Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Clay Naito

Session F2D4 Freshman Level Design – Bridge Building Project Clay Naito Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Lehigh University AbstractTo provide a stimulating introduction on the concepts of Structural Engineering to freshmenstudents, a hands-on laboratory based course on bridge design and construction was developed.The course provides an overview of strength of materials, structural analysis, computer aideddesign, and construction over a six week period. Material testing laboratory

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Luciana R. Barroso; Jim Morgan

Session T4B3 Introducing Projects into Undergraduate Structural Analysis Luciana R. Barroso and Jim Morgan Department of Civil Engineering Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-3136 AbstractThe civil engineering department at Texas A&M University has modified the standardintroductory undergraduate structural analysis course to incorporate team projects based onrealistic structural systems. These projects are open ended problems with multiple possiblesolutions

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Hesham Shaalan

Session T4C1 Design Project for PLC Course: Automation Work Process Control Cody Ross and Hesham Shaalan Engineering Technology Program Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi AbstractDesign projects provide a means to teach students many important skills. TheProgrammable Logic Controller (PLC) course utilizes a project-based approach. One ofthe major goals of the project is to prepare students to apply effective problem solvingtechniques to a problem that simulates a real world situation. This includes the ability todefine the problem

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Richard Bannerot

Session T1B4 A Golf Ball Launcher as a Sophomore Design Project Richard Bannerot Department of Mechanical Engineering University of Houston AbstractThe first engineering course taken by mechanical engineering students at the Universityof Houston requires completion of a design, fabricate and compete team project. Theproject that was completed during the Fall 2004 semester is described in this paper. Thetwo “pronged” project evaluation process (testing results and direct assessment) isdescribed and the results are

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Terry Kohutek; Arun Srinivasa; Andrew P. Conkey

Session T3A4 "Bridging the gap": A Strategy for Implementing Projects in First-year Engineering Courses Arun Srinivasa, Andrew P. Conkey Mechanical Engineering Department Texas A&M University Jeffrey Froyd Dwight D. Look College of Engineering Texas A&M University Donald A. Maxwell, Terry Kohutek Civil Engineering Department

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Mohan Ketkar

Session F1A1 Tapping Indigenous Resources to Enhance the Decision Making Process in Senior Projects Mohan Ketkar Department of Engineering Technology College of Engineering Prairie View A&M University, Prairie View, TX AbstractCase studies are proven techniques to enhance the learning skills and the level of classparticipation in the project-oriented courses. Typical case study exercise involves reading theproblem, forming student teams, research

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Jeffrey Froyd; Donald A. Maxwell

Session T3A4 "Bridging the gap": A Strategy for Implementing Projects in First-year Engineering Courses Arun Srinivasa, Andrew P. Conkey Mechanical Engineering Department Texas A&M University Jeffrey Froyd Dwight D. Look College of Engineering Texas A&M University Donald A. Maxwell, Terry Kohutek Civil Engineering Department

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Richard Hoehn; Dr. Saleh M Sbenaty

Session F1A1 Tapping Indigenous Resources to Enhance the Decision Making Process in Senior Projects Mohan Ketkar Department of Engineering Technology College of Engineering Prairie View A&M University, Prairie View, TX AbstractCase studies are proven techniques to enhance the learning skills and the level of classparticipation in the project-oriented courses. Typical case study exercise involves reading theproblem, forming student teams, research

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Tariq A. Khraishi

teaching difficult and abstract technical concepts that, at the same time, havevery real-life applications and implications. It is natural then to expect that the in-depth analysisand study involved in typical PBL experiments or assignments should enhance the understandingof such concepts.PBL typically involves some sort of real problem set-up and execution. In mechanics courses,this usually translates to assigning design project(s) to groups of students11,12,13. Such designprojects are by definition open-ended and have no unique answer or solution. The students thushave to invoke their imagination and try to integrate a host of previous classes (i.e. previousknowledge) in order to solve the problem at hand. This form of learning is considered

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Carole Goodson

pervasiveness of computers throughout society, thereis a growing demand for diligent computer science education to satisfy the growing needs of amultiplicity of enterprises. This paper describes one approach to teaching computer science whilerequiring students to develop systems for various community, school, and university organizations. Thebenefits derived by the students and the clients receiving their services are many. A survey ofundergraduate students involved in community based projects provides a good summary of the impactof this type of education. There is a wide range of opportunities for civic engagement through project-oriented computer science courses that serve community needs. The results of the survey indicate thatthis type of education

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

John D. Fernandez

pervasiveness of computers throughout society, thereis a growing demand for diligent computer science education to satisfy the growing needs of amultiplicity of enterprises. This paper describes one approach to teaching computer science whilerequiring students to develop systems for various community, school, and university organizations. Thebenefits derived by the students and the clients receiving their services are many. A survey ofundergraduate students involved in community based projects provides a good summary of the impactof this type of education. There is a wide range of opportunities for civic engagement through project-oriented computer science courses that serve community needs. The results of the survey indicate thatthis type of education

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Todd E. Raborn

the project wereas follows: A. To promote sound engineering design techniques B. To research various light-weight materials C. To research various human-powered propulsion systems D. To promote sound engineering analysis techniques E. To research various steering, suspension, and braking systems F. To promote teamwork G. To promote communication skills H. To foster excitement in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and spaceThe project progressed in four phases. Phase one consisted of forming the team, studyinglunar vehicles, researching the moon’s terrain, evaluating NASA’s design criteria, rules,and regulations, and analyzing previous moonbuggy

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Richard Bannerot

Session T4A4An Early Hands-On Experience in Mechanical Engineering that Seems Particularly of Interest to Female Students Richard Bannerot Department of Mechanical Engineering University of Houston AbstractThe main purpose of this paper is to present an individual project for an early engineeringcourse in which students were required to learn about a particular component of amechanical system, to develop a demonstration of it, to prepare supportingdocumentation and then to explain it to their peers. Engineering

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Rita Caso; Kristi J. Shryock; Jo Howze; Jeffrey Froyd; Arun R. Srinivasa

are working together to help students more closely link concepts from the threesubject areas. Faculty members have constructed specifications that design projects must followto help students build tighter connections among the three subjects. A comprehensiveassessment and evaluation plan has also been designed and implemented. This paper willdescribe the integration mechanisms, project specifications, and systems to address study skills,as well as data that has been collected and analyzed to date. Future assessment plans, andstrategies for expanding the program for more students and extending it to two additional first-year engineering tracks will also be described. IntroductionFirst-year engineering

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Kambiz Farahmand; Kai Jin

evolving processes that are mostlyproviding goods to the US and overseas automobile manufacturers. Program curriculumand teaching methods have also evolved over the years as originally expected. Thestructured curriculum presented originally provides two integrated portions (Industrial &Electrical) based on design, test, and manufacturing with respect to the knowledge baseand needs of the Maquiladora Engineers. This paper describes the program developmentand the long distance teaching techniques used in the graduate engineering degreeprogram offered by the Texas A&M University-Kingsville for educating the Rio GrandValley Engineers. The innovative features introduced to the program, teachingchallenges, student research projects, and the

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Chandrika Rao; Carol L. Binkerd

-world job assignments. Approach: Working along these lines, we contacted three local surveying companies5. In order to understand their business, and keeping database concepts as the key point of discussion, we spoke to their project managers. Since the profession of surveying is typically about data collection and its manipulation to generate meaningful reports, some of the questions we asked were: 1. What type of projects do they work on? 2. How is the data collected for any typical project? 3. How is the data stored, retrieved, or manipulated when needed? 4. What is the typical size of their databases? 5. What types of DBMS tools do they use

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

John W. Hansen

Session T3A2 Pre-Engineering Education and the STEM Career Expressway John W. Hansen Center for Technology Literacy University of Houston AbstractThis project describes the statewide activities of the University of Houston’s Center forTechnology Literacy to transform Technology Education in 6 – 12 public schools into theScience, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Career Expressway. The STEMCareer Expressway represents the integration of the physical sciences, mathematics

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Kevin M. Nickels

mainprogrammable hardware used for the course. Design entry using graphical components is done inthe beginning of the course, with the majority of the projects utilizing VHDL (Very High SpeedHardware Hardware Description Language). Projects relate directly to the course material, andinclude a VGA (Video Graphics Array - video game, a 10-instruction simple computer, and a line-following robot. The course ends with case studies of contemporary digital designs. In this paper,the topics added and dropped are described, along with potential and actual repercussions onstudent learning. Background and Context of CourseTrinity University is a small private liberal arts and sciences University in San Antonio Texas.The Engineering Science

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Kenneth Van Treuren

consists of a one-hour lecture, a three-hourpractical measurement/demonstration session (often involving calibration techniques) anda three-hour laboratory usually using the measurement techniques talked about in theprevious measurement/demonstration session. The last half of the course is a laboratoryproject, accomplished in teams of two. The students accomplish a written test plan andmake a presentation on the test plan early in the course to get the necessary backgroundinformation. This enables the students to purchase required materials and beginfabrication, if necessary, for the final project early in the course. Topics have included aforce balance for the wind tunnel, automated velocity control for the wind tunnel usingLabview, internal

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

M. M. Darwish; M. H. Akram; B. L. Green

high.Attendance at study sessions is high. As the semester progresses, the attendance of thementored students usually begins to drop, with spikes in attendance shortly before a test.As the response of the mentored students begins to decrease, the enthusiasm of thementors begins to decline. With reduced attendance of the mentored student, many of thementors begin to miss the study sessions.A Lab Course EnvironmentIn Engineering Technology Department, most of the classes have an associated one credit-hour lab component. For seniors, there is a three credit-hour independent design lab and athree credit-hour capstone lab project. The senior lab and capstone design project arestudent design and construction projects of increasing difficulty to test the

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Thomas J. Krueger; Ted Aanstoos; Ronald E. Barr

continuous assessment of the program outcomes. One of thebiggest obstacles in assessment is the inability to engage students in the awareness of programoutcomes and their importance in the curriculum. Many students see them as overly generalizedstatements that have no bearing on the concepts they need to pass a given course. Thus,dissemination of the notion and value of program outcomes is a major challenge for the faculty.Examples of freshman class assignments and projects that address specific program outcomes ina mechanical engineering department are presented. IntroductionIn the mid-1990’s, the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) developeda new set of criteria for accrediting

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Dr. Saleh M. Sbenaty; Chad Lloyd

. MethodologyThis project is divided into two main sections, hardware and software. The hardwarediscussion will detail the microcontroller, the development environment and allrequirements necessary to recreate a working model. The software section will brieflyillustrate the Keil C IDE and JavaKit applications as well as the firmware written for themicrocontroller.HardwareThe DS80C400 is a microcontroller with onboard network support. In addition, themicrocontroller has seven bidirectional parallel ports, four counters/timers and threeserial ports with onboard UARTs (3). The instruction execution speed has beendramatically increased with a maximum input clock speed of 75 MHz and the original8051’s 12 clocks-per-instruction cycle has been reduced to four

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Ray Bachnak; Mike Englert

portable and userfriendly. Once the units are set up and functioning properly, operation is simple. Theunits are relatively inexpensive. The units can also accept inputs from almost any IEEEapproved measurement device and send data to a base station [2]. For this project, one ofthese devices was used to simulate a real world situation. Data was transmitted from onelocation to another where it was recorded and analyzed. The Engineering TechnologyDepartment here at Texas A&M University—Corpus Christi has in its possession morethan one set of these units which were used for the project. A J-type thermocouple and aset of testing leads that are accepted by this unit to measure temperature and voltage wereused in addition; fortunately the Hydra

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Pete Hylton

design projects and their design review presentations.Thus the students leave their final semester with two things. They have a betterunderstanding of the inter-related nature of the various topics they have studied for fouryears, and how these topics fit into the overall design effort of a new project. They alsohave exposure to a new concept which is gaining popularity in the industrialenvironment, thus making them more marketable upon graduation. Implementation StrategiesRegardless of school or curriculum, TRM can be integrated easily into any CapstoneDesign Course. The TRM process consists of four phases, Risk Identification, RiskAssessment, Risk Mitigation, and Risk Management. The Risk Identification phase

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Wayne N.P. Hung; V. Jorge Leon

revised curriculum allows students to developinvaluable soft-skills when working as virtual teams on international industry-sponsoredprojects. The teaching program is also enriched and integrated with other NSF programs(Nanotechnology Undergraduate Education, Research Experiences for Undergraduates, andResearch Experiences for Teachers) to reach out to other departments, universities, and highschools in the country. IntroductionTaking advantage of lower cost and advance communications, companies in the US have beenoutsourcing their projects to other companies overseas. It was estimated that additional 10% ofcomputer-related job moved overseas in 2004, 2 million financial service jobs will be moved by2008

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Mythili Vajjalla; Kashinath Kumar; Enno “Ed” Koehn

Session T2C3 EFFECTS OF CONSTRUCTION ON COMMUNITIES Mythili Vajjalla, Enno “Ed” Koehn, Kashinath Kumar Civil Engineering Department Lamar University Samineni Ravikanth Industrial Engineering Department Lamar University AbstractThis paper discusses the effects of construction on the community and the humanenvironment. The paper also investigates the ill as well as the positive effects of aconstruction project on the surrounding region

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

G. Beate Zimmer; eremy S. Flores; Alexey L. Sadovski

education by doing research with students. Thework presented was done with a freshman mathematics major at Texas A&M–Corpus Christi.The student joined a continuing project of the Division of Nearshore Research which usesvarious models to predict water levels along the Texas coast. The most successful models useneural networks written in Matlab and are trained with a backpropagation algorithm. The trainingset consists of one year’s worth of hourly water level and wind data. Initially the weights andbiases of all neurons are assigned at random or with the Nguyen–Widrow algorithm. With theseweights and biases, the forecast is computed and then compared to the actual water levels. Ineach training epoch, the weights and biases are updated following

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Jim Farison

, nondestructive materials evaluation and optical copying. Image processing, including image enhancement, analysis and compression. Student specialization through assignments and project. (3-0) Course Content SelectionComputer applications are characteristically of interest to engineering students, so an imagingcourse has a lot going for it right away. Associated with that, images are inherently visual andnaturally compatible with computer manipulation and storage. They naturally have the potential forinterest, even fun, for students.On the other hand, many engineering students are more interested in hardware and laboratories thanthey are in mathematics (even computer-based math) and computational manipulation

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Titilope Z. Alagun; Shahryar Darayan

Session F2C3 Fully Automated Prototype Chicken Farm Titilope Z. Alagun and Shahryar Darayan Department of Electronics Engineering Technology Texas Southern University Houston, TX 77004 zaburat@yahoo.com, Darayan_SX@tsu.edu AbstractThis paper discusses the design of a Fully Automated Prototype Chicken Farm. The aimof this project is to utilize a computer to control the living environment of chickens and tore-introduce the concept of using solar energy to power devices. This project

Collection

2005 GSW

Authors

Raviganesh Singh; Matthew Siik; Ioana C. Finegan; Gowri V. Kumar

Session T4D2Damping and Stiffness of Carbon Nanofiber/Polypropylene Composites Ioana C. Finegan, Gowri V. Kumar, Raviganesh Singh, Matthew Siik Engineering and Technology Central Michigan University Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859, USA Abstract The objective of this project is to create an environment to integrate research(manufacturing, measuring the dynamic mechanical properties, of carbonnanofiber/polymer composites) with teaching solid mechanics courses in the newmechanical engineering program developed at Central Michigan