Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Bryan Pfaffenberger; Susan Carlson-Skalak; John P. O'Connell; Timothy P. Scott; Mark A. Shields

Introduction writing course, TCC 101. A course required of all incoming first-year students (save those withThroughout the US, engineering educators are ex- advanced placement credit), TCC 101 is taught byperimenting with the first-year E-school curriculum- faculty of SEA's Division of Technology, Culture,-and with good reason. With the population of engi- and Communication, a service unit that is housedneering freshmen declining more than 26 percent within SEAS and committed to supporting thebetween 1982 and 1994, attrition is a concern. How engineering curriculum.can the first-year curriculum do a better job ofhelping students cope with

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Ph.D., Robert D. Borchelt

is offered every third semester at present. This is a laboratory-oriented course in which the students workas a team to design and develop working automated manufacturing cells involving machining and/or assemblytasks. Students are required to design and build the appropriate fixtures, robot grippers, electronic systems,etc. and write the complete protocol and software for the machining/assembly operation. In the early weeks ofthe course, the laboratory work involves primarily “demonstration” experiments to acquaint students with thelarger hardware available in the laboratory. This equipment includes robots, machine tools and programmablecontrollers, as well as the appropriate programming and control software needed to utilize them

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

III, John J. Bausch; Fredric M. Gold

by acquainting students with new processes and tools. It requires students tounderstand not only the fundamentals of engineering science but also to be able to apply what they knowto “real” problems and issues. Most undergraduates attend the university for four or five years, and it isnot possible to teach the students everything that they might need to know in that time period. Thefundamentals of tool and fixture design is an area that has not been emphasized in undergraduateeducation. Fixturing is one of the least understood and yet most fundamental of manufacturing processes.Undergraduate and graduate students from Worcester Polytechnic Institute(WPI) have been on site atPratt and Whitney Aircraft (PWA) in North Haven, CT., working on

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Stephen J. Ressler

undergraduate engineering students; and teaching these topics effectively is an equally daunting challenge for the engineering mechanics educator. In my experience, the fundamental problem with teaching (and learning) stress transformation is that students just don’t see it. With time and practice, they learn to solve problems. They master the equations, sign conventions, and graphical solution techniques. But, their mastery of these skills notwithstanding, many students do not truly understand and internalize the fundamental concepts: . that the two-dimensional state of stress at a point is uniquely defined by the normal and shear stresses acting on any two orthogonal planes passed

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Maria Gini

chosen these topics as the sources of projects because of theirinterdisciplinary nature and because they provide a wide variety of problems where system integration,communication, and cooperation are important. This effort is intended to: motivate the study of advanced applied mathematics by demonstrating its importance to solving real world problems; teach students how to build complete systems (as opposed to write isolated programs; allow them to experiment with the object oriented programming paradigms they learn in class for a variety of complex problems; expose students to application areas (Virtual Reality, 3D modeling for manufacturing, graphical interfaces, real time operating systems, etc. ) where new

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Joseph J. Strano

Jersey Institute of Technology (N. J. I. T.) an ongoing process of integrating design into thefreshman program has continued. The first step of this process was the development of a required one- “semester course, namely Fundamentals of Engineering Design (FED-101). This paper discusses the elec- ‘ This project is related to the Gateway Engineering Education Coalition, (NSF Award EEC-9444246), which is Page 1.166.1 supported in part by the Engineering Education and Centers Division of the National Science Foundation. $iiii’ ) 1996 ASEE Annual Conference Proceedings

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Alan D. George

important techniques that are often used are specialized arithmetic hardware for high-speedcalculations, multiple buses for parallel memory access, and internal pipelining for parallel execution of instructions. Perhaps the most fundamental characteristic of DSPs is their incorporation and integration of high-performance hardwaremultipliers and adders. Most devices are capable of performing a multiply-accumulate (i.e. a simultaneous multiply and addition) ina single instruction cycle, often concurrently with other operations such as instruction and data fetch. DSPs can be categorized bythe method used for arithmetic storage and manipulation, either fixed-point or floating-point. While fixed-point systems are simpler

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Richard D. Swope; J. Paul Giolma

being far different from even the highest order ofartisanship. He expected us to prove ourselves scientists...” 1 Following the Allied victory in World War II, other fundamental changes began to take place inengineering education. References to the National Science Foundation (NSF) became frequent in engineeringliterature. In 1950, a paper in The Journal of Engineering Education expressed the view that “Under theimpact of modern science... the necessary link between the ‘fundamentals’ and ‘applications’ is often missingin the instruction.” 2 In 1953, the Committee on Evaluation of Engineering Education recommended forengineering undergraduates, a greater emphasis on basic sciences with design integrated over the last twoyears.3

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Scott R. Short

support of funding from the National Science Foundation’sInstrumentation and Laboratory Improvement Grant Program and the State of Illinois, a laboratory sectionhas been added to the materials science course. Our students will now gain direct, hands-on, laboratoryexperience about the relationship between the processing, structure, properties, and performance ofengineering materials. This paper discusses the requirements of the laboratory, the equipment procured, theoverall laboratory layout, and the experiments to be performed.Introduction A fundamental knowledge of materials science and engineering is critical to the success of industriesthat are important to the strength of the U.S. economy and U.S. defensel. American industry has noted

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Russell J. Deaton; Michael J. Bartz

hours. Every Honors student in the department is required to successfully complete the two courses listed below. (a) ELEC 4998 (Honors Research Studies) In order to do scholarly work in engineering, at least a year is required to identify a topic, do background research, do experiments or research, and write a thesis. This course will immediately precede the ELEC 4999 (Honors Thesis). The student will work with his Honors Thesis advisor to identify and do background work on their topic. A formal write-up on background and preliminary work is required as a lead-in to the formal thesis. (b) ELEC 4999 (Honors Thesis) Under the direction of a faculty member, a student writes a thesis

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Lucian P. Fabiano

, they receive instruction on design reviews and on calling and conducting meetings. This includes instruction on developing and writing an agenda, methodologies on facilitating meetings, identifying problems and action items, and on taking and documenting the meeting minutes. All of these activities are highlighted as critical aspects of successful project management. THE PROJECT DEVELOPMENT TRIANGLE In order for students to develop project management skills they must first understand the basic parameters by which a project can be developed. Emphasis is put on development of a project with regard to three basic project parameters: 1

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Lawrence Genalo

effects of the changes were almost exclusively seen in a local-area-network of classrooms in the Engineering Fundamentals Division at Iowa State. Access to the courseware from the ISU dorms was difficult, and from off-campus it was impossible. Dissemination in such an environment is difficult as the interested parties meet several roadblocks and become discouraged in attempts to avail themselves of the material. Throughout all the years of changes, some major and most minor, the course has been taught to a large audience (more than 500 students per semester) by many instructors in multiple sections. This created the need for tracking the uniformity of the learning experience for our students from one section or semester to the next. Common exams

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Thomas M. Lahey; Thomas D. L. Walker

engineering. The failure ofthese languages to rise to prominence is probably due to many factors but the following would be amongthem:• they were not designed and used by practicing engineers• FORTRAN serves engineers and scientists quite well What if engineering instructors with multiple language experience got together and designed anideal language, from both a practical and pedagogical viewpoint? How would they do it? Probably theywould discuss the idea with colleagues and write a list of requirements. The authors did our version ofthat and here is our list, prioritized from the top down (just as in good programming style).• The language must be modern, i.e., modern programming concepts are available, e.g., objects, encapsulation

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

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

1rarely lead to any fundamental understanding . Schon goes on to suggest an epistemology of “knowing-in-action,” or “tacit knowledge,” should be the new form of scholarship. To implement this type of learning experience at the University of Maryland, we enlisted the aidof local industry for help by opening up their manufacturing site for student projects. The polymermanufacturing/processing industry is a logical candidate for this type of University-Industrycollaboration, as it is common to have various small polymer processing companies Page 1.268.1 $iii’ ) 1996 ASEE Annual Conference Proceedings

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Troy E. Kostek

connectedvia a LAN) can communicate with one another using DDE. With the large variety of Windows-based dataacquisition and control software available, DDE plays a vital role in the integration of today’s automatedmanufacturing systems. As educators of students that will be entering the complex world of automatedmanufacturing, it is important to introduce the concepts of DDE and to teach how DDE can be used as anintegration tool. This paper describes the fundamentals of DDE and provides two case studies of how DDEis used as an integration tool in laboratory-based manufacturing courses at Purdue University. .-. Clients and Servers In any one particular DDE conversation, there is one server (also called

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Michael L. Smith; Mary R. Marlino; Jeff V. Kouri; D. Neal Barlow; A. George Havener

instead of a sequence ofclassroom lectures, the pedagogical setting for student teams is an Air Force System Program Office responsiblefor design and deployment of a manned research base on Mars. Instruction follows the Socratic method whereinstudents are guided to identify the relevant tasks and engineering requirements pertinent to the plan. Traditionalinstruction is used sparingly to present specific tools and concepts. Quantitative assessment data from the firstoffering are encouraging because a significant improvement in the students’ ability to frame and resolve ill-defined problems (a priority outcome) has been measured. Qualitative assessment-findings show that thestudents learned important engineering fundamentals, liked the course and

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

William Peterson

course was taught by the author (using [2]) to a small class of ten students -nine industrial engineering juniors and seniors and one business student. While the course's objective was todevelop competency in the fundamentals of industrial marketing, the course was easily presented in such amanner as to address the benefits listed in the previous paragraph. A third option is to present the marketingmaterial in an abreviated form in a project management course. While this option provides the least exposure,it is probably the most readily useable method given the credit crunch seen in most programs today. Thisauthor covers the basic maketing theory and its uses in selling the solution in four seventyfive-minute blockswhich are divided equally

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Arup K. Mallik; Sanjiv Sarin

Engineering Economy: A Two-Step Approach to Energy and Environmental Strategies Arup K. Mallik Sanjiv Sarin 419 McNair Hall North Carolina A&T State University Greensboro, NC 27411 Abstract This paper proposes a two-course sequence to introduce the fundamental concepts andapplications of engineering economy. The main idea being explored in this paper is to introducediscipline-specific case studies and their analysis using

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

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

and teaching schedules were closelycoordinated to ensure that students were provided with proper mathematics background for physics lectures. Totrain students to work in teams and to enhance leadership, homework assignments were worked out by studentsin groups of four and students took turns serving as leader. Each leader met weekly with the instructor andwould convey the results of this discussion to team members.3) Technical Writing/ English In the first semester, this course reviews the fundamentals of English grammar and composition, with anemphasis on analysis of text, basic scientific research, and the evaluation and presentation of argument andevidence. Recognizing the intimate connection between distinguished academic writing

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

F. Coowar; Rosida Coowar

engineering freshmen are discussed. A simulation exercise centering on a visit to alarge industrial concern and “non-traditional” laboratory experiments are described.1. IntroductionThe development of any curriculum involves addressing such fundamentals issues as what should the studentsbe helped to learn, the learning experiences that should be provided for them to learn and how these learningexperiences can be organized to maximize their cumulative effects [1]. In Engineering Education, the endproduct sought is a student who has the ability to inquire independently and to be critical.The concept of engineering rests on the basic premise that many problems associated with the well-being of thecommunity must first be resolved through analytical

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Benjamin 'Quincy' Cabell VI; Javed Alam; Joseph Rencis, University of Arkansas

, Inc. [10]. Java hasbeen tailored specifically for networked computing, such as that which takes place on the Internet. Languagessuch as C++, Pascal, and FORTRAN require extensive libraries and experienced programmers to achieve thesame degree of networked functionality. Any program that is written in Java can run on any computer as long asthe “Java Virtual Machine” is inside. The Java Virtual Machine is real standard for an imaginary machine. Thestandard reflects the basic capability of all computer platforms (all CPUS as well as all operating systems). WithJava, a programmer no longer writes code for a particular real platform but instead for this imaginary computer

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Z. T. Bieniawski

salaries and expenses of a system of “laboratcxy units” - each typically consisting of five persons: fullprofessor, associate professor, post-doe, secretary and technician. Also included am students (some onfellowships but most self-supporting): 2 Ph. D.’s, 5 MS, and 2-3 undergraduates (writing their final year thesis).Professors may not consult for private gain (bt5ng state employees) but may direct consulting fees to improve Page 1.249.3 ----- .-their laboratories and obtain support for travel, supplies, and graduate and undergraduate students. They do nothave=~n[” for research grants as in the USA. Teaching is not

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Mohammad M. Asoodeh; Carl W. Steidley

experiences to begin toapproach “real world” conditions, that is, we wanted to provide students with access to the “inner workings” of acommercially available microcomputing system. However, we were constrained by our clientele in that these are“liberal arts” software engineering/computer science majors who have experience writing programs, have solidmathematics backgrounds, but have little or no electronics background save the Computer Architecture coursementioned above. [3,5]Robotic Software Svstems During the original planning stages for this laboratory we envisioned using the lab to support a Real-TimeSoflware Systems course. While we may use this lab for this purpose, we have been successfld in findingexternal support for a laboratory to

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

William H. Jermann

information, turning in assignments both on floppy Page 1.462.1internet $iiii?’ } 1996 ASEE Annual Conference Proceedings ‘O,.,llyc: .disks and via electronic mail, using the Schematics version ofPspice both as a CAD tool and for network analysis, and evendeveloping and running a few C programs. In this course students develop skills that can yield bothsteady-state and transient solutions to complicated networkconfigurations. Yet, it is doubtful that they have muchunderstanding of network principles, and surely could not write aset of state equations whose solution yields the dynamic responseof

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Steven Widmer

obvious for another. When discussing technical subjects donot be afraid to repeat yourself or start at the beginning. Back-up and re-work the front end of the problemregardless of how fundamental it may seem. I find professors that have taught a course several years or knowthe subject matter by heart tend to ignore what they believe to be the “obvious”. Remember to start at thebeginning and explain the obvious.Details. Details. Details . . . . . . Details are boring . . . . . at least to the young. There are details in the homework, details in the reading,details in problem format, details in writing and details in the course logistics. What do professors usually tellall students when they do poorly on a assignment because they ignored

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

John A. Fillo

) industrial exposure. 1) Communication Skills. This is an issue that has been identified to be addressed in the undergraduateeducation of engineering students. The practicing engineer is called upon to make verbal presentations, usingoverheads or their equivalents using the laptop computer, and to communicate through the written word. Thisis independent of the level of education, be it bachelors, masters, or Ph.D. In the context of education we findour students making verbal presentation in classes. There has been an increased awareness and attention beingpaid to tectilcal writing, e.g., lab reports, project reports and so on. At what level, though, are we dealing with communication skills? We still hear complaints about theengineering

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Vipin Kumar; Miguel Torres; Jens Jorgensen; John Lamancusa

constructed, and the design and societalconsiderations that determine the difference between successand failure in the marketplace. The primary objectives of thiscourse are to develop a basic aptitude for engineering andengineering design, and to develop mental visualizationskills; by examination of the design and manufacture ofconsumer and industrial products. This course is intended tocomplement engineering science and mathematics coursesand to show freshman or sophomore level students howthese fundamentals relate to engineering practice. The Engine Dissectioncourse is modular and consists of self-standing dissection modules on: bicycle, electric drill, four stroke engine,Funsaver disposable camera, and telephone. This paper describes the

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Michael S. Leonard; Donald E. Beasley; D. Jack Elzinga

fundamentals of engineering theory, experimentation,and practice. Engineering curricula must also be relevant and attractive to stakeholders such as faculty,students, parents, alumni, and employers of curriculum graduates. One way of assuring relevance andattractiveness is to use strategic planning as a driving force for curriculum renewal. There are four basic components of strategic planning in any setting: scope, resource deployments,competitive advantages, and synergy7. Related to engineering curriculum renewal, these componentscorrespond to the environmental opportunities and concerns associated with the specific engineering departmentunder study and the discipline specialties and subspecialties of the faculty, the curriculum changes

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Sylvia D. Pifion; Elsa Q. Villa; Connie Kubo Della-Piana

) which is now a required, one-week, non-credit, 40contact-hour program for all first-time entering freshmen into the College. Students are immersed in mathematics,college survival skills, advising, and engineering design. The underlying objective of SEEE is to create an environment for entering students which is supportive bothacademically and socially. UTEP is for the most part a commuter university which elicits many challenges inprogram delivery. In particular, students must have the opportunity to develop a strong sense of community withfaculty, professional staff, and students. In this paper, the fundamental SEEE program components will be discussed in detail with a particularemphasis on the cooperative learning aspects of

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Stephen J. Ressler; Thomas Lenox

computer skills, as well as their desire forcontinued intellectual and professional growth.Fundamentals of Engineering Examination results. At US MA, all students enrolled in ABET -accreditedengineering programs are required to take the FE exam. The exam results provide a consistent and thoroughlyobjective basis for assessing how well students understand the fundamental concepts of engineering.USMA Survey of Graduating Seniors. This survey is administered annually to all graduating seniors, regardlessof major. It is used by USMA to assess the extent to which the institution’s Academic Program Goals have beenachieved. Because the civil engineering program objectives derive directly from the USMA Academic ProgramGoals, data from this survey are