Collection

2013 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Xiang-Fa Wu

and justified. Suggestions for future development andconclusion on the study were made.1. Introduction1.1 Central role of mechanical design in undergraduate mechanical engineering education Mechanical engineering (ME) is one of the oldest and broadest disciplines of engineeringthat involves the production and utilization of heat and mechanical power for the design,production, and operation of machines and tools.1 Broadly speaking, mechanical engineersemploy the core principles of physics, materials science along with a variety of tools to analyze,design, manufacture, and maintain all mechanical systems such as manufacturing plants,machinery, transport systems, heating and cooling systems, space station, aircrafts, robots,medical devices

Collection

2013 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Devin R. Berg

theirpresentation. An example of this is shown in Figure 5. Here again the student constructed asituation using available materials. Their photograph was accompanied by their interpretation ofthe situation in free body diagram form. While their interpretation may not necessarily becomplete, it is useful to have a visual representation of their interpretation of the conditionspresent in the problem. Figure 4. Student submission showing a self-constructed static equilibrium example. 322 Figure 5. Student submission showing thoughtful analysis through construction of a free body diagram.SummaryThe use of an inquiry-based learning task in an introductory mechanics course was found to behelpful for

Collection

2013 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Majura F. Selekwa

and limitationsin the available instruction time. The mechanical engineering program at North Dakota StateUniversity offers mechatronics education in one semester as a three-credit undergraduate course.Due to the spectrum of its contents, the allocated three credit time is inadequate for this course,as such it was necessary to carefully develop the teaching materials so that it effectively meets itseducational objectives, yet without overloading the students. This paper discusses experiencesgained in preparing and teaching this course over a time span of three years.1 IntroductionIt is a well known fact that most of modern products are an integration of mechanical sys-tems, electronic systems, control systems, and computer systems; they are

Collection

2013 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Cory J. Prust; Stephen M. Williams

Engineering (EE) program at the MilwaukeeSchool of Engineering (MSOE), design is strongly integrated into many courses1. These projectsare generally short-term in the context of an eleven-week term, and involve individual or two- 211student teams. The projects lead to the major capstone design experience, Senior Design, whichis a three-term course sequence: EE-407/8/9. Each term consists of an eleven week term, so threeterms is one academic year. While all EE students are required to take this course sequence,interdisciplinary projects may be undertaken, and the teams can include other engineeringstudents: computer, mechanical, software, etc. Over the 26 years of the existence of this course,it has

Collection

2013 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Bakr M. Aly Ahmed; Mike Christenson; David A. Crutchfield

priority. As with many fields, thisdevelopment has the potential of impacting the teaching models and content of architecturalcourses and related research endeavors. This paper offers a case study of how a variety ofenvironmental-analysis technologies have been integrated within specific technical coursework,student research, and how the resulting feedback has been made visible to the student body andgeneral public.IntroductionIn Winter 2010, a team of NDSU College of Engineering and Architecture faculty and staffdeveloped a proposal for an NDSU Student Technology Fee Grant.1 The proposal, titled“Technology for Feedback,” aimed to benefit students both within and outside of NDSU’sprofessional architecture and mechanical engineering degree programs

Collection

2013 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Francis Peloubet; Eakalak Khan; G. Padmanabhan

is tasked with preparing a design work plan, determining designparameters, evaluating design alternatives, design preparation, and materials cost estimating.Initial team activities are devoted to what is referred to as the ‘discovery phase’ of the project.Teams make team member assignments, develop a work plan, and locate all design references,manuals, standards, aids, and other design literature that may be required but was not initiallyprovided by CE Department faculty members. To assist teams with this and other aspects of thecapstone experience, the CE Department utilizes the Mentor concept. CE Department faculty who are not acting as faculty technical consultants to the studentdesign teams, are assigned as mentors to the teams

Collection

2013 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Scott G. Gabert; Jeff C. Kaiser; Derek J. Snyder; Prakash Ranganathan; Reza Fazel-Rezai

ASEE-NMWSC2013-0015 Data Acquisition and Control of Microgrid Using ZigBee – A senior design project Scott G. Gabert, Jeff C. Kaiser, Derek J. Snyder, Prakash Ranganathan and Reza Fazel-RezaiAbstract—This paper describes a novel switching mechanism to acquire data and control a microgrid.The grid operates in two distinct modes; Islanding and grid-connected modes. In islanding mode, thecircuit should be able to isolate sections of the grid when the electrical grid experiences failure. In grid-connected mode, the microgrid has to supply and maintain the power balance to critical loads. Solarpanels act as one of the Distributed energy resource (DER

Collection

2013 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Sousada Chidthachack; Mark A. Schulte; Forster D. Ntow; Jia-Ling Lin; Tamara J. Moore

the factors in PBL program, which contribute to effective learning of ABETprofessional skills?Data Collection and AnalysesProject-Based Learning (PBL) The PBL program is adapted from the Aalborg Model of PBL (Figure 1). Students combinelearning of technical information with the execution of engineering design projects. Theprogram model is 100% project based and does not include traditional courses. Enteringstudents are community college graduates or transfer students from other universities who haveall completed lower division requirements for a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering.The model has four semester upper division portion of a student’s education. Graduates of theprogram earn a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical

Collection

2013 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

David E. Fly; Muhammed Buğra Açan

volume productionand products with short life cycles. Using 3D printing for production of finished parts increasesthe importance of the part’s mechanical properties, which is a budding research field inmaterials engineering due to the composite internal structure.Several thermoplastic materials can be used in the 3D printing process with acrylonitrilebutadiene styrene (ABS) being a common material of choice. Some other materials used in 3Dprinting are ABS with additives, polycarbonates, PEEK, and ULTEM. For both prototypingand production manufacturing, the 3D printed parts are often coated to either seal and/or smooththe part’s surface.ABS is composed of three monomers to obtain the best properties of all three. The mostimportant mechanical

Collection

2013 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Thomas Shepard; Michaela Andrews; Cole Harris

roughly identical. This allows for a brief lessonon the advantages of coarse and fine threads8.Yield Strength ComparisonAs a final component to the classroom exercise and to check the validity of the thread strippingapparatus data, the yield strength of the ABS and aluminum were determined. One can easily 116manipulate Eq. 1 to solve for the material yield strength based on a known failure force. Thematerial properties for the ABS and aluminum are also given by the supplier (McMaster Carr),though they are given as a range and with some digging on the website one finds a warningwhich states that the mechanical properties are not guaranteed. A third method for determiningyield strength is to use a

Collection

2013 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Aurenice M. Oliveira

relatingelectronics to their field, for instance, a mapping correlating the electrical circuit of anautomobile and an electrical circuit diagram helps students to make a connection between theclassroom and their major in the case of Mechanical Engineering students, or the need forelectrical cables with different proprieties to carry out binary data at different data rates for thecase of Computer Network & System Administration students. Students in electronics courses 123only master a small fraction of the material with which they are presented. Therefore, focus onfundamental concepts and keep the math simple.The author also actively pursues the engagement of the students in the classroom by

Collection

2013 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

J. E. Johnson; L. Stradins; S Springer; R. Asthana

before establishing DeLuxe Check Printers in theTwin Cities area. 18 Fig. 1 Fulton and Edna HoltbyThe creation of the Holtby chair was made possible by a generous endowment from the estate ofFulton Holtby, a former professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Minnesota for41 years, and his wife, Edna Holtby (Fig. 1). Fulton was a highly sought-after educator and anexpert forensics engineer. He truly loved the hands-on approach to learning, to make sure youngpeople got to actually work on the products. Fulton is credited with designing and building thefirst aircraft flight recorder and the first heart valve replacements and special suture clamps forheart

Collection

2013 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Zhiyuan Yang; Hope L. Weiss; Matthew J. Traum

ASEE-NMWSC2013-0023 Gas Turbine Dynamic Dynamometry: A New Energy Engineering Laboratory Module Zhiyuan Yang1 (yangz@msoe.edu), Hope L. Weiss2 (weiss@msoe.edu), Matthew J. Traum3 (traum@msoe.edu) Mechanical Engineering Department Milwaukee School of EngineeringAbstractTo integrate energy topics into STEM curricula, an archive of “Energy Engineering LaboratoryModules” (EELMs) is being developed by collaborating faculty and students at the MilwaukeeSchool of

Collection

2013 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Kevin Craig

prevents the piston from impacting the walls of the cylinder when shocks are too strong.The shock absorber comprises the interaction of the mechanical movements of rigid bodies, theviscoeleastic dynamics of fluids, the elastic behavior of springs, and the deformations of elastic-plastic materials. Looking from the outside, we only are aware of the phenomenologicalproperties. We observe aspects like nonlinear stiffness, nonlinear viscous damping at high 313frequencies, and hysteretic effects at low frequencies, but we are not able to assign thesephenomena to the individual parts of the shock absorber.The shock absorber is integrated into a suspension system that must be designed and

Collection

2013 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Nannan He; Han-Way Huang

science communities advocate introducing theMBD methodology to students. It provides students with the insights, techniques and tools toalleviate the difficulties of developing complex software systems. Educators have eitherintegrated MBD into the existing software design course 8 or proposed a new project-basedcourse to solely teach MBD 9. However, as these courses are mainly for computer science orsoftware engineering students, their contents are too theoretical for engineering students whohave limited software development background.The intent of the PT course presented in this paper is to convey the practical instead oftheoretical knowledge related to programming to students. We added materials on MBD from theengineering practitioner’s point

Collection

2013 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Nannan He; Gale Allen; Cameron Johnson

of automation components including programmable logic controllers (PLC’s),actuators and robots, sensors, motors, drivers, and operator control displays. Students design,simulate, build, test and document automation systems for capstone projects to demonstrate theirunderstanding of the subjects. The initial version of the courses and lab was described in a paperin late fall 2006 1.Since then, several different types of laboratory equipment have been added the course syllabusand material has been continuously improved. Active learning and hands-on learning are thebasis for instruction in the courses. Several short projects have been added to the course. Teamsof two-to-three students develop and complete capstone projects. More details about

Collection

2013 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Roger Green

fear- and incentive-based controlmechanisms to achieve desired educational goals and outcomes. These control mechanisms canachieve results but may also undermine classroom cohesion, encourage an adversarialatmosphere, and be less effective than alternate approaches such as those based on leadershiptraining and research. This paper reconsiders engineering education through a leadershipperspective where teachers voluntarily relinquish control, seek influence over authority, nurturecooperation over compliance, pursue projects and activities in partnership rather than inisolation, and work to establish an environment of mutual trust. These characteristics ofleadership-based education are highly compatible with many current trends in