Conference Session

Tricks of the Trade for Research

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Beverly Davis

willlead to more successful project outcomes. As more researchers divide their time betweeninterdisciplinary projects and traditional disciplinary departments, the academic researchcommunity must learn to accommodate institutionally and professionally what authors Brownand Duguid describe as “networks of practice”. [1]3. The collaborative effort is recognized for its benefits to students, participants, and the community at large served by the institution.Academia typically rewards those who consistently produce publications. However, networks ofpractice or interdisciplinary collaborations are many time longitudinal and require associatedtime and effort. Recognition of these initiatives and support of the institution benefits

Conference Session

Educational Research Initiatives at NSF

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Theo Brower; Meredith Knight; Chris Rogers

Undergraduate Research Teaming Engineers with Non-Engineers Theo Brower, Meredith Knight, Chris Rogers Tufts University AbstractAt Tufts University we have been experimenting with multidisciplinary teams of studentsto solve robotic problems. In particular, we have included a number of non-engineers inthe team. Engineers are often very good at designing a solution to a problem but oftenfall short in the area of human interface and in communication. We have teamed themwith human factors majors and child development majors in an effort to bringengineering into the non-engineering disciplines and to teach engineers how people think,how people

Conference Session

Innovative Curriculum Developments

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Madhumi Mitra; Abhijit Nagchaudhuri

application equipment for seed, fertilizers,and pesticides; irrigation; yield monitors; sensors for detecting soil fertility and weedpopulations; and remote sensing imagery.This paper will report efforts to initiate “precision farming” implementation and researchat University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES).UMES is an 1890 land granthistorically black university and it’s mission is consistent with the goals of the endeavorwhich includes (i) integration of advanced technologies in agricultural practices at UMESwith a view to improve productivity with due emphasis on research, education andoutreach; (ii) environmental stewardship and (iii) remote observation and analysis. Whileall aspects of “Precision Agriculture” will be integrated with the project

Conference Session

Integrating H&SS in Engineering I

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Thanassis Rikakis; Jiping He; Hari Sundaram; Andreas Spanias

An Interdisciplinary Arts and Engineering Initiative for Experiential Multimedia+Thanassis Rikakis, Jiping He, Hari Sundaram, Gang. Qian, and Andreas SpaniasArts Media and Engineering Program (http://ame.asu.edu/), Arizona State UniversityAbstractThe engineering, arts and science disciplines involved in media training, research andeducation at Arizona State University have come together to create the Arts, Media andEngineering (AME) graduate education and research program. The education componentof this program consists of formalized graduate concentrations within existing degreesthat allow faculty and students to combine extensive training in their chosen disciplineoffered through their home department with hybrid engineering-arts

Conference Session

Engineering Economy Frontiers

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Keith Williamson; Carol Considine; Paul Kauffmann; Tarek Abdel-Salam

Session 3542 Privatization Initiatives: A Source for Engineering Economy Case Studies Paul Kauffmann Tarek Abdel-Salam Keith Williamson East Carolina University, Greenville, NC Carol Considine Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VAIntroductionUndergraduate courses in engineering economy provide the opportunity to cover many topicsthat are essential for the career success of practicing engineers. Primary among these areknowledge of cost

Conference Session

IE/EM Skills in Real World Concepts

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Somchan Vuthipadadon; Jie Li; Piyamart Kumsaikaew; Shantha Daniel; Patrick Patterson; John Jackman; K. Jo Min

Education”BiographiesK. JO MIN is Associate Professor and Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies inIMSE Department at ISU. He teaches courses in production systems and market-basedallocation mechanisms. His education research interests include teaching and learning ofglobal enterprise perspectives as well as international student team management andeffectiveness. He is a member of ASEE and IIE.JOHN JACKMAN serves as Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Industrialand Manufacturing Systems Engineering at Iowa State University. He is currentlyworking with other faculty members on the Engineering Learning Portal, an initiative inengineering problem solving. His research work in manufacturing systems and enterprisecomputing has appeared

Conference Session

Improving Multidisciplinary Engineering Education

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

James Farison

ASEE MECC: The Great Story of a Successful Member Initiative Jim Farison Department of Engineering, Baylor UniversityAbstractDr. Joan Gosink, Colorado School of Mines, with help from some other engineering educators,organized a forum at the ASEE 2001 annual conference in Albuquerque, NM, for facultymembers interested and/or involved in multidisciplinary engineering programs. With continuedleadership by Dr. Gosink and others, that initiative has increased its constituency and program ateach of the succeeding ASEE Annual Conferences and has a full program comprising fivetechnical sessions and a business meeting scheduled for the 2005 ASEE Annual Conference inPortland, OR

Conference Session

Energy Program and Software Tools

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Keshav Varde

fuels. Most of the mechanical engineering students have very little research experienceby the time they graduate and even less so in engines, fuels and engine exhaust emissions.To address some of these problems an undergraduate research program was developed andimplemented in the mechanical engineering department. Initially, the program catered to a verysmall number of students seeking to work on research projects in the subject area. However, inthe last two years, the National Science Foundation has been funding the project under itsResearch Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program. The funding allows up to eightstudents from different institutions to work with the faculty and graduate students onexperimental and analytical projects in

Conference Session

TYCD 2005 Lower Division Initiatives

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Elaine Craft; Monica Pfarr; Jack Waintraub

Technology Students (2000) is available on the SC ATEwebsite. In addition, two special recruitment strategies have been developed, one through theATE Scholars initiative and the other is the ET Career Ambassador program.The SC ATE designed workplace research activity helps instructors, particularly those fromgeneral education, understand what students really need to know and be able to do in theworkplace. The activity is designed to be done by interdisciplinary teams and is useful forhelping instructors prioritize instruction. Faculty report that after completing this researchactivity, they can focus on the more valuable skills and knowledge and spend less time oncontent that is not critical for student success.Colleges wanting to adapt and

Conference Session

Lab Experiments & Other Initiatives

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Michael Anderson; Lance Perez; Jerald Varner

Probability and Random Processes”, Proceedings of the 2004 Frontiers in Education Conference, Savannah, GA., October 2004. 3. Creswell, J. W., Research Design: Qualitative \& Quantitative Approaches, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA, 1994. 4. Stevens, F., F. Lawrenz and L. Sharp, User Friendly Handbook for Project Evaluation: Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology Education, NSF 93-152 revised February 1996. 5. Srinivasan, S., Pérez, L. C., Palmer, R. D., Anderson, M. F. and Boye, A. J., “Assessing Laboratory Effectiveness in Undergraduate Electrical Engineering Courses”, Proceedings of the 2003 Frontiers in Education Conference, Boulder, CO., October 2003. 6

Conference Session

Lab Experiments & Other Initiatives

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Frank Claydon; Betty Barr; David Shattuck; Stuart Long; Jennifer Ruchhoeft; Julie Trenor

season (i.e. semester)without losing eligibility. The key element of Redshirt Camp is the creation of a learningcommunity in which students collaborate in small groups on challenging exercises. Topics arenot only intended to strengthen students’ base knowledge in pertinent course-related content (e.g.units, vector calculus, and linear algebra), but are intended to help the students discover andpractice effective learning strategies such as time management and reading comprehension,which they can apply to future coursework, research, and work projects. All entering sophomores and incoming transfer students are invited to participate at nocost to the student. Since many of our students hold part time jobs and taking time off from workcould

Conference Session

TYCD 2005 Lower Division Initiatives

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Mohammad Shanehsaz; Michael Qaissaunee

greater adoption ofmobile technologies are concerns regarding data integrity and wireless network security. Thiswork details creation of a new 2-year degree program in wireless communications that integratessecurity throughout. Security concepts and hands-on experiences are woven into the programitself and within individual courses. This model curriculum will benefit individuals andinstitutions interested in developing similar programs based on regional workforce needs.Key topics include an overview of the current program under development and the expectedevolution that will occur over the next few years. Additionally, the authors share research andinsight into future trends for this new technology; describe the skills needed by this

Conference Session

Lab Experiments & Other Initiatives

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Ali Sekmen

with the TSU students were designed to help foster acollaborative project environment. The results of the TSU student teams efforts were right-on,and enabled the Saturn and EDS team to evaluate several potential solutions to our businessproblem. The CSS experience brought a fresh set of creative ideas to help us solve our businessproblem. We have benefited from our experience with our TSU education partner.”5. ConclusionThis paper describes an elegant way of partnering academic institutions with industries todevelop problem-based projects that improve students’ technical and soft skills for immediateemployment. The DoCS at TSU has successfully completed three (3) such projects and it plansto expand this initiative in future. We plan to expose

Conference Session

Lab Experiments & Other Initiatives

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Chia-Jeng Tseng

CK QN Write Enable CLK Figure 2: A Shift-Register Page 10.517.3 “Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright  2005, American Society for Engineering Education”2.2 Output PresentationWhen the circuit is set to the output mode, a push-button is used to initiate the output display. Ifa binary format is used, an output vector can be displayed using bar-graph LEDs. If the BCDformat, which is more user-friendly, is preferred, the output data should be converted into a BCDrepresentation. Starting

Conference Session

Lab Experiments & Other Initiatives

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Paolo Tamayo; David Florida; Ramakrishna Gottipati; Janos Grantner

are discussed in the paper in detail. In the first part of the paper, we briefly outline the key concepts to develop a verificationmethodology for teaching and research in the digital systems design area. The second and thirdsections of the paper focus on the test bench and provide for a few examples on how to use it. Page 10.462.1The fourth part of the paper concludes with a future assessment plan.“Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering Education”1. Introduction The main focus of

Conference Session

Integrating Mathematics and Engineering

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Ranjith Munasinghe

Multidisciplinary Research Projects for Engineering Students Ranjith A. Munasinghe Department of Mathematics West Virginia University Institute of Technology Montgomery, WV 25136 rmunasinghe@wvutech.eduIntroduction Undergraduate engineering students learn calculus during the first three semesters incollege. Most of the calculus topics are taught as abstract concepts without any science orengineering applications. It is not any better in other classes such as differential equations andlinear algebra. Students are asked to solve algebraic and differential equations

Conference Session

Writing and Communication II

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Luke Niiler; David Beams

the current study.Sommers’ four-year study of student writers from across the disciplines notes that “students whomake the greatest gains as writers throughout college (1) initially accept their status as novicesand (2) see in writing a larger purpose than fulfilling an assignment” (p. 124). Carroll suggeststhat writing proficiency develops throughout the course of a student’s academic career asstudents assume new tasks—new roles—as writers, and not in a single freshman coursesequence. Sternglass’ study of at-risk students enrolled at CCNY, with its provocativeframework of richly detailed case studies, offers a strong example in qualitative methodology.These researchers’ findings are intriguing—in them it is possible to see the limits of

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Michael Alley; Jenny Lo; Bevlee Watford

Session 1526 Promoting Undergraduate Research by Creating a Research Option in a Technical Communication Course: Initial Project Phase* Michael Alley, Jenny Lo, and Bevlee Watford Engineering Education Department Virginia TechAbstract Although many institutions such as the National Science Foundation, the AmericanAssociation for the Advancement of Science, and the National Research Council have called formore undergraduate research, incorporating significant research experiences into undergraduateengineering

Conference Session

Undergraduate Retention Activities

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Kerry Kinney; Tricia Berry

pre and post-program surveys indicates that the program has increased the proportion of undergraduateparticipants interested in pursing a graduate education. As for the graduate students who serve asmentors in the program, over 60% of the participants report an improvement in their teachingand communication skills as a result of the program. The GLUE program has become anintegral retention and career development initiative for WEP and the College of Engineering atUT Austin and several improvements are planned for the Spring 2005 program.IntroductionAlthough The University of Texas at Austin has an excellent graduate program in engineering,many of our undergraduate students know very little about the research going on at ouruniversity

Conference Session

Integrating Research into Teaching

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Nicole LaRocque; Terri Lynch-Caris

Integrating Physical Fitness Research into the Ergonomics Classroom Terri Lynch-Caris, Nicole LaRocque Kettering UniversityAbstractThe intent of this paper is to describe the integration of a research project into theergonomics classroom. The class evaluated a personal strength assistant device that ismeant to increase core and upper body strength. The entire ergonomics class of 19students worked on the group research project and final write-up. The experimentalgroup in the research project was comprised of members of the ergonomics class while acontrol group was assembled consisting of students outside the class. A strengthimprovement device was used for a maximum of five

Conference Session

Sustainability Issues

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Patricia Mosto; Gina Tang; Courtney Richmond; Joseph Orlins; Catherine Yang; Demond Miller; Beena Sukumaran; Kauser Jahan; Anthony Marchese; Mariano Savelski; Paris von Lockette; Stephanie Farrell; Yusuf Mehta; William Riddell

for three consecutive summers. Theinitiative is based on current global initiatives to integrate sustainability into the science andengineering curriculum. Students need to be exposed to enriching experiences that require themto have concerns for human conditions and the environment that are conservative and protective.The REU site allows eleven undergraduates to participate in pollution prevention andsustainability research activities at Rowan University for eight weeks during the summer.Engineering and science faculty participate in mentoring activities along with Rowanundergraduate and graduate students. Social building skills such as community outreachseminars, workshops, social picnics, field trips and communication strengthening

Conference Session

ME Education Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Scott Kiefer; Nihad Dukhan

were either self-motivated, were paid a stipend, or they obtained course Page 10.253.2credits for participating in the research program. Some students combined two or all threeadvantages. The funding was available through an undergraduate research initiative provided by Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright  2005, American Society for Engineering EducationNASA that provided two hundred dollars per student for buying materials and eight hundreddollars as a student salary per semester. Managing the students was challenging at times. It

Conference Session

Building New Communities

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Kimberley R. Breaux; Heidi Loshbaugh; Ruth Streveler

for the research staff.Because of the need to have protocols in place before data collection could begin and the relativeneed to have chronological parallels in data acquisition, CSM could not begin data collectionbefore research subjects were in place at the collaborating institutions. Thus, students at CSMagreed to participate but then waited for several weeks before the study actually began. Thedelay resulted in one male student choosing not to participate in APS and several otherscontacting the study coordinator to see why they had not been involved in a study activity. Fourstudents in the Control group voted with their feet: they disappeared and were never heard fromagain.After the initial recruiting sessions, to maintain participant

Conference Session

Engineers & Mathematicians Communicating

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Zack Bowles; Philippe E. Tissot; Jeremy Flores; G. Beate Zimmer; Alexey L. Sadovski; Carl Steidley

involvement of undergraduate students in applied mathematics research. The TexasA&M University-Corpus Christi Division of Nearshore Research manages a network of about 50coastal observation stations including the Texas Coastal Observation Network. As part of thenetwork operation a number of environmental time series are collected and archived leading todata analysis, quality control and modeling opportunities for applied mathematicians. This paperdiscusses an example of the results of the involvement of a student in an applied mathematicsresearch project. The student is a freshman in mathematics who caught attention by doing well inAdvanced Calculus. The student’s initial assignment is to investigate whether a change in theperformance function

Conference Session

Multidisciplinary Engineering Courses II

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Katie Sullivan

the state of Utah’s Early College High School Initiative. As the first of sixspecialized high schools across the state, AMES focuses on a rigorous pre-engineeringcurriculum that connects traditionally underserved students both to the Utah CoreCurriculum in preparation for a high school diploma as well as the rigors of college as apartner with the University of Utah. 3 There is also a mixture of undergraduate andgraduate students taking the course. The researchers hope that this research will glean insight into how high schoolstudents experience college, how interdisciplinary students communicate in teams and howscientific tasks are accomplished in relation to the process of teamwork. Answers to thesequestions might also show how

Conference Session

Building New Communities

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Karl Smith; Ronald Miller; Ruth Streveler

veryinformally, and may require years to fully establish. It is useful for these discussions to befocused on the creation of a common task. In this case the discussion was centered around thejoint creation of workshops on engineering education research (which eventually became theRREE workshops). Buy-in from the core groups of the partner communities is essential, andtherefore the project must be viewed as benefiting not only the initial CoP, but the partner groupsas well. Page 10.568.3Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition Copyright © 2005, American

Conference Session

Assessment & Quality; Accreditation in Engineering Education

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Johan W Joubert; Dolf Steyn

Assessment as the driver behind operationalising operations research teaching Dr. AB (Dolf) Steyn & Mr. JW (Johan) Joubert University of Pretoria Pretoria, South AfricaABSTRACT: Assessment is often viewed as a nasty afterthought to quantify learning. A cycleof action research and repeated adaptations to a semester project course at the University ofPretoria in South Africa indicate that the assessment process does, in fact, guide and enhance thelearning experience. This paper reports on a case where a project was used to address relevancyissues of industrial engineering practitioners of operations research. A

Conference Session

New Trends in Graduate Education

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Robert Stiegler; Ernest McDuffie; Robert Kavetsky; Eugene Brown

revitalizing the S&T base in the Navy’s Warfare Centers. He is a mechanical engineeringgraduate of Catholic University, and has worked in the fields of hypersonic aerodynamics, explosives, underseawarheads, and mine countermeasures.ERNEST L. MCDUFFIE -- Dr. McDuffie is an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at theFlorida State University and is currently on assignment to the Office of Naval Research, where he is deputy directorof the N-STAR initiative. His career in federal service has included service as an electronic intelligence operationsspecialist for the National Security Agency and a program director for the National Science Foundation.ROBERT L. STIEGLER -- Mr. Stiegler is currently supporting the USMC Targeting and

Conference Session

Mentoring Graduate Students

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Michele Miller

apply to solvingproblems in the lab. For example, in solving ill-defined problems, a useful strategy is to startwith a graphical representation of what is known and unknown. Many brainteasers give practicein making assumptions and inferences to reveal more “knowns” than was initially apparent.Case StudiesSeveral cases were discussed based on experiences with graduate students in my research lab. Acommon problem is noisy data. I discussed one particular graph of noisy force data and the stepsthat the student took to investigate and eliminate the sources of noise. Another case involvedhardware that didn’t seem to be operating properly. I described the unusual behavior that caughtthe student’s attention and then the steps we went through to

Conference Session

ECE Lab Development and Innovations

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Peter Idowu

electronics.1. Introduction The merits of involving engineering undergraduates in research have been widelydiscussed in engineering journals. It has been suggested that such an initiative may help thestudent become more passionate about the subject, create appreciation for research processand practice, improve problem-solving skills or even serve as motivation for furthereducation in graduate school1-3. Furthermore, it allows advanced students an opportunity tobe exposed to challenging and realistic engineering problems they may encounter in postgraduation work. In some cases, the students participate directly in a funded research thatholds significant benefit to all participants – students, faculty, and the university4. Thegrowing recognition