Collection

2007 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Qiong Zhang; Dana Johnson; James R. Mihelcic

Sectional Conferenceinterdisciplinary research is critical for students to grasp the concept of sustainability and applyits principles to solve real-world problems.This paper describes a project sponsored by an industrial company through the SustainableFutures Institute (SFI) at Michigan Technological University (hereafter referred to as “MichiganTech”). This example project demonstrates how research in sustainability can stimulateinterdisciplinary collaboration and how experiences gained from collaboration betweenengineering and non-engineering students contributed to the discovery of new knowledge and theimprovement of graduate student learning in sustainability.MethodsInterdisciplinary collaboration through the institutional

Collection

2007 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Hetal Jasani

PCF mechanism to improve theperformance of real time applications over WLAN.Task Assigned:Student use OPNET modeler to observe that with the initial configuration of the wireless LAN(under DCF mode only), the performance of the network is not satisfactory for “voice” clients.Student enable PCF mode on the access point and configure the voice clients as “contention-free-period pollable” stations. Simulation is run to evaluate the performance of the wireless LANunder new configuration for the clients of voice application and other (non-real-time)applications. Students observe the different network characteristics to solidify and conclude theeffect of PCF in 802.11 based wireless networks. Figure 4 OPNET Network Model

Collection

2007 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Kurtis G. Paterson

transferbetween the economically developing world and the industrialized world. It also impactsstudents’ understanding of appropriate technology, engineering equality, and socialjustice. This paper presents the program design, student participation, and lessons learnedto date.2. Program DesignThe four main goals of this CBL experience are: (1) to provide engineering studentsexperience working on diverse teams, (2) to produce engineers with a better sense of thesocietal and global interconnections of engineering works, (3) to enhance the real-worldproblem-solving and research capabilities of students, and (4) to work with developingcommunities on appropriate sustainable solutions to environmental problems.Three student teams, each composed of two American

Collection

2007 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

William S. Helton; Michele H. Miller; Robert Pastel

perceived as barriers can become bridges. The detailedtraining and knowledge that CS students, for example, have of the computer systemenables them to recognize the difference between a system error and a usability problem.Their detailed knowledge of the computer system also empowers them to develop newdevices and interaction techniques. All CS students become bored with the mundanepractice of programming without a purpose that they experience in most of their coursesand appreciate programming with a purpose that they experience in the HCI course.Psychology students also thrill at the idea of finally being able to deploy what they havelearned in other courses in the real world. They feel pride that they can also make gooddesign contributions

Collection

2007 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Peter J. Cattelino; Lynn A. Artman; Susan Amato-Henderson; John B. Lehman; Brian Hannon

why students are losing interest in STEM education,some ideas include lack of preparation in middle and high school and the rigors of college majorsin these fields. In teacher focus groups conducted at the YES! Expo 2006 a major themeemerged that students are looking for relevance and an opportunity to explore how STEM classeswill prepare them for their careers. Yet teachers reported that course work is disconnected fromthe application of that knowledge as applied in the workplace.Without a skilled technical workforce and the innovations and new products they create, ournation’s economy will be in jeopardy, leading to a lower standard of living. The scientific andtechnical foundations of our nation are eroding at a time when many other

Collection

2007 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Matthew Roberts; Philip Parker; Christina Curras; Michael Penn; Max Anderson

classes. Also, the students will see the benefits of the portfolio as itwould be a practical and authentic form of written communication directed to a “real-world”client.We have also identified a certain number of challenges to incorporating the infrastructure re-port card. If integrated into the curriculum improperly, the report card could be an adminis-trative headache. There is also a certain cost to sustaining the project. Logistical detailscould prove challenging, as students need to be transported to the site. The latter concern alsoraises the issue of student safety on the site; however this could prove to be an opportunity forus to enhance student appreciation of this often neglected topic. Proceedings of the 2007 ASEE

Collection

2007 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Amber J. Kemppainen; Alex S. Mayer; Jacqueline E. Huntoon

to produce sustainable solutions. To practice this, a relevant, real-world example related to the sustainability of engineered flood-control systems in the New Orleans region is investigated by students. Student projects examine the importance of sustainability throughout the design process as they progress from initial concept to sustainable flood management systems. Introduction The Code of Ethics for the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) states that engineers have an ethical obligation to hold paramount the health, safety and welfare of the public in the performance of their professional duties (Eide, et al., 2002). The Code also addresses sustainability: “Engineers shall strive to adhere to the principles of sustainable

Collection

2007 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Leonard Bohmann; Dana Johnson; Kris Mattila; Nilufer Onder; John Sutherland

presenting the students with a problem thatrequires skills from the disciplines involved.Forming of an industrial advisory board will likely prove less challenging. Many of the existing Proceedings of the 2007 ASEE North Midwest Sectional Conferencedepartmental, college, and school industrial advisory boards are represented by multipledisciplines.In an ideal world, all the support garnered from administration for interdisciplinary education isemphasized and promoted in the context of external funding. Sharing resources outside ofengineering becomes a real issue and territorial borders may prevent the successfulimplementation of interdisciplinary education. In general, the faculty team members aresupportive of the interdisciplinary

Collection

2007 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Qingli (Barbara) Dai

) tutorials were effectively used to learn NX. Specific parts of eachtutorial are assigned for learning the solid modeling skills. The design projects built theskills of what has been learned in tutorial assignments by modeling real mechanicalsystems.MTU hosted the Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering Education(PACE) Competition in CAD Methods class (MEEM 4403). The course final deignproject that comprises the team competition is the culmination of lab assignmentsperformed throughout the semester. Each team made a formal presentation to the PACEjudges to explain the design objectives, design features, features of the CAD model, andany issues related to working collaboratively on a team. The design itself was presentedusing screen

Collection

2007 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Yue Li; Qiong Zhang

should be introduced in early stage of the curriculum. For instance, Introduction to Probability and Statistic is a required course in many university curriculums. The class is essential to understand performance-based design, which involves various sources of uncertainty. The class should also emphasize the probabilistic aspect of society and environmental impact. When construction material class is taught, material selection should be considered from both structural performance and sustainable built material perspectives. Second, design courses and capstone projects provide an opportunity for students to apply what they learn in classrooms about PBE and sustainability to “real world” examples. Working on

Collection

2007 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

P. B. Ravikumar

to work on as a team in decreasing order of importance and complete the following table. It is best not to lean too heavily on any one project but instead consider all your choices as equally preferable. (Remember that in the real world, we do not have the luxury to work on projects we alone like!). In the first column of the table, enter the project number that is provided at the top right corner of the first (or only) page of each project proposal. Enter the title of the project in the second column. Please remember that it is not a guarantee that you will be assigned any of the top five projects you have chosen! You understand that your professor has to decide the project assignments