on class-D amplifiers, and fivestudents participated. The hardware that the students used to implement their class-Damplifier projects and student opinions about the experience are described below.The HardwareClass-D amplifiers contain a triangular-waveform generator for the high-frequencycarrier signal, a comparator to compare the carrier signal with the audio signal, and powertransistors arranged in an H-bridge to switch the output voltage to either a high or lowvoltage depending on the output of the comparator. A passive Butterworth filter on

Conference Session

Curriculum: Ideas/Concepts in Engineering Education

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Melany Ciampi; Claudio Brito

. The practicalclasses and the laboratories take half of the schedule and they approach techniques and locationtechnologies, creation and reproduction of aquatic species and of industrialization. It is aprogram that will fulfill the lack of this kind of engineer in the Atlantic Coast Region of SãoPaulo State, which has a natural vocation to fish. It is because of its large portion of seashore andlarge number of fishing communities besides the industries of fish caught. It is a project that alsohas the goal to change the old orthodox pedagogy for engineering education.1. IntroductionThe mission of Education is most of all, to promote the natural ability of the mind to set and tosolve problems and by inter-relation to stimulate the full usage of

Conference Session

K-12 Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

William Thomson; Donald Orlich; Richard Zollars

activity in the program is a one-day meeting that was held on May 21 involvingeleven of the twelve teacher participants and all of the faculty mentors. The purpose of thismeeting is to start forming relationships among all of the participants, firm up housingarrangements for the summer, distribute information on the research projects that would beavailable for the summer, and tour the campus and laboratories. All of the teachers, whether theywere able to visit the campus or not, then were asked to return a listing of the top three projects onwhich they would like to work. By the end of May all teachers had been assigned projects, with Page

Conference Session

Issues in Digital Signal Processing

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Thad Welch; Robert Kubichek

, “Communications Measurement Laboratory.” This new course was designed to reinforce student knowledge of their course work in signals and systems, digital and analog communication systems, and digital signal processing. The primary course objectives were to familiarize students with vector signal analysis and develop a thorough understanding of I and Q-based demodulation techniques. This paper provides an overview of this course and describes student projects that utilize a vector signal analyzer (VSA) to detect, localize, and record decimated I and Q data as would be available at the output of an intermediate frequency (IF) analog-to-digital converter (ADC) stage of a software defined radio (SDR).1 IntroductionThe

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

David Hata

designed to provide a basic understanding of theelectrical and optical properties of gas plasmas. They range from inexpensive Page 10.397.1demonstrations and experiments to more sophisticated studies using a Langmuir Probe. “Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright 2005, American Society for Engineering Education”They have been tested in the laboratory at Portland Community College in PCC’s MT240 RF Plasma Systems course.DemonstrationsStructure of a DC Glow Discharge in a Long Tube The equipment for this demonstration can be purchased from scientific supply

Conference Session

Emerging Trends in Engineering Education Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Tom Bazzoli; Blair Rowley

was a three hour per quarter, two quarter course. It had a fall-winter, winter-spring structure. Each first quarter had one 2-hour lecture and two, 1-hourlaboratories per week. The curriculum the first quarter had two teaming events, basics ofengineering drawing, an introduction to instrumentation, resistive circuits involving Ohms andKirchoff’s laws, and integrated circuits used for timers, flip-flops, counters, and an introductionto two of the college programs. In addition the students learned to use HTML to design their ownweb sites and MatLab and Excel to solve statistical problems involving normal distributions.The second quarter had one, 2-hour lecture and one, 1-hour laboratory, and one teaming event.The students were introduced to

Conference Session

Energy Program and Software Tools

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Keshav Varde

limited researchopportunities in combustion engines and fuel systems to its undergraduates. The program waslimited to a select few who had keen interest in the subject matter. The laboratory researchfacilities were recently expanded to cater to increased funding in the subject area and the awardof the National Science Foundation REU site has allowed expansion of undergraduate researchopportunities to students from academic institutions across the country. Up to eightundergraduate students have been involved in the project each year, receiving financial supportduring summer to conduct research in combustion engines, exhaust emissions, fuel systems andrelated areas. Undergraduate research programs provide a range of opportunities to students

Conference Session

Astronautics and Space Technology

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Robert Melton; Michael Micci; Deborah Levin; Charles Croskey; David Spencer; Sven Bilen

development. LionSat is a multi-disciplinary space systems project involving several departments ofThe Pennsylvania State University, including the electrical, aerospace, and mechanicalengineering departments. The project also includes students from the College of Science and the Page 10.1166.1College of Education. The Communications and Space Sciences Laboratory (CSSL), located oncampus, is serving as the coordination center for the project. The research conducted by the Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2005, American Society from

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Stephanie Farrell

students to multidisciplinaryengineering principles through application to drug delivery systems. This project modifiesmeasurement techniques and laboratory experiments widely used in the pharmaceutical sciences,to teach engineering principles. Material from the seven modules is being integrated verticallyinto the curriculum beginning with the Freshman Clinic, then fundamental Engineering courses,followed by Junior-Senior Clinic research projects, and finally advanced level electives onpharmaceutical topics. At the freshman level, students are engaged in the scientific discoveryprocess with exciting hands-on analysis of commercial drug delivery systems. In more advancedcourses, students design and formulate drug delivery systems and investigate

Conference Session

Innovation in ChE Teaching

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Bruce Finlayson

course their freshman year, so the new course concentrated onchemical engineering applications. This paper describes the course and gives a quantitativeassessment of its impact in the Chemical Reactor Design class.Course Description The Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Washington uses Excel,Matlab, Simulink, AspenPlus, and FEMLAB. This paper describes a course introducing studentsto these programs, except for Simulink that is introduced in Process Control. For each topic (seeTable I), a lecture hour outlined the method used to solve a class of problems and demonstratedspecific techniques to do so. A handout gave the details each week. Then in the laboratory hourfollowing, students worked in pairs to solve problems

Conference Session

Design of Lab Experiments

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Timothy Schurmann; C. Stewart Slater

torr (mmHg) vacuum gauge. Downstream or V-9 FT-1 permeate-side pressure is maintained with a V-12 V-10 V-4 vacuum source. A laboratory vacuum pump VT-1 VC-1 VC-2 (~0.1 torr capability) is connected to the Zenon

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Michael Alley; Jenny Lo; Bevlee Watford

experimental, computational, or theoretical research inactual laboratories. The benefits would not only be that the students would gain a valuableresearch experience, but that the students’ appreciation for the communication would deepen,because the students would be more likely to assume ownership of the content. This document presents the initial phase of a proof-of-concept test [10] for whether anundergraduate technical communication course could effectively be linked to larger researchexperiences, such as those offered by Summer Undergraduate Laboratory Initiative (SULI), LosAlamos, Virginia Tech, or other universities. Presented in this paper is a description of thetechnical course to be tested. Following that are the two tasks that

Conference Session

New Trends in ECE Education

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Steven Reyer; Stephen Williams; Glenn Wrate; Joerg Mossbrucker; Owe Petersen

increased emphasis on developing the professional skills of ourgraduates.Curriculum modifications include a greater focus on microprocessor based systems, interfacing,signal processing, and material science. Core electrical engineering topics are introduced duringthe freshman year and include both lecture and laboratory experiences. The curriculum hasretained its broad range of content topics and its traditional strong design and laboratory focus.The curriculum changes are intended to provide the breadth and depth of technical knowledgeand the professional skills that will enable our graduates to: enter industry with immediateproductivity, pursue changing career opportunities, adjust to life-long technological changes, andpursue graduate school

Conference Session

Electrical & Computer Engineering Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Michael Morrow

teams arerequired to prepare a written contract detailing the members’ responsibilities (rotation of respon-sibilities is required), weekly meeting arrangements, and how disputes will be resolved. The teammaintains a lab notebook throughout the course, and meets weekly with the course instructorand/or teaching assistant.The course is structured to contain both a lecture component ( three 50 minute periods per week)and an intense laboratory/project component (one 3 hour period per week). The lecture compo-nent initially focuses on giving the students the required background to successfully implementa design using the course’s hardware and software platforms. The focus then shifts to a sam-pling of more pragmatic design issues that most students

Conference Session

ECE Lab Development and Innovations

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Peter Idowu

electronics course at Penn State Harrisburg.Although the course is a 3.0-credit technical elective some students opt to enroll in anadditional 1.0-credit independent study course. The independent study course formatpresents both students and instructors the opportunity to explore a wide variety of options forenhancing students’ understanding of the subject. While the course could be structured as aseries of laboratory experiments in power electronic circuits and components, the preferenceover the last two years has been towards research and modeling studies. This option givesthe student far more control of the learning process than occurs in typical laboratory courses. A meaningful learning experience in power converter analysis, simulation

Conference Session

Curriculum Development in Electrical ET

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Jay Porter; Benjamin Brannaka

Session 3247 Using Signal Express to Automate Analog Electronics Experiments B.D. Brannaka, J. R. Porter Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843Introduction It is well known that many undergraduate students, especially in engineering technologyprograms, learn best through hands-on experience. Thus, when teaching analog electronics, it iscritical to provide the students with a meaningful laboratory experience. While this soundsstraightforward, it is often difficult to

Conference Session

Curriculum Development in Electrical ET

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Walter Banzhaf

Session 3247 Electrical Fundamentals - Make Them Come Alive for Students Walter Banzhaf, P.E. College of Engineering, Technology, and Architecture University of Hartford, West Hartford, CT 06117IntroductionMany laboratory experiments we ask students to perform in electrical fundamentals laboratoryclasses are unnecessarily unexciting. Such tasks as determining the current through R7 of aladder network with eight resistors (does a first-semester student really care about R7, or itscurrent?), or verifying Kirchhoff's Voltage Law in a circuit with only resistors

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Timothy Cooley; Terrence O'Connor

the authors designed lecture-style laboratory exercisesfor a range of high school and college student classes in order to assess its ability to improvelearning of fundamental thermodynamics over current approaches to which the students hadpreviously been exposed.This paper discusses the most important design modifications required for proper functionality ofthis slow-speed engine system, the data it generated during testing, laboratory exercises that weredeveloped to test its impact on student learning, and the results obtained from these assessments.DesignThe system began as a commercially available 5 horsepower Kohler engine with a horizontalcrankshaft and overhead valves. From this starting point the final design would have; a self