Conference Session

Innovation in ChE Teaching

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Jason Keith

does the student prefer (sensory or intuitive)? Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright @ 2005, American Society for Engineering Education 2. Which route allows course information to be most effectively presented (visual or auditory)? 3. By which method is information best organized for the student to learn (inductive or deductive)? 4. How does the student process information (active or reflective)? 5. How does the student progress in their learning (sequentially or globally)?The teaching style of a course instructor can also be described by the same categories.This paper will focus on an aspect of the fourth classification, active vs

Conference Session

Design of Lab Experiments

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Timothy Mays

. Students are required to write a technical lab report,which presents their results and reflects upon their understanding of the exercise. The designprocess for the initial labs is non-existent and each lab requires a preliminary setup by alaboratory technician and assistance from the professor during the experimental process.Following the completion of the five professor designed experiments, student designedexperiments are introduced to create an environment of active learning.The student designed exercises cover bending stresses in a beam, shear and bending moment in abeam, beam deflections, and column buckling. Each of the aforementioned experiments areconducted on fixed structural frame that allows students to accurately conduct their

Conference Session

Writing and Communication II

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Michael Alley; Kathryn Neeley

such as TheNew Yorker, The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, and the Times of London. There is alsoa thriving discourse about PowerPoint on the Web, most notably the weblogswww.edwardtufte.com and www.sociablemedia.com. The range of these publications and thevivid, emotional language used to discuss PowerPoint reflect the key role that PowerPoint hasplayed in a cultural shift in the way information is presented. As one critic put it, “PowerPointhas become as much a part of the fabric of professional life as power ties and protein bars”(Zielinski 2003). In our own efforts to get students to adopt the alternative design, we, too, haveperceived the extent to which PowerPoint and the traditional slide design have becomeembedded in engineering

Conference Session

Trends in Construction Engineering II

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Brian Houston

competitions are well known student activities in civilengineering. Almost without exception, students who participate in these events carry awayrewarding memories and reflect positively on their experiences. Another positive benefit frominvolvement is the ability to establish talking points during interviews with potential employerswho were also involved during their college years. Page 10.740.1 “Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2004, American Society for Engineering Education”Many institutions integrate the Steel Bridge competition into the

Conference Session

Embedded Computing

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Daniel Pack; Barry Mullins

seesuch projects as extremely valuable to student learning. Some of the more germanereasons are (1) an opportunity to reflect on the course materials and apply the knowledgelearned, (2) experience to improve independent learning skills, (3) a chance to solveopen-ended design problems, encouraging students to use their imaginations, and (4) anopportunity to exercise both software and hardware skills. The overall experiencesupports and enhances the students’ probability of success in their senior capstone designcourse.ConclusionIn this paper, we presented a case study of a student project, the Tetris game, in a secondmicrocontroller/microprocessor course at the US Air Force Academy. The projectprovided the student with ample opportunities to

Conference Session

Emerging Trends in Engineering Education Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Brian Houston

Mathcad in the Civil Engineering Curriculum Brian L. Houston University of Pittsburgh at JohnstownIntroductionThe core curriculum for civil engineering and civil engineering technology programs has notchanged significantly over time. Courses in statics, dynamics and strengths of materials attemptto teach the same concepts as were taught decades ago. The difference lies in how theseconcepts are visualized, the teaching methods employed by the instructor and the development ofcomputer-aided design.Many institutions have added entry-level courses specifically aimed at providing students withbasic skills in various software packages reflecting the

Conference Session

IE/EM Skills in Real World Concepts

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Karen Palmer; Terri Lynch-Caris; Laura Sullivan

the capstone project reflect reality, the outcome of the project had to beinterdisciplinary in nature. In an attempt to make the capstone project interesting and mutuallybeneficial, the students were given a variety of project choices. All projects required a degree ofinteraction between the IE students with ME and EE students. EE professors and ME professorswere identified as consultants or resources for information within their respective disciplines.Students were also responsible for adding resources to the reference room that proved useful tofuture capstone students. Four capstone project choices for the Winter 2004 semester wereidentified as described below

Conference Session

Emerging Trends in Engineering Education Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Sami Tannous

the subject at hand, JiTT can also bring benefits by helpingstudents structure their time and their ways of approaching a new subject. Most instructors agreethat students get more out of classroom time if they prepare for class by reading the text ahead oflecture (2). It also helps students to develop and practice writing skills. JiTT promotesconstruction classes instruction as dialogue whether student-student or student-teacher.The give and take in the classroom suggests future discussions/questions that will reflect themood and the level of expertise in the class at hand. In this way the feedback loop is closed withthe students having played a major part in the endeavors.The JiTT assignments are designed to encourage students come to class

Conference Session

Teaching Design

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Richard Goff; Jeffrey Connor; Jean Kampe

active classroom learning, we have also developed out-of-classwork/questions for the exercises that offer individual reflective components to compliment andstrengthen the in-class learning experience. Along with a review of the exercises that highlightsthe learning objective and student response to each activity, the paper offers notes on deliverylogistics that have been successful in our classrooms and an account of the expenses associatedwith each exercise. The worksheets that we have created for these activities are provided as anappendix to the paper for reader use, and solution keys to the worksheets are available from theauthors upon request.Introduction In the past, experiential learning was often reserved for formal laboratory

Conference Session

Internet Computing and Networking

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Gregory Mokodean; Xiannong Meng; Luiz Perrone; Maurice Aburdene

their presentation. In addition, we presentand analyze the textbooks used, hands-on exercises including projects and laboratory exercises.The analysis will help us reflect on the design of wireless education in both the electricalengineering and the computer science departments. We believe this information will be useful toour colleagues in other universities and colleges as well.Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Forman and Zahorjan [3] stated “Mobile computing – the use of a portable computer capable ofwireless communication – will very likely revolutionize the way we use computers.” Mobilecomputing requires the support of wireless communication networks. Wireless networkscommunicate by modulated radio frequency (RF) or infra-red

Conference Session

ELD Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Barbara MacAlpine

communication skills forengineers is a part of this program that has been enthusiastically endorsed by the engineeringfaculty.IntroductionRecent literature reiterates the importance of information literacy for engineering students andthe role of librarians in promoting that process 1,2. The challenge is to develop a program thatdelivers the instruction when the students need it, and in a manner that catches their attention,allows them to practice new skills, and appeals to a variety of learning styles. The use of lecturesas the primary instructional vehicle has become increasingly devalued, as reflected in studentevaluations of bibliographic instruction as well as studies by learning theorists 3,4. Successfulcombinations of lecture/demonstrations with

Conference Session

K-12 Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Cordelia Brown

, provide a reflection time for the teaching experience, and acquire feedback from the fellows to improve the program design for future cohorts of fellows. These sessions are designed to give the GTFs assistance in any activity related to the classroom. GTFs are also responsible for preparing and presenting lessons on effective instructional strategies. Some of the topics have included: process skills, constructivism, cooperative learning, learning styles, inquiry, and effective questioning strategies. 4. Evaluation and Assessment: Extensive evaluation tools such as interviews of GTFs, partner teachers, and students, pre and post content assessments of

Conference Session

Controls, Mechatronics

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

H. Joel Lenoir

prerequisite requirements so that they are adequately understood andachieved by all program faculty members. These types of review activities are also in place atother institutions 4.Peer Evaluation reports for each course contain a portfolio typically containing the followinginformation: a current syllabus including student-based outcomes, copies of materials providedto students and examinations, selected examples of graded student work and the student gradedistribution, as well as other material or discussion deemed important by the instructor. Inaddition, student self-evaluation and faculty evaluation of achieving course outcomes arepresented. Faculty often use these report to present reflective criticisms of their ownperformance, and invite other

Conference Session

Computer Based Measurements

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Weining Feng; Alberto Gomez-Rivas

captures the time domain data of the vibration), the values of low order harmonicfrequencies can be determined via Fourier transformation of the corresponding timedomain data, without the need for any special excitation device. After completing thiskind of experiments, students should be able to convert time-domain data into frequency-domain by means of algorithms such as FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) which can befound in Excel, and be able to interpret the frequency-domain representation for themodes of vibrations.Frequency Analysis Based on Impulse responseIn the field of control system engineering and signal processing, it is a well-known factthat [4] a system output response completely reflects its dynamic properties whensubjected to an impulse

Conference Session

Emerging Trends in Engineering Education Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Jerry O'Connor; Dan Dimitriu

secondary track.Successful completion of course work in either track would provide the same number of collegecredit hours.The 2003 EDGE Program was advertised through posters, mail-outs, press releases, and visits tolocal high school classes. Although a great deal of interest had been consistently expressed inthe program, that interest was not reflected by the number of applications received. For 2004 we Page 10.90.1Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition 1Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering Educationshifted our marketing emphasis from high school classes, teachers, and

Conference Session

Emerging Trends in Engineering Education Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Edward Jackson; Mani Mina

a singlesemester. This reduction, along with more condensed introductory courses (in the case ofelectrical engineering) in areas such as circuit theory and electromagnetism, has taken place inorder to make room for an increasing number of advanced elective courses. The proliferation ofthese higher-level courses reflects the ever-expanding field of engineering4-5.One result of this shortened introduction is that many courses now cover only computerprogramming (C, C++, Fortran, etc.) and perhaps a short introduction to a design tool relevant tothe particular field. The attempt is then made to teach the other subjects mentioned above in acomputer programming context.Iowa State's EE185 ClassFor the past few years, freshmen in electrical

Conference Session

Web-Based Education

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Sivand Lakmazaheri

interpreting evidence todetermine how well performance matches established learning expectations [1]. In engineering,learning-outcome assessment usually occurs during the course of teaching, with studentperformance on homework assignments, examinations, and projects providing evidence of thelevel of learning. The instructor interprets this evidence to judge a student’s learning progressand then assigns a course grade that reflects this judgment. Although this assessment processcould act as an incentive for learning, its primary purpose is to measure the level of a student’slearning, not reinforce learning. Page 10.507.1 “Proceedings of the 2005

Conference Session

Electrical & Computer Engineering Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Mehran Massoumi

thequarter.Starting from the third week, SHDL was used extensively to describe various CPU architectures,memory controllers, bus arbiters, and arithmetic algorithms. It served as an effective tool toillustrate the timing details for various operations and how they can be changed for betterperformance. Although students were improving their SHDL skills throughout the course, thelanguage was never a hindrance in the flow of the course and did not overwhelm the main focus.Overall, the students had a very positive experience with using the language, as reflected in ananonymous survey that was taken on the 9th week. Basically, the students were asked (1) ifSHDL was readily learned, and (2) if SHDL helped them in learning the material. A total of 36students, who

Conference Session

IE Enrollment/Curriculum Development

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Jane Fraser

members.While those outside our field may not have a clear conception of what industrial engineering is,our programs show strong consensus about what courses should be included in an industrialengineering program. In fact, my choice to record courses may overemphasize the differencesamong programs. I believe that recording topics covered, however they are packaged amongcourses, would have shown more consensus; such an approach would have involved much morework.Also not reflected in the information I recorded is variation in the year in which students areadvised to take different material. For example, some programs recommend leaving engineeringscience courses (such as thermodynamics) until the senior year, presumably because noindustrial engineering

Conference Session

Increasing Enrollment in IE/IET Programs Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Jane Fraser

members.While those outside our field may not have a clear conception of what industrial engineering is,our programs show strong consensus about what courses should be included in an industrialengineering program. In fact, my choice to record courses may overemphasize the differencesamong programs. I believe that recording topics covered, however they are packaged amongcourses, would have shown more consensus; such an approach would have involved much morework.Also not reflected in the information I recorded is variation in the year in which students areadvised to take different material. For example, some programs recommend leaving engineeringscience courses (such as thermodynamics) until the senior year, presumably because noindustrial engineering

Conference Session

Course and Program Assessment

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Essaid Bouktache; Chandra Sekhar; Jai Agrawal; Omer Farook

used to gauge student’s learningprogress along with other techniques.AQM involves a) Active listening, b) Maintaining a Portfolio that reflect student work in total,c) Interactive learning, d) Intro to concepts through project implementation, d) Cooperativecollaborative learning 4 through team approach, and e) Assessing students at the micro levelusing what we call a “ten minute” quiz that is given at beginning of every lecture hour to keepthe students in a continuous study and inquiry mode.The AQM was initiated in our department back in fall 1994 with stream lining of theprerequisites to our circuit courses. College Algebra was changed to a prerequisite rather than apre/co requisite. This change helped the students in applying algebra to

Conference Session

Writing and Communication I

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Bill Chapman; John Brocato; Jim Harden

technical aspects of organizing and composing research papers • Develop sentence structure and writing skills • Practice critical reading • Become familiar with the resources in the libraryThe emergence of the ESL course for TAs helped crystallize three research questionssurrounding the screening exam: 1. How accurately would the first screening-exam administration reflect individual TAs’ abilities to grade technical written English? 2. How much (if any) would TAs’ screening-exam scores improve on the second screening-exam administration? 3. Would the ESL course factor into the scores (improved or not) from the second exam administration?Screening Exam Results and DiscussionThe average

Conference Session

Entrepreneurship, Design, and PBL

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Wilburn Clouse

, Bertinoro, Italy, July 3-7, 2002.Clouse, R. W. & Goodin, T. L. (2001-2002). Entrepreneurs in action!: A web case model. Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 30 (3), 311-321.Clouse, R. W. & Goodin, T. L. (2001). Entrepreneurship Education: Reflecting on the Present, Forecasting the Future. Nashville, TN: Forum for Entrepreneurship Education. (Available online at http://entrepreneurship.vanderbilt.edu) Page 10.576.6Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering EducationClouse, R. W. & Goodin

Conference Session

IP, Incubation, and Business Plans

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

W. Andrew Clark

order to have a self-sustainingbusiness incubator however, some literature suggest that there is a trend for smaller profitableincubators6. The responses from the benchmarked facilities were interesting and varied, but Page 10.580.8tended to reflect the university administration’s view on the specific purpose of the university “Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering Education”managed business incubator. This point reflects on the importance of having a strategicalignment between the business incubator

Conference Session

Mathematics Potpourri

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

John Schmeelk, Virginia Commonwealth University Qatar Branch

signal-processing techniques. Oftentimes generalized functions are implemented in a casualway and not reflecting the need to establish results on a mathematical platform. A few ofthe important connections between the applications and mathematical foundations areincluded together with several illustrations.I. IntroductionThe rapid descent test functions with the inclusion of a few very needed principals aregiven in section 2. It also gives a brief introduction of tempered distributions includingsome very important theorems. The paper then moves into section 3 giving thefundamentals of a discrete Fourier transform pair. This is then embedded into a tempereddistribution setting. Section 4 gives an introduction to windowing signal data and

Conference Session

Accreditation and Related Issues in ECE

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Ismail Jouny

be usedas a tool for evaluating PEO’s but the results do not constitute a proof that the programPEO’s are being achieved. Visitors and recruiters may speak of few graduates, and mayoffer general comments on the program, but their input cannot be regarded as concreteevidence that the educational objectives of the program are be achieved as expected.Small institutions should not abandon using these tools but should realize that input fromthese evaluators is based on limited experience and cannot be generalized. Smallinstitutions may have fewer recruiters than their larger counterpart, and these recruiterscan be local and do not reflect a national opinion of the graduates.Bulletin boards are often not accurate and, at Lafayette’s ECE Department

Conference Session

Internet Computing and Networking

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Leonid Preiser

quality of modern education, increase student interest and participation, andexplore avenues for optimizing distant-learning delivery models.This research focuses on modeling of an interactive online educational infrastructure (OEI) byintroducing four major modules forming this OEI: a) knowledge management (KM) module, b) client/server applications (CSA) module, c) group information sharing and collaboration (GISC) module, and d) an interactive workflow (IW) module.The architectures, processes and procedures in support of each of these modules reflect differentfeatures of the online interactive enterprise and are used for assessment of the OEI outcomes.Proposed model has been tested during the five-year period of offering

Conference Session

Emerging Trends in Engineering Education Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

David Braun

that the course could teach teamwork skills. Unfortunately,recent implementations of the course haven’t quite addressed this goal successfully. Certainly,the students work in groups as they complete various lab procedures. However, instructors havenot taught students to organize their teams or perform specific roles in their team. Reflecting theintrinsically interdisciplinary nature of the field of semiconducting polymers, students from themajors of chemistry, physics, materials science, computer engineering and electrical engineeringhave taken the Polymer Electronics Lab course in the last few years. Students from the differentmajors do gain the opportunity to interact, discuss, and learn from each other during the lab.The course does

Conference Session

Professional Graduate Education & Industry

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Albert McHenry

Copyright  2005, American Society for Engineering Education”ConstructivismConstructivism is a theory of learning founded on the premise that, by reflecting on ourexperiences, we construct our own understanding of the world. Each of us generates our own"rules" and "mental models," that we use to make sense of our experiences. Learning, therefore,is simply the process of adjusting (reconstruct) our mental models to accommodate newexperiences.There are several guiding principles of constructivism: 1. Learning is a search for meaning. Therefore, learning must start with the issues around which students are actively trying to construct meaning. 2. Meaning requires understanding wholes as well as parts. And parts must be understood in the

Conference Session

Lean Manufacturing and Integration

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Sheng-Jen Hsieh

competitiveness and productivity in manufacturing. Since projects are often unique,engineers from multiple disciplines need to work closely together in order to design, integrate,and develop robust automated manufacturing systems. The success of the system integrationindustry will increase this country’s production efficiency. Needed is a better understanding ofhow engineers develop expertise in system integration and high quality educational curricula thatwill equip students with the necessary skill sets.ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThis material was supported by a National Science Foundation grant no. 0238269. Anyopinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those ofthe author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the