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Active Engineering Education Modules: A Summary of Recent Research Findings

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Conference

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Seattle, Washington

Publication Date

June 14, 2015

Start Date

June 14, 2015

End Date

June 17, 2015

ISBN

978-0-692-50180-1

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

NSF Grantees’ Poster Session

Tagged Topic

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Page Count

22

Page Numbers

26.145.1 - 26.145.22

DOI

10.18260/p.23484

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/23484

Download Count

626

Paper Authors

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Ashland O. Brown University of the Pacific

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Ashland O. Brown, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, University of the Pacific
He has served as dean of engineering for ten years at both the University of the Pacific and South Carolina State University and headed engineering groups at Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. The engineering groups included a product design section composed of product analysis engineers finite element analysis experts and product development engineers. He has taught engineering courses for over twenty years in thermodynamics, solar engineering, graphics, dynamics, machine design, and finite elements methods at the University of the Pacific. He has over fifty referred technical research publications, and conference papers with twelve in the areas of finite element learning modules with two recently accepted referred engineering journal papers covering the results of this NSF research on finite element active learning modules.

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Daniel D. Jensen U.S. Air Force Academy

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Dr. Dan Jensen is a Professor of Engineering Mechanics at the U.S. Air Force Academy where he has been since 1997. He received his B.S. (Mechanical Engineering), M.S. (Applied Mechanics) and Ph.D. (Aerospace Engineering Science) from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He has worked for Texas Instruments, Lockheed Martin, NASA, University of the Pacific, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and MSC Software Corp. His research includes design of Micro Air Vehicles, development of innovative design methodologies and enhancement of engineering education. Dr Jensen has authored over 100 refereed papers and has been awarded over $4 million of research grants.

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Paul Henry Schimpf Eastern Washington University

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Paul H. Schimpf received the B.S.E.E (summa cum laude), M.S.E.E., and Ph.D.
degrees from the University of Washington, Seattle, in 1982, 1987, and 1995,
respectively. Dr. Schimpf began his academic career in 1998, and is currently a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Eastern Washington University, Cheney, WA, USA. His research interests include numerical methods for forward and inverse solutions to partial differential equations with biomedical
applications. Prior to his academic career, Dr. Schimpf was employed as a
Senior Principal Design Engineer in the electronics industry, where he
enjoyed 15 years of experience developing parallel embedded signal and image
processing systems.

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Richard H. Crawford University of Texas, Austin

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Dr. Richard H. Crawford is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin and is the Temple Foundation Endowed Faculty Fellow No. 3. He is also Director of the Design Projects program in Mechanical Engineering. He received his BSME from Louisiana State University in 1982, and his MSME in 1985 and Ph.D. in 1989, both from Purdue University. He teaches mechanical engineering design and geometry modeling for design. Dr. Crawford’s research interests span topics in computer-aided mechanical design and design theory and methodology. Dr. Crawford is co-founder of the DTEACh program, a ”Design Technology” program for K-12, and is active on the faculty of the UTeachEngineering program that seeks to educate teachers of high school engineering.

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Ismail I Orabi University of New Haven

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Professor Orabi received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Cairo Institute of Technology (now Helwan University), in 1975, his M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo, in 1982, and his Ph.D. degree from Clarkson University, in 1987.
Dr. Orabi conducts theoretical and computational research in mechanical vibrations and dynamic systems and control. His more than 25 papers span a wide spectrum of problems in the dynamics of systems and structures. Dr. Orabi has also been involved in developing schemes for vibration control of space structures during the lift off and in orbit.
Professor Orabi has taught courses in both undergraduate and graduate level Mechanical Vibrations and undergraduate level capstone design courses, thermodynamics, Measurement Systems, Engineering Mechanics and Introduction to Engineering. One of Professor Orabi's most recent projects involves the development of learning modules. These modules provide undergraduate engineering students with improved learning of basic, conceptually-difficult engineering concepts in the context of a basic knowledge of finite element analysis.

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Kyle A. Watson University of the Pacific

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Kyle Watson earned his B.S. in mechanical engineering from Villanova University and his M.S. and
Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from North Carolina State University. He has been a faculty member at
the University of the Pacific since 2003 and has taught undergraduate courses in thermodynamics, heat
transfer, combustion, air-conditioning, dynamics, and senior capstone design.

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Jiancheng Liu University of the Pacific

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Dr. Jiancheng Liu is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of the Pacific. Dr. Liu’s research experience and teaching interest have been in the areas of machine design and manufacturing engineering, with specific focuses on CNC machine tool design, mechanical micro machining, cutting process, flexible manufacturing system automation, sensing and control technology, and intelligent CAM technology. With his many years’ experience in industry and universities, Dr. Liu has published over 90 technical journals and conference papers. He was awarded four patents. Many of his research results have been successfully implemented as commercial products or practically applied. Among his many honors is the Industrial LEAD Award from SME.

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Kathy Schmidt Jackson Pennsylvania State University, University Park

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Kathy Jackson is a Senior Research Associate at Pennsylvania State University’s Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence. In this position, she promotes Penn State’s commitment to enriching teaching and learning. Dr.Jackson works in all aspects of education including faculty development, instructional design, engineering education, learner support, and evaluation.

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Chuan-Chiang Chen California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

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Chuan-Chiang Chen is a Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona since 2009. He earned his B.S. degree from National ChiaoTung University, Taiwan, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Ohio State University, all in the field of mechanical engineering. Prior to joining Cal Poly Pomona, he was an Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Tuskegee University. His teaching and research interests include solid mechanics, system dynamics, measurements, acoustics, and vibrations.

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Firas Akasheh Tuskegee University

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Dr. Akasheh has been with the Mechanical Engineering Department at Tuskegee University since 2008. His primary interest is in the area of solid mechanics and manufacturing as well as the integration of best practices in engineering education.

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Michael Orr The University of Texas at Austin

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Kevin Leigh Webster Jr.

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George Turvey Graduate Research Assistant

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Graduating mechanical engineer pursuing blended MSES/BS degree at the University of the Pacific in Stockton CA. Coop experience at Gallo Winery in Modesto CA working in package qualification.

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Mouchumi Bhattacharyya

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Abstract

Active Engineering Education Modules: A Summary of Recent Research FindingsAbstractThe landscape of contemporary engineering education is ever changing, adapting and evolving.Finite element theory and application has often been the focus of graduate-level courses inengineering programs; however, industry needs bachelor's-level engineering graduates to haveskills in applying this essential analysis and design technique. Recognizing this need, we usedthe Kolb Learning Cycle as a conceptual framework to improve student learning of difficultengineering concepts, and to gain essential knowledge of finite element analysis (FEA) anddesign content knowledge.Originally developed using MSC PATRAN-Nastran, followed by development efforts inSolidWorks Simulation, ANSOFT, ANSYS, and other commercial FEA software packages, ateam of researchers, with National Science Foundation support, have created over twenty-eightactive learning modules which use Finite Element software to enhance learning throughinteractive analysis, perturbation studies and visualization. We will discuss the implementationof these learning modules which have been incorporated into undergraduate courses coveringtopics such as machine design, mechanical vibrations, heat transfer, bioelectrical engineering,electromagnetic field analysis, structural fatigue analysis, computational fluid dynamics, rocketdesign, chip formation during manufacturing, and large scale deformation in machining.This update on research findings includes statistical results for each module which compareperformance on pre- and post-learning module quizzes to gauge change in student knowledgerelated to the challenging engineering concepts that each module addresses. Statisticallysignificant student performance gains provide evidence of module effectiveness divided out bygender and ethnic groups. In addition, we present statistical comparisons between differentpersonality types (based on Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, MBTI subgroups) and differentlearning styles (based on Felder-Solomon ILS subgroups) in regards to the average gains eachsubgroup of students has made on quiz performance. Although exploratory, and generally basedon small sample sizes at this point in our multi-year formative evaluation process, the moduleswith subgroup differences are found are being carefully reviewed in an attempt to determinewhether modifications should be made to better ensure equitable impact of the module acrossstudents from specific ethnic , gender, personality and /or learning styles subgroups (e.g. MBTIIntuitive versus Sensing; ILS Sequential versus Global). 1  

Brown, A. O., & Jensen, D. D., & Schimpf, P. H., & Crawford, R. H., & Orabi, I. I., & Watson, K. A., & Liu, J., & Jackson, K. S., & Chen, C., & Akasheh, F., & Orr, M., & Webster, K. L., & Turvey, G., & Bhattacharyya, M. (2015, June), Active Engineering Education Modules: A Summary of Recent Research Findings Paper presented at 2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Seattle, Washington. 10.18260/p.23484

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