Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Dean Aslam; Aixia Shao

not impossible. However, ifmacro/micro technologies and minirobots are used to explain nano concepts in a fun way, the formal andinformal learners can be engaged. For example, learners get very excited when they use a bubble makerrobot to study bubbles. As they watch the skin of soap bubbles changing their color a few times beforethey break, their excitement and fascination is evident from the level of interest seen in over 300 learnersat K12, undergraduate and graduate levels during 2005-07. This paper reveals the use of Lego creationsand programmable robots for nanotechnology education for the first time using the TASEM concept. Thelearning starts with watching videos explaining the concepts of size followed by hands-on activities thatlead

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Adam J. Czekanski; David-Michael P. Roux

. Lowry, P., Romano, N., and Guthrie, R. (2006). Explaining and Predicting Outcomes of Large Classrooms Using Audience Response Systems. Proceedings of the 39th IEEE Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 4-7 January 2006, Kauai, Hawaii.6. Siau, K., Sheng, H., and Nah, F. (2006). Use of a Classroom Response System to Enhance Classroom Interactivity. IEEE Transactions on Education, 49(3), 398-403.7. DeBourgh, G. (2007). Use of Classroom “Clickers” to Promote Acquisition of Advanced Reasoning Skills. Nurse Education in Practice, in press.8. Siegel, J., Schmidt, K., Cone, J. (2004). INTICE – Interactive Technology to Improve the Classroom Experience. Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Dean M. Aslam; Zongliang Cao; Cyrous Rostamzadeh

All M, T, C, S, L, Lego VDG I, A S, T, E M M, H A & Sensors Generators VDG Design A S, T, E L M A, S, T, P, U, E T, C, W Use of LegosConclusions and Future Plans Focusing on technology innovations, rather than education research, this paper reveals for the first time Lego-basedVan de Graaff generators field-tested on approximately 200 K-12, undergraduate and graduate students. As most of theeducators in engineering in the US have doctoral

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Gad J. Selig

1254 Total Graduate Business & Engineering 571 697 1325 1722 SemesterMarket Needs 2When we reviewed the TM program and factored in the growing needs for more inter-disciplinaryeducation programs, the development team applied many years of business, management, leadership,engineering and technology industry and education experience to the task and asked some difficultquestions such as, “Who would we hire today as

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Anthony Manno; Kamal Shahrabi

project.Projects can also entail educating students on something that they might have use for in afuture job, like creating a database, or how to use the latest Internet technologies likeblogging and programming their own websites.Some of these projects have piqued some students’ interest to take technology classes,like Web Page Design, Data Communications and Computer in Technology. Otherstudents have decided to switch to a technology field, like telecommunications.Successful Course:We started with two sections and within a short period of time now we had to increase itto 10-12 sections each semester. They are usually all closed within the first few days ofregistration. If we were to open another 5-6 more sections then they too would probablyquickly fill

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Abdelshakour Abuzneid; Khaled Elleithy

Using Available Wireless / Wired Network Infrastructure for Public Safety and Emergency Early Response Abdelshakour Abuzneid, Khaled Elleithy {abuzneid, elleithy, mohannad}@bridgeport.edu Computer Science and Engineering Department University of Bridgeport Bridgeport, CT 06604 Abstract- After September eleven the idea of Public Safety became a key policy goal for everygovernmental, education and commercial institute. Currently, most of the buildings are equipped withinfrastructure for internal and external communication and networking. By being able to utilize

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Kanti Prasad

Hogan’s funds. The test mask for this endeavor was provided byNational Institute of Science and Technology (NIST), wherein students in the courseVLSI Fabrication transfer the mask to fabricate the MOSFET on a Si wafer, and carry outin-situ testing as well as exhaustive testing in all stages of processing including Oxidation,Lithography, Diffusion, Metallization etc. Phase 4: This phase was not also accomplishedbecause of budgetary and space problems at our place so far. 1. Introduction“Theory without practice is Utopia and practice without theory is superstition” has beenthe guiding beacon in imparting the instructions by the author all along. It is because ofthis reason the VLSI design laboratory was

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Bassem Alhalabi; M.K. Hamza; Ali Abu-El Humos

distance education continues to improve and develop there will a continuousneed for research development; a statistical analysis and updated technology for remote lab to be ablecompete with the conventional labs. This is a step forward that might help us explore a new way of teachingand learning at a distance and with objective quality assurance [7-14]. REFERENCES[1] Humos, A., Alhalabi, B., Hamza, M. K., Shufro, E., & Awada, W., “Remote Labs Environments (RLE): A Constructivist Online Experimentation in Science, Engineering, and Information Technology”, the 31st Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society Sheraton Capital Center, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Ali Setoodehnia; Kamal Shahrabi; Anthony Manno

amanno@kean.eduAbstract:Our current economic era has been called the Information Age due to its dependence onthe manipulation of information and the huge improvements in technology and science.In order for the United States to be able to compete effectively in the global economy itneeds to train and graduate students who specialize in the sciences and technology.Therefore, it has become a major issue confronting the country. That is why the authorsset out to find a way to keep students in science and technology programs since it isdifficult to recruit them in the first place. This paper will present a general strategytoward assessing student performance and how to retain students according to thoseresults.Introduction:In today’s modern society

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

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

David I. Schwartz

Motivating Engineering Mathematics Education with Game Analysis Metrics David I. Schwartz Rochester Institute of Technology Department of Information Technology GCCIS, 70-2509 +1 585-475-5521 dis[at]it[dot]rit[dot]eduAbstractIn this paper, I develop a system for computational analysis of games that uses scoring functions tomotivate engineering mathematics education. Although many modern videogames have abandoned pointsas an archaic form of representing victory (or defeat

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Omar A. Shehadeh; Aiman S. Kuzmar

the seven interviewed engineering educators said it is well acceptable and possible to teach 5engineering in Arabic but only under certain conditions. They believe the shortcomings in thisregards are in the Arabs and not in the Arabic language. The Arabic language can easily adaptitself to meet the new demands for emerging technologies. It is the duty of those in charge ofadvancing the language to promote Arabic and find solutions to the problems facing its use ineducation especially in the engineering fields. Almost all of the interviewed educators believethat there are not enough organizations and centers in the Arab World which are dedicated to theArabic language. Further, existing

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Imin Kao

us with important tools for the delivery of course contents in order to enhance thelearning experience of students. Furthermore, students will feel empowered to learn withtechnology and be comfortable with, and capable of excelling in, diverse learning situations withvarious tools and technologies. The environments in which learning takes place can profoundlyaffect their satisfaction with the quality of their educational experiences. Because of theirinclination in technology, they are potentially more affected by the technology in their learningenvironment than their parents.In this presentation, an asynchronous online tool is employed in engineering courses to recordboth classroom lectures and supplementary materials, and to make them

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Roger Chapman Burk

Using Space Travel to Teach Engineering to Liberal Arts Majors Roger Chapman Burk Department of Systems Engineering United States Military Academy, West Point, NYAbstractThis paper describes the author’s experience developing and delivering a new course for non-engineers ata top-ranking national university. It covers the educational philosophy behind the course, how it wasdesigned, and the results of teaching it. The core idea was to use the natural fascination of space travel asa vehicle to help non-engineering students learn basic engineering principles and have fun doing it. Thecourse was interdisciplinary, including lectures on relevant

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Philip L. Brach; Ahmet Zeytinci

until much later in their education. One of these is the concept of limits in calculus. We found thathaving students approach a wall advancing only half the distance they are from the wall each time theyadvance they understand that theoretically they never get to the wall, but practically they do. This as wellas many other mathematical concepts can be illustrated to youngsters. Unfortunately a discussion of themwould require more space then available for this paperMiddle Grades (4th, 5th, and 6th grades)During a recent visit to a 4th grade class at a middle school in Maryland, we were allotted a15 minutesession. The authors used their “experiment in a box” that illustrates the basic forces with which everyoneis familiar, that of push and pull

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Elif Kongar; Tarek Sobh

A Preemptive Goal Programming Model for the Sustainability of Growth in Engineering Colleges Elif Kongar*Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Technology Management. University of Bridgeport Tarek Sobh University of Bridgeport AbstractToday, ever-decreasing budgets and dynamic variations in the number of both faculty and student bodiesare two major challenges that most U.S. universities deal with. In addition to the effort to solve theseproblems, every higher education institution also concentrates on ensuring its sustainability in

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Abdelrahman M Rabie; Rahman Haleem

, Arabic is introduced at two levels; in the general education curriculum (Colloquy on IntegratedLearning) and in the colleges. The COL sequence is aimed at developing the students’ language skillsover three semesters. The first course in the sequence focuses on language receptive (listening andreading) as well as productive (speaking and writing) skills. It also attempts to modernize the teaching ofArabic, by using text related to the Majors rather than traditional literature. In doing so, students get theadded benefit of learning about the Majors before making their choices late in the semester.The outcomes for this sequence are designed to prepare the students for the following phase, which isArabic in the discipline, i.e Functional Arabic

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

M.G. Guvench

fact the junior electronics courses (ELE342and ELE343) constituting prerequisites for this course also emphasize design but at a smaller scale andusing discrete BJT and off-the-shelf ICs rather than at the chip level using CMOS technology. Thisemphasis on “design” in our electronics sequence of courses has been implemented starting with an NSFgrant to establish and develop a “Computer-Integrated-Electronics” Laboratory (C.I.E. Lab) in the early1990’s. The concept of “Computer-Integrated-Electronics Laboratory” simply brings computers into theelectronics lab where designs implemented are tested for verification. Availability of PC-basedcomputational and graphics software along with inexpensive circuit simulation tools like “PSpice

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

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

performed better on afollowing test than did those students who did their homework via traditional methods. This was trueeven though these same students did not perform statistically different on the first test from the studentswho did homework the traditional way. We acknowledge that this was a small sample size and that therecould be a motivation factor in that those students who volunteered to do the Second Life session couldhave been more motivated to learn and perform well in the class. In a survey completed at the end of thesession, students agreed that Second Life could be used successfully for educational purposes. Studentsseemed to enjoy the session and had fun navigating through Second Life.6. DiscussionThe use of the multiple-user

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Robert M. Brooks; Soumitra Basu; Shriram Pillapakkam; Kurosh Darvish; Keerthi V. Takkalapelli

the overall course grades.RecommendationsThe following are the recommendations on how these findings would be used in the future for thefuture offerings of the course. The grade allotted to the empowerment projects will be increased 5from twenty to thirty percent. The projects will be expanded to accommodate other tools oflearning such as group discussions, presentation and communication skills. There are plans tocontinue the work presented at least for the next five years.References(1) Woods, D. and Crowe, C.M., (1985) Characteristics of engineering students in their first two years, Engineering Education, 74, pp. 289-295.(2) Boyer, E.L. (1995) Assessing scholarship, ASEE prism, 4, pp 22-26

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Paul G. Ranky

-world-focused,customized education. They expect a large number of choices, because theyunderstand the power of simulation. They are very visually focused, becausethis is the video gaming generation. They want personalized, customizedproducts, processes and service, and their education process is not an exception.They look for technical details, and want to see it all; immediately, andvirtually...They look for good quality and low cost and ease of use, andinteractivity, because there is NO time to read traditional manuals and statictextbooks… They like to continuously explore, browse the web, watchinteractive, rather than linear videos, explore multimedia-based publications,versus static textbooks, and always experiment, rather than follow the

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

John Adams; Charles Kochakian

were a number of other gains from the process of adopting RFID, including theestablishment of a working relationship with the college’s business school, obtaining significantequipment donations from a wide range of industry partners, and creating co-op, internship,research, and job opportunities. Going forward, the department plans to use its experience withRFID to serve as a template for including future “disruptive technologies” in the curriculum, asRFID will eventually become more of a commodity rather than the emerging technology it isnow.References[1] CRITERIA FOR ACCREDITING ENGINEERING PROGRAMS Effective for Evaluations During the2007-2008 Accreditation Cycle, ABET, Baltimore, MD.[2]Yu and Peters: “Bottom Up Program Assessment using

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Matt Armstrong; Richard L. Comitz; Andrew Biaglow; Russ Lachance; Joseph Sloop

wellas engineering decision making concepts. Lastly our novel approach to curriculum development allowed for an earlier incorporation of theactual data into the process via ChemCad, the Chemical Engineering software that was used by eachstudent. Typically, use of this software does not occur until later in the design sequence. Background The Friedel-Crafts reaction is used in laboratory synthesis as well as in industry in the synthesis ofethylbenzene and its derivatives as an intermediate to make styrene monomers1. Therefore, this reactionwas a good choice to integrate several different courses. Laboratory experiments conducted during the second semester of organic chemistry generallyillustrate practical

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

with the technicalknowledge necessary to successfully design a vehicle. Until recently these courses were geared towardgeneral education within the sub-discipline and did not address the specific needs of the design teams (inessence, their customers). However, based on advisor observations and student feedback, these electivecourses modified their course syllabi to better prepare students for the design process. This paper detailsthe changes made to those courses and the impact on the capstone design projects. The ME curriculum at USMA consists of six possible sub-disciplines, including aerospace andautomotive engineering. Each sub-discipline consists of the core ME program and two technical electivesin the specific area – the first in

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Roy T.R. McGrann

/solidedge/index.shtml, accessed 10 February 2008.4 ABET Criteria for Accrediting Engineering Programs: Effective for Evaluations during the 2008-2009 Accreditation Cycle, http://www.abet.org/Linked Documents-UPDATE/Criteria and PP/E001 08-09 EAC Criteria 11-30-07.pdf, accessed 10 February 2008.5 Ibid., p. 2.6 The methodology that is taught is based on Dixon, John, and Corrado Poli, Engineering Design & Design for Manufacturing: A Structured Approach, Field Stone Pub (1999) and Eggert, Rodolph J., Engineering Design, Prentice Hall (2004)7 McGrann, R.T.R., “Enhancing Engineering Computer-Aided Design Education Using Lectures Recorded on the PC,” Journal of Educational Technology Systems, Fall 20068 Giesecke, Frederick E., et

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Carol Siri Johnson

compiled in the office), defect sheets and books (originating with multiple formenin charge of parts of the processes and compiled in the office) and other books such as car record books(tracking freight), puddle-mill books (the older technology overlapped the newer), bound inventories orplant equipment and payroll sheets and books. Some of these of records were kept by individual foremenin pocket-books and then added their data to larger ledgers. Overall, record keeping paved the way forfurther use of paper in the manufacturing environment. The records discussed in this section are not technical communication, but they demonstrate anincreased reliance on paper to document and store data and a need for an increasingly large staff of

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Richard B. Mindek

control, and remote I/O.Today, PLC’s are used in all facets of industry, provide a broad range of functions, can be programmedusing a desktop personal computer, and can be purchased for as little as several hundred dollars. Withsuch broad use in industry, wide-ranging application in engineering related fields and availability to usersat all levels, it is imperative that engineering educators provide young engineers with a fundamentalunderstanding of the operation and capabilities of PLCs. This task has recently been undertaken withinthe Mechanical Engineering Program at Western New England College, through the building of a PLCplatform and development of a PLC laboratory. This laboratory is unique in that it is designed to allowstudents to self

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

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

skills in ways that advance both currentand future practice. The course was designed as a directed study course for six students and is currently 1being taught by the first author in the current semester (Spring 2008). The learning theory is brieflydescribed and the major elements of the course are discussed in detail in subsequent sections.Approach of Reflective ActionThe approach of reflective action used in this course has its roots in the work of Donald Schon beginningwith his work, The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action 2 as well as Educating theReflective Practitioner 3. In his work Schon develops the concept of “reflection-in-action.” Thisapproach takes

Collection

2008 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

narrowsubset of potential solutions4. In this article, the introduction of creativity as a requirement in a project isdescribed, discussed and the results are presented. More importantly, the results give insight to thestudents’ perspective of creativity.The word “active learning” is used to describe the involvement of students in their own learning process.The active learning model can be divided into activities involving some type of observing/doingexperience and activities involving some type of dialogue. A balanced percentage of these types oflearning activities can have an additive or cumulative impact. This project provides for all aspects of theactive learning model