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2007 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

William J. Sproule; William H. Leder

is offeredat Michigan Tech University. It was developed for juniors, seniors, and graduate studentsand was originally planned for civil and environmental engineers, but engineeringstudents from other disciplines have taken the course. The course has been offered in thespring semester (January – April) two times – 18 students enrolled in the first year and 30students enrolled in the second year. The course has been team taught by two instructorswho, between them, bring substantial consulting, government service, university teachingand research experience to the classroom. This paper describes the topics covered in thecourse, major projects and assignments, special features, and resources.Course TopicsThe primary objective for the course was

Collection

2007 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

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

pedagogic goal of this design project was to provide students with an opportunity to incorporate the principles of sustainability into the engineering design process through: a) Investigating economic, environmental and social issues faced by New Orleans residents. b) Proposing engineering solutions that account for these issues. c) Designing an evacuation and flood management plan. d) Determining the risks of failure for their flood-control design using the Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) (Anderson, 2001). e) Calculating a resource budget for the construction and use of their flood-control options. f) Developing a program simulation of their flood-control system. Investigation The New Orleans Flood

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2007 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

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

academic and industrial advisoryboards, however, only a small external academic advisory panel exists at this point. The team isin the process of assembling an industrial advisory board.Petrie (1976) identifies three important 'nonepistomological considerations' as being crucial forinterdisciplinary teams. The first consideration is 'idea dominance', i.e., the existence of a clear Proceedings of the 2007 ASEE North Midwest Sectional Conferenceand recognizable idea serving as the central focus of the work. Such an idea brings the teammembers together and serves as a guideline for how to operate collaboratively. To identify thedominant ideas, we convened a planning workshop in the summer of 2006 and used thepreliminary objectives

Collection

2007 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

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

the current emphasis on creating new in-frastructure. Unfortunately, the influence of civil engineers in infrastructure management andplanning has been waning in recent years.2To better prepare our students to participate in the planning and management of public works,we (the faculty of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at UWP) are revamp-ing our curriculum with the goal of educating “citizen engineers.”3 Citizen engineers will bemore in tune with the needs of their communities and of the nation, and will be able to effec-tively address the technical and non-technical issues related to the infrastructure. To meet thisend, we are infusing an infrastructure theme throughout the curriculum. The revised curricu-lum will include

Collection

2007 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Pasi T. Lautala; William J. Sproule

consultants, transit consultants, and transitagencies also look promising as urban rail transit continues to grow with severalcommuter rail, streetcar, light rail transit, and other rail projects being planned. Graduateengineers will be needed in several area including civil, computer, electrical,environmental, and mechanical engineering.The task of finding graduating engineers for the rail industry is not an easy one. At onetime, railroad engineering was a common course in engineering programs and manystudents started exciting careers in the rail industry, but these courses have virtuallydisappeared and today few universities have a separate course and many do not evenmention rail in their introduction to transportation engineering course. It has

Collection

2007 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Robert M. Nelson; Benjamin D. Braaten

with a wide range of interests have foundthe course helpful, including those interested in electronics and high-speed circuit design, bio-medicalengineering, antenna theory, microwave engineering and electromagnetic interference/compatibility.The course typically begins with a review of fundamental concepts in electromagnetics, and thenvarious analytical solution methods are examined. The majority of the semester is then devoted toexamining various computational methods, including both frequency- and time-domain methods. Amajor revision of the course is presently underway, which will include expansion into a two-semestersequence. Selected details of the current course offering are described below, and plans for the newtwo-semester course

Collection

2007 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Kris G. Mattila

construction, or plan to work in the industry. This wide range ofstudents and varying levels of experience necessitates an understanding of terminology early inthe course. The technique presented in this paper is done during the third and fourth lectureperiods to help facilitate that understanding.As this may be the only construction course that many Civil Engineering students at MichiganTech take, it was decided that the course should cover a broad range of topics that CivilEngineers would need to know. As a result there are many topics covered that may have acourse dedicated to them in other programs. These topics include a construction overview, Proceedings of the 2007 ASEE North Midwest Sectional Conference

Collection

2007 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Kurtis G. Paterson

engineering works, (2) to provideengineering students experience working on diverse teams, (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 engineering students (oneundergraduate, and one mentoring graduate student) and two Bolivian engineeringstudents, partner with a Bolivian NGO and Bolivian community members to assess, plan,design, execute, re-assess, and communicate a sustainable development project of need tothe community. The American undergraduate engineering students are selected from arecently started Certificate in International Sustainable Development

Collection

2007 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Nihad E. Daidzic; Vojin R. Nikolic

which through brief lectures, extensive experimental exercises, and two major hands-on team projects, a number of the most significant concepts from various areas of engineering, in general, and from aerospace sciences/engineering and aviation in particular were introduced and explained. Also, the plan was for the students to have an opportunity to tour several MSU engineering laboratories and Mankato Airport, fly in a flight simulator and in an airplane. A series of guest speakers, one each day, involving a number of administrators and faculty members from the MNCEME and MSU have also been contacted and agreed to address the Camp participants during lunch. A detailed plan for the Pilot Program Camp is given in

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2007 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

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

. slipped from third to fourteenthplace in the proportion of twenty-four-year-olds holding science and engineering degrees.Furthermore, between 1985 and 2000, the number of baccalaureate degrees in science,technology, engineering, and math fell by 18.6 percent (Goodchild, 2004). There is also adownward trend in the percentage of college-bound students who take the ACT and indicateplanned majors in engineering and science (ACT National and State Scores, 2006) (Figure 1). ACT Student Planned Majors 2000-2006 (Source: National Report, ACT) 9

Collection

2007 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Zhanping You; Sanjeev Adhikari

of materialbehavior can significantly increase innovation and cost savings. Homework is assigned to studentsto allow them to practice class concepts. The most important parts of the class are the lab 2experiments (and field trips when possible) and the sustainable material concepts. Exams are givento assess the outcome of the lecture and homework. The entire course plan is illustrated in Figure 1. Figure 1: Course plan illustrationObjectivesThe first objective of this paper is to present the experience of teaching the Civil EngineeringMaterial class, which deals with fundamental knowledge of materials and the

Collection

2007 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Richard Smith

information security uses, policies, models – Sec 1, Sec 2 • Specific communications systems and policies – Net, Sec 2 • Planning and designing for security – Sec1, OS, Net, Sec 2 • Specific vulnerabilities; technical and policy solutions – Sec 1, OS, Net, Sec 2In June, 2007, our department participated in a workshop for information securitycurriculum development hosted by the University of Minnesota and sponsored by theNational Science Foundation. During that workshop we compared curricula acrossexisting and proposed programs at the 2-year, 4-year, and graduate level. The onlyconsensus standard identified for information security curricula were the IACEPrequirements. Participants noted that the demand was so high for graduates

Collection

2007 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Chinweike I. Eseonu

did “Twin Cities groups.” There was an absence of managers’ in- depth knowledge and as such, authority accrual through “expert power” (Badawy 1995) could not occur. Also of interest in Figure 5 is the greater dissatisfaction, albeit by a small amount, of “Twin Cities groups” with eventual project outcomes than “Duluth teams.” One might argue that the groups from the Twin Cities, unbeknownst to them, had a richer project management experience than their Duluth counterparts who did not require the same level of detailed plans and execution per trip to client locations. The twin cities groups were, thus, arguably more involved and better equipped at the end of the exercise and were less satisfied with the

Collection

2007 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Hetal Jasani

router, some computers and a wirelessaccess point. Eventually, they create larger models using OPNET software. The high levelbehavior of different applications in IEEE 802.11 networks will be simulated on discrete eventsimulations. This allows students to measure several performance characteristics such as end-to-end delay, aggregate throughput, congestion, number of retransmissions, etc. in such kind ofnetworks.Course outline for Lab:The topics are scheduled for a 14-week semester with laboratory assignments. The subjectscovered are [12, 13]: ▪ Wireless LAN Devices and Standards ▪ How Wireless Works ▪ IEEE 802.11 Physical Layer Standards ▪ IEEE 802.11 Medium Access Control and Network Layer Standards ▪ Planning and Building a Wireless

Collection

2007 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

P. B. Ravikumar

need to go to such detailed organization of documentation is because of the vastamount of information that students need to go through in a very short amount of timeduring the start of the semester. Besides the Projects’ Description package, copies of theCourse of Study, a Bidding Form for each team to bid on the projects, and a StudentSchedule Table to help plan field trips to sponsors’ locations need to be ready to bedistributed to the students on the first day of class. The Course of Study documentationis very detailed (typically ten pages long) and contains information on the following:* Class room and meeting dates / times* Office hours of the instructor* Purpose and objectives of the course* Assessment and grading policy* Team formation

Collection

2007 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Tamer Ceylan

. Even if the program is strong, there is no substitute for experience, knowledge, and sound preparation. In the preparation period, it is necessary to carefully plan and coordinate all accreditation- and assessment-related issues. Among the eight accreditation criteria, an awareness of common problem areas, mostly Criteria 2 and 3, is useful. A list of possible questions that can be asked by a program evaluator is provided for the campus visit phase of the process. For the post-visit period, a program should be aware of how ABET resolves consistency issues across institutions and across programs within a single institution. Finally, proper perspective is needed if ABET finds one or more weaknesses or deficiencies. Based on what we have seen

Collection

2007 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

James E. Hertel; Amy J. Hamlin

questionstargeted by our study are more focused toward learning where and when students move out oftheir originally planned major.A third study at Frostburg State University (Soysal, et al., 2003) looks at the enrollment profile oftheir first year classes from 1997 through 2002. [3] From this they were able to determinemigration out of either electrical or mechanical engineering programs. The work, however,measures a relatively small sample (about 40 students per year) and does not track the otherengineering majors.As such, a research gap exists that this study aims to fill. The scope of this paper is to observe,not necessarily analyze. To be clear, at the time of this writing we are not looking to answerquestions regarding students underlying motives for

Collection

2007 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Michele H. Miller; Debra D. Charlesworth

Test, P≤0.05). The first two factors have obvious connections to experimental work.The last 2 factors indicate that experimentation requires a high level planning and creativity. Question/Factor? Low High Experimental Experimental Ability to troubleshoot problems with 3.23 4.62 experimental hardware and setup Hands-on ability 3.40 4.38 Ability to break work into smaller parts 3.93 4.52 Creativity 4.20

Collection

2007 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

K. R. Haapala; M. J. Hutchins; J. L. Rivera; V. Kumar; A. R. Clarke; T. D. Eatmon; R. A. Harris; M. H. Durfee; J. R. Mihelcic; D. R. Shonnard; J. W. Sutherland

Model Product take-back Risk assessment Life cycle engineering Natural resources Eco-efficient manufacturing Human & ecosystem health Societal Sustainability Informed citizenry Risk communication Stakeholder participation Public policy Social justice Knowledge diffusion Equity Land use planning Figure 1. The Sustainable Futures Model (from Mihelcic & Hokanson, 2005)In spite

Collection

2007 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Michele H. Miller; Kari L. Jordan

graduate [67]. Faculty members then translate the attributes into course objectivesand develop an assessment plan. Finally, course content is developed and implemented, andassessment measures are made. Incropera and Fox note that the reasons for change must becommunicated to the faculty before beginning the reform process and then repeatedly over thecourse of the reform effort. Techniques for engaging faculty, students, and industry in thereform process include: surveys, focus groups, workshops, interviews, regular departmental andarea meetings [29,66,68]. An external facilitator may be used.ConclusionDesign curricula both motivate and teach valuable skills. Design motivates by: engagingstudents with hands-on, active learning; attracting different

Collection

2007 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Qiong Zhang; Dana Johnson; James R. Mihelcic

Futures Willingness to pay Technology market Model Economic risks Societal Sustainability Health Regulations National strategic plan Water purification technology customers International organizations and NGOs involvement Figure 3. Sustainable Futures Model applied to the example projectAssembling of an appropriate teamTo achieve the project objective, three specific tasks were identified: market analysis, technologyevaluation and selection, and business case study. The market analysis included

Collection

2007 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Valerie J. Fuchs; James R. Mihelcic

Credits PCMI No certificate No certificate 6/130* 3-International Experience (2 weeks) 11/30 2-Field Engineering in Dev'g World 3-Capstone Design 2-Community Planning & Analysis 7-International Training & Experience (27 months) With With certificate + + certificate 25/130* 1

Collection

2007 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

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

, thermal stress, and lighting, affect humanperformance and on macro-ergonomics (building design and urban planning).HF courses in mechanical engineering have a strong connection to product design.Michigan Tech offers a technical elective MEEM 4990/5990 Human Factors inEngineering that is open to seniors and graduate students. The course presents thephysical and psychological capabilities and limitations of humans. We look at badproduct and system designs. We explore the reasons a product may be difficult to use orthe causes behind a system safety failure. The course presents tools and techniques forimproving the usability of products and systems. Often mechanical engineers will attempt Proceedings of the 2006 ASEE North Midwest

Collection

2007 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Kurtis G. Paterson

nature of thepodcast episodes. The more-balanced learning environment also was well received. Ingeneral these course modifications made a traditionally loathed class enjoyable andmemorable for the students.A preliminary attempt to assess impacts on learning for subjects with and withoutpodcasts revealed no learning benefit from the podcasts. The students do appreciated thefocused content, liberation of the class from lecture, and portability of the materialsthough. Ideally, two sections with large enrollments would create a better assessmentsetting for retention objectives. A plan for this study is underway for Fall 2007.As podcasting is new to education, the first assessment focused on application of suchtechnology within university courses

Collection

2007 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Paul J. Weber

; Summers, D. (2002). Future directions for mechanical,manufacturing, and industrial engineering technology programs. Journal of EngineeringTechnology, 91 (2), 8 – 15.Richardson, J., Irwin T., & Sherwin, C. (2005). Design and sustainability. A scooping report forthe sustainable design forum.Tonn, B.E. (2004). Integrated 1000-year planning. Futures, 36 (1), 91 – 108.Wang, L., & Lin, L. (2004). Making sustainability accountable: a valuation model for corporateperformance. IEEE International Symposium on Electronics and the Environment, 7 – 12.World commission on environment and development (1987). Our Common Future. Oxford,U.K.: Oxford Univ. Press.Yang, Q.Z., & Song, B. (2006). Eco-design for product lifecycle sustainability