Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Mir M. Atiqullah

Effect of Defects on Mechanical Properties of Composites: Undergraduate Research on Materials Mir M. Atiqullah Department of Mechanical Engineering Technology Southern Polytechnic State University 1100 South Marietta Parkway, Marietta GA 30060 matiqull@spsu.eduAbstractUndergraduate research in engineering and technology is gaining popularity as an added opportunity oflearning and a gateway to advanced studies. Many students find undergraduate research as a tryout forpotential graduate studies, as well as a way to establish relationship with research faculty

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

2006 and 2007 guidelines called for no I-beams) and the wood measured4’ x 4’, instead of 3’x 3’. The reasoning behind the change in the amount of material was to forcestudents to be more creative. It was observed that students had extra material and were not optimizing itsuse. The 2006 results are the control group for the results presented here. This project was alsoemployed during the 2006 Engineering Summer Camp in order to have a different type of control group.High Schools students, with no formal course in Strength of Materials, were given basic information interms of moment of inertia, bending and mechanical properties. They had no restriction in terms of theshape and were given a 3’ x 3’. They had not been exposed to common type of

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Roy T.R. McGrann

2 4 2 2 4 2 3 ME 271. Engineering Mechanics 4 1 2 2 2 ME 311. Mechanics of Deformable Bodies 4 1 1 2 2 ME 302. Engineering Analysis 4 2 4 ME 331. Thermodynamics 4 1 2 1 1 2 2 2 1 ME 273. Science of Engineering Materials 4 2 4 2 ME 481. Computer-Aided Engineering 4 1 4 3 3 1 1 4 ME 303. Computational Methods 4

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Shih-Liang Wang

Free Body Diagrams of Gear Trains Shih-Liang (Sid) Wang Department of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering North Carolina A&T State University Greensboro, North Carolina 27411AbstractMany senior students in the author’s machine elements course have difficulties in drawing aFBD (Free Body Diagram) correctly, which is the first step in force and stress analysis of amechanical system. One of the challenges to those students is that even though the principles todraw a FBD are the same for every mechanical system (A FBD is a sketch of a mechanicalsystem cut free of its surroundings to shows all the

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Carol Siri Johnson

Association for Testing Materials was formedand began developing standards for steel quality. The setting of standards had been underway by variousagencies and professional groups but no single entity was devoted to the cause. The American Society ofCivil Engineers, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, government and large manufacturers hadbeen setting their own standards so when the American Section of the International Association forTesting Materials proposed a set of steel standards for everything from railroad track to building beamsand wheels to axles, the ASCE and the ASME immediately joined the dialogue and the resultant socialdiscourse community became a broad, ongoing exchange between manufacturers, users, and experts asthey

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Aaron S. Bradshaw; Gary N. McCloskey; Franklin Miguel

wealthier citizens reside adjacent to others living in extreme poverty. Many of thepoor neighborhoods originated from the occupation of land without permission (i.e. squatters). Theseland invaders or “Invasores” as they are called in the local community staked their claims by buildingsmall shacks on parcels of land. These dilapidated houses were built quite literally using any materialsthat the people could get their hands on. Over time these communities grew as the walls of one housebecame the walls of the next. One of these neighborhoods, called Luz Consuelo, is shown in the satellitephotograph in Figure 1. Notable is the poor condition of the houses as compared to the wealthiersurrounding neighborhoods. Figure 2 shows some of the materials that

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Richard B. Mindek

Development of a Programmable Logic Controller Experiential Learning Platform Richard B. Mindek, Jr. Western New England College, Springfield MassachusettsAbstractAn experiential learning platform was recently developed to expose graduate engineering students, aswell as undergraduate junior and senior mechanical engineering students, to the concept, components,operation, and application of programmable logic controllers (PLCs). The platform consists of aprogrammable logic controller, which can be programmed with a desktop PC, in order to control severalsimple output devices. The system allows students to write their own ladder logic programs, and

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Ha Van Vo; Stephanie Rossman; Zsaquez Flucker; R. Radharamanan

Comparison of Shear Stress Acting in the Sockets of Typical Mobile and Immobile Ankle Prostheses Using Finite Element Analysis (FEA) Ha Van Vo, Stephanie Rossman, Zsaquez Flucker and R. Radharamanan School of Engineering, Mercer University, Macon, GA 31207AbstractMajor problems with below the knee prosthetics today involve both cost and mechanics. Current designlacks an ankle complex which disrupts not only the natural biomechanics of ambulation but also sitting.Without the necessary frontal plane motion (inversion and eversion) along with sagittal plane motion(plantarflexion and dorsiflexion), the current manual immobile prostheses for below the knee amputeesthe lower limb is unable to adapt appropriately

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Ismail I. Orabi

Engineering. He haspublished over 25 technical articles in refereed journals and conference proceedings. His researchinterests include theoretical and computational investigation in the area of mechanical vibrations anddynamic systems and control. Professor Orabi has taught courses in both undergraduate and graduatelevel Mechanical Vibrations and Multimedia Engineering Analysis, and undergraduate levelthermodynamics, Measurement Systems, Engineering Mechanics and Introduction to Engineering. Oneof Professor Orabi's most recent projects involves the development of Learning Modules on the web.These modules provide information, not only about particular course material, but also about moregeneral topics relevant to engineering. He is also working on

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Vicki V. May

textbook for the course, I recommended the following twotextbooks: Advanced Mechanics of Materials by Boresi and Schmidt1 and AdvancedMechanics of Materials by Cook and Young3. I placed these two textbooks andseveral other textbooks on reserve at Feldberg Library (the engineering library atDartmouth). In addition, I worked with librarians to find appropriate digitalresources (owned by the library); I placed links to these resources on the Blackboardcourse website. Finally, I use a Tablet PC to annotate my lectures (developed inPowerPoint) and I post all of these annotated lecture notes in Blackboard for thestudents to access.ExamplesAs an example, the General Discussion section of the wiki for Unit 1: Unsymmetric Bendingis shown in Figure 1. This

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Yiming (Kevin) Rong

MQP in China: Extension of WPI Practice on Project based Engineering EducationYiming (Kevin) RongWorcester Polytechnic Institute, Mechanical EngineeringAbstract - With the development of global economy and the rapid shift of manufacturing to China, thedemand for engineers with the ability to work in unfamiliar cultural environments is critically importantfor both Chinese and US companies. In response to a world in which science and engineering areincreasingly global in scope, integrating international research experience into engineering education isessential. An exchange program of Senior Projects in Mechanical Engineering has been establishedbetween WPI and HUST. US and Chinese students work in mixed teams doing real world

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Adam J. Czekanski; David-Michael P. Roux

retention during testing. Testing and grading for the second semester occurred after the deadlinefor submission of this publication and, therefore, could not be captured to make this assessment. Thebenefit may be that conducting the review at the beginning of the following lesson creates an entirely 9separate event that reintroduces concepts already familiar to the students, as opposed to the reviewimmediately after class that essentially becomes part of the same event introducing the material for thefirst time. We intend to build a more organized feedback mechanism into the end-of-course critiques inorder to capture student evaluation of review techniques. This will give further insight into

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Ashraf Ghaly

The Challenge Of Preaching To No Choir: How Mindset Can Make Or Break A Course Ashraf Ghaly, Ph.D., P.E. Professor of Engineering, Union College, Schenectady, NY 12308ABSTRACTStudents taking a course required for their major know that the materials the course covers fallalmost entirely within their chosen area of interest. Generally, instructors like to teach suchcourses because their audience shares almost the same mindset. This gives a feeling thateveryone in the classroom is on the “same wavelength” because all speak the “same language”.Elective, interdisciplinary courses, on the other hand, are different. The interests

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Ashraf Ghaly; Megan Ferry

thedesign of dams include engineering design, safety, method of construction, materials used, flood control,environmental impact including greenhouse gas emission and health effects, hydropower generation,sedimentation and erosion problems, water salinity, fertility on farmland in the downstream, loss offarmland in the upstream, navigation in the waterway, economical factors, finance issues, construction ofnew communities for displaced people, and compliance with codes and regulations (7). The non-technicalaspects include history, culture, disturbance to people’s lives due to displacement and resettlement, effecton the social fabric in the area, quality of life in the basin of the river, recreation and tourist activities,effect on wild life and

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

be developed either by creating Java Applets orby writing code in Adobe Flash Action Script. A popular package of interactive web-basedsoftware has been developed to animate Statics and Mechanics of Materials problems1,2,3,4,5. Thesoftware, MecMovies, contains approximately 150 modules that can be accessed via theinternet6. In a recent study, it was found, “Slight to modest gains were seen in student learningand retention of material in some mechanics of materials topics, as evidenced by someimprovement in the quiz scores of the students who used MecMovies”7. Other interactive web-based software has been created to enhance learning in mechanical engineering classes8,9,10.None of the animations stated are directly linked to any homework

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Linda Ann Riley; Charles Thomas

materials for use in K-12classrooms, professional development for K-12 teachers, web-based resources, activities that take place atthe institution of higher education, activities in the K-12 school (such as design competitions or somemember from a higher institution partner– a student or instructor teaching in the K-12 classroom). Aswith other classification systems, there is room here for crossover, thus there are also “blended models”which would encompass one or more of these forms.Given the nature of the time scales involved (it might be as many as 10 years after the “outreach”experience occurs that the student makes a decision about what to study) it is somewhat difficult to assesswhether one form of “outreach” is more effective at attracting

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Imin Kao

Using Video Podcast to Enhance Students’ Learning Experience in Engineering Imin Kao Department of Mechanical Engineering State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook Stony Brook, NY 11794-2200 Corresponding author: imin.kao@sunysb.eduAbstractThe students and faculty today have available to them many technologies that did not exist adecade ago. Such technologies can be great tools for the delivery of course contents to enhancestudents’ learning experience. In this presentation, podcast is employed as an asynchronousonline tool in engineering courses to record lectures and supplementary materials

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

John Hartke; Robert Kewley; Greg Kilby; Greg Schwarz; Gunnar Tamm

isa neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd:YAG) ceramic material. The advantage of theceramic is that it can operate at higher temperatures than the standard crystal form. The SSHCL is alsoscalable in that each slab of Nd:YAG provides about 10 kW of laser output power. This makes theSSHCL convenient to analyze because you need only analyze one slab and multiply by the number ofslabs. The first year of the project the cadet team consisted of students from physics, mechanicalengineering, systems engineering, and law. The second year’s team consisted of cadets from physics,mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and systems engineering. The team employed thesystems engineering decision process to address the problem. The

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

R. Radharamanan; Ha Van Vo

Effect of Conformity and Plastic Thickness on Contact Stresses in Metal Backed Plastic Implants”, Journal of Biomechanical Engineering, 107, 1985, p. 193-199.[21] Bartel, D. L., Bicknell V. L., and Wright T. M., “The Effect of Conformity, Thickness, and Material on Stresses in Ultra-High Molecular Weight Components for Total Joint Replacement”, Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, 68-A (7), 1986, p. 1041-1051.[22] Implants & Materials in Orthopedics, http://www.orthoteers.co.uk/Nrujpij33Lm/Orthbiomat.htm.BiographyR. Radharamanan: Dr. R. Radharamanan is a professor in the Department of Mechanical and IndustrialEngineering at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. He has thirty five years of teaching, research, and

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Beena Sukumaran; Joshua Bonzella; Kevin McGarvey; Heather Klein

, who are in thejunior and senior years of study in the mechanical and civil engineering program are investigating anddesigning an environmentally sustainable grain crusher that can be easily operated and built using locallyavailable materials. The other elements in developing the product are the business perspective and marketanalysis. Through the entrepreneurial program available at Rowan University, which is offered by thebusiness school, the engineering students were able to obtain the help of business students to determinelocal business potential and draw up a small business plan for a rural community in the developing worldwith very little access to resources.Design of the grain crusherThe process of design of the grain crusher is

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Peter Thomas Tkacik

Racing to Learn Engineering Dr. Peter Thomas Tkacik, Asst. Professor The University of North Carolina at CharlotteAbstractStudents are encouraged to drive a race car in order to learn more about the job of a MotorsportsEngineer. Mechanical Engineering students at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte can focus ona new Motorsports program which emphasizes skills in the area of the large and growing motorsportsindustry. In one particular course, Motorsports Instrumentation, the classroom extends to the engineshop, the race shop, and the race track.Students analyze the requirements of the instrumentation, install video and dozens of sensors on the

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Roger Chapman Burk

author’sbackground in the subject. The author found that this approach did succeed in attracting a variety ofstudents who otherwise would learn little of engineering, and in engaging them in the subject and givingthem a basic quantitative understanding of some aspects of the subject. Of course, the approach was notwithout its difficulties, including the problem of integrating very diverse material. On the whole, theauthor found that the approach worked well and recommends it for further development.The rest of this paper is in five parts: (1) An account of how and why the course was developed and itseducational goals; (2) The design of the course, including the syllabus; (3) Observations on the types ofstudents who took the course; (4) The students

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Gregory S. Parnell; Michael Kwinn

Engineering at West Point was established in 1989 as an outgrowth of theformer Department of Engineering (now the Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering.)Brigadier General (Retired) James L. Kays was the first head of the newly formed department and had theresponsibility for not only developing the academic programs under the department but also most of thecourses. The department was designed with four overarching objectives that have endured through threedepartment heads [1]: focus on cadet education; foster faculty growth and development; remain linked tothe industry we serve - the Army; and integrate state-of-the-art computer and information technology intothe education process.The Department established the Systems Engineering major after

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Bahram Nassersharif

Discovery-Based Learning Engineering Classroom Bahram Nassersharif, Ph.D. Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics University of Rhode IslandAbstractEngineering design, optimization, and analysis practice in the 21st century is performed using complexcomputer models and graphical visualization of the results. Engineering education must also incorporateteaching and use of computer models for enhancing the depth and breadth of student learning. Today, weuse a computer center to provide access to computers and educate engineering students to understand andapply engineering software such as AutoCAD, SolidWorks, Matlab, and Ansys

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Dean Aslam; Aixia Shao

picometer dimensions. Referring tolength in Fig. 3, it is found that the structures with dimensions below approximately 100 nm are not onlydifficult to see but hard to understand and explain. The properties of materials at such small dimensionscan only be understood by using quantum mechanics. Some important questions are: How small thelength scale needs to be to qualify as nanostructure? How many atoms are there in a nanostructure? Arethe physical properties of nanostructures different from those of bulk materials?Definition of Nano As there two approaches of study of nanostructures, the top-down and bottom-up, the definition ofwhat is considered nano may differ depending upon the approach. In the bottom-up approach the study ofmolecules can

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Joseph Robert Yost; Randy D. Weinstein

lectured on the integrity of electrical connections, sources of resistance in electrical circuits, and design of parallel and series circuits. Finally, ME lectured on the relationships between power, torque, gearing, and how these factors ultimately influence the mechanical performance of an electrically powered vehicle that will be built for the competition.• Laboratory Session During the three hour laboratory session, students are provided with specific analytical and design information that will be necessary in competing effectively in the end of the semester competition. There are typically demonstrations and interactive exercises that compliment additional lecture material. The students are required to work in

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Eileen M. Kowalski; Joe D. Manous

includepresentation style, use of demonstrations and technology, and the development of problems sets anddesign problems.5,6,12,13,16 While these improvements in learning effectiveness are substantial benefits tothe education process, they do not completely address how to place our accumulated engineeringknowledge in a four-year program. The “traditional” method of engineering education has served the public well. The outstandingquestion is whether these methods meet the needs of an expanding knowledge base in the 21st Century.The traditional method operates on the assumption that exposure to material with repetition throughhomeworks and designs is sufficient to provide the learning necessary for the next step in the educationprocess. However, this

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Teaching for Success; Molding Course Syllabi to Support Student Capstone Design Work.Abstract This paper details the curriculum changes made within both the aeronautical and automotive sub-disciplines of the United States Military Academy’s (USMA) Mechanical Engineering (ME) program tosupport student senior design projects. Based on instructor/advisor observations, both sub-disciplinesrealized a need to better support student design by front-loading crucial design concepts andmethodologies in their respective courses. A review of the USMA mechanical engineering curriculum isaddressed illustrating the need for these syllabi changes. The aeronautical and automotive syllabi changesimplemented and their

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Dean M. Aslam; Zongliang Cao; Cyrous Rostamzadeh

Circuit is used to build the simple circuit. • Referring to the breadboard, you will find that the LED in the NMOS area of the Sensor lights up, meaning that the Fig. 5: Sensor development; from circuit to charge on the polycarbonate sheet is positive. Now try product. rubbing different materials on cloth (also use different types of cloths, plastic sheets, etc.) to find Figure 6 Electro Mechanical Devices; the type and strength of the charges that you generate humanoid, beams and bridges for different materials. • Prepare a summary of your observations.Activity 3: K, C, P The static charges can be used to understand the basic

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Diana Schwerha; Chang Liu; Sertac Ozercan; Tripura Vadlamani; Lev Neiman

undergrads and serves as a service course for other engineering and technology undergraduatestudents.The material taught in ISE 306 includes confidence intervals, types of error, statistical power, hypothesistesting, analysis of variance, and simple and multiple linear regression. Typically, a student’s grade iscomposed of some combination of in-class participation, homework assignments, quizzes, and tests.Although teachers direct the quality of in-class learning experiences, out-of-class experiences are largelyunregulated unless the student comes in during office hours. Students may choose to work with otherstudents or they may not. During the course of studying, students often do not have means for feedbackon their work. This can lead to