Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Carlos Bertha

Greek, phronēsis) because the person had to have an understanding of the“particulars” of a case. This kind of knowledge, therefore, should not be confused with scientificknowledge, which he called epistēmē. Epistēmē required knowledge about “universals” andwould be more easily understood for our purposes if we thought of it as being “theoretical”knowledge as opposed to phronēsis, which is “practical” knowledge. [1]This parallels nicely our tendency to compartmentalize the world into those who think (i.e.,theorize, like pure scientists do) and those who do stuff (i.e. practice a particular field, likedoctors or lawyers do). Engineers are clearly “doers,” more so than (pure) thinkers. So when itcomes to ethics, engineers want to do more than just

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Mark Miles; C.M. Chewar

was a typical “bell curve.” On the mid-term exam, the Instructor/Developer included questions that were meant toreinforce concepts the students had practiced on their problem sets. However, he was verydisappointed in the results. His initial analysis was that they were “figuring out” the problemsassigned, merely repeating the mechanisms of a solution method without really learning theunderlying concepts.2.1. Related Work:Seeking to enhance our understanding about how we could engage these engineering students ina deeper level of learning, we turned to Driscoll’s discussion of curiosity and interest as adeterminate of student motivation [1]. Cognitive theorists extend the general premises ofmotivational research, which explain human

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Sidi Berri; Andy S.J. Zhang

CADD programs beyond the associate level.In the meantime, Industrial Design as a discipline has been recognized as an important player inthe area of product design and development. In many cases, whether it is the design of a new car,design of a new medical device, or design of a new commercial electronic gadget, we have seenthat industrial designers are now playing key roles and are involved in the entire productdevelopment process from initial product planning to post implementation.[1-4]In light of these developments and after an extensive research, one year ago, the Departmentdecided to create a new program called Industrial Design Technology (IND) to replace theexisting CADD program. This change not only reflected the changes we made over

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Jack Ryder

the better performing solutions from the previouspopulation, and the process of evolving a solution continues.John Holland [1] developed genetic algorithms as an abstraction of biologicalevolution and provided the mathematical framework for adaptation of geneticalgorithms. Many problems involve searching through a large number ofpossibilities for a solution. Other computational problems require programs to beadaptive. Still others require new or novel ideas in their solutions. Geneticalgorithms are well suited to these types of problems. They have successfullybeen used for problem solving in such areas as machine learning, robotics,adaptive systems and optimization [2] [3].2. Genetic Algorithm and Terminology:Species (solutions) evolve over

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

David Lai; Zhongwei Zhang; Chong Shen

E8DCA@97653 4B 8 4 1 ) ' ¦ & %2%# 0(¢ §¥ ¦ ¨ ¥   £ ¦ ¡¥ ¨ ¦ ¦ ¡ ¦ ¥ ¨ ¦¥ £ ¡ %$# ¢§"¤ ¤§! ¤ ¢§©§¢¤¢  ! 3 # A

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Xinzhou Wei; Kenneth Markowitz; Aron Goykadosh

system such as RFIDwithout compromising the performance and usability.Keywords: Digital signature, Radio-Frequency Identification, data integrity, wireless security. 1. INTRODUCTION Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) is a small wireless device that saves the data asunique identifiers. It will serve as next-generation Universal Product Code (UPC) system. Itsadvantages include: (1) It requires no human intervention; (2) Tags can usually be read evenwhen a tag keeps some distance with the tag reader; (3) The information can be transmitted tocomputers in real time. There are several types of RFID that operate at different radio frequencies. The choice offrequency is dependent on the read environment and

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

James A. Sinclair; Kamal Shahrabi; Ali Setoodehnia

gaining momentum for the past hundred years. In general simplified terms, the special theory dictates that mass,accelerated to unimaginable speeds (specifically the speed of light), will release immense amounts of energy. Any scientifictheory that propagates production of large amounts of energy from small amounts of matter is of great interest to engineersworldwide (Doyle, 2000).Dr. Einstein’s theory cuts across the universe into the deepest secrets of genesis. It builds on the universal Newtonian laws,and forward into the still dark areas of the “undiscovered countries” of future research (Asimov, 1991). -1-The amazing atomIn the ancient past, approximately 300 - 400 BC, Greek

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Eric Granlund; Sohail Anwar

. This manuscript describes the instructional approach used to teach this project-based capstone engineering design course. Detailed information regarding the activities conducted in MET 210W is provided. Finally, the assessment techniques used in this course are described.IntroductionThe engineering education community has shown increasing interest in project-basedlearning approaches. The benefits of project-based learning include enhanced studentparticipation in the learning process, enhanced communication skills, addressing of awider set of learning styles, and the promotion of critical thinking.1 The authors feel thatthe use of engineering design and analysis projects provide students with a wider contextto the material

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Wei Cao; Andrew Elston; Muhammad Farooq

conducted on solid quantitative base. A new criterion designed for defining and measuring the degree of complexity of a linear-inseparable data-pattern is proposed and a new method is developed in this study. The single-hidden-layer back-propagation neural network is used as a test bed engine since it is of promise to solve linear-inseparable problem.1. Back-Propagation (B.P.) Nets with or without Hidden-LayersDef.1 Multi-Hidden-Layer B.P. Net: A B.P. net with λ hidden-layers (λ >1) can be denotes as a M-H1-H2-...-Hλ-1-N-1 B.P. net with input (x1, x2, …, xM).Def.2 Single-Hidden-Layer B.P. Net: A B.P. net with only one hidden layer (λ =1), which containsN nodes, can be denoted as a M-N-1 B.P. net with

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Ronald E. Barr

pursuing studies in science and engineering in the youth of our U.S. society. We must find new ways to portray engineering as an exciting and rewarding career, and certainly as an educational platform for professional careers beyond the baccalaureate. These and other important topics of current interest in engineering education are briefly presented, and some of ASEE’s responses in these venues are outlined. Keywords: Engineering Education, American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE)Global Engineering EducationThe engineering landscape has changed in the past decade. As Thomas Friedman [1] has soprofoundly stated in his contemporary book, the world is now flat. The implication of

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Erdogan M. Sener

technologies (internet, email, cellular phones, etc.)The following part of the paper will focus on what will characterize infrastructure constructionwork in the coming decades in the author’s opinion and what this will mean for constructioneducation and curricula. It is to be noted that this coverage below is not in any order of priority.Changing Nature of Infrastructure Construction Work and ExpectationsChanging nature of infrastructure construction work will be addressed in basically six categories,with the characteristics foreseen for each category described briefly for clarification purposes. 1. Stage and inventory of infrastructural construction work in the nation: The federal and state highway and bridge construction has reached a point

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Mark Miles; Eugene Ressler; Paul Maxwell; Kurt Webber

lies in the design methodology that produced them, where we considered the notion of pedagogical efficiency together with desired program outcomes to derive requirements for the tools. We focus on two aspects of efficiency, (1) the advantages of designing, building and testing “hands on” as a method for conveying concepts and (2) eliminating “make work,” which detracts both from the curriculum and student time, attention, and enthusiasm. As a result, our tools support a broad collection of outcomes in computer engineering and computer science, including understanding fundamental architecture, assembly language, compilation, and operating system concepts. We also

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Ashraf M. Ghaly

anddrafting software packages, courses on engineering graphics can presently achievesignificantly ambitious goals. These advanced techniques, coupled with students’reasonable comfort and familiarity with computers can help instructors raise thelevel of expectation and allow the students to use their imagination beyondtraditional boundaries. 1Subjects Covered:The main subjects covered in the technical drawing course at Union College are:1. Introduction to Graphics Communications.2. Sketching and Text.3. Section and Auxiliary Views.4. Dimensioning and Tolerancing Practices.5. Reading and Constructing Working Drawings.6. Design and 3-D Modeling.After an in

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Lance Breger; Kenneth Markowitz

idea at a time. Linear information obscures the relationships among ideas, particularly those relationships that span two or more topics. Relationships are clearer when you use representations, such as hierarchies (tree diagrams), sequences, matrices (tables), and diagrams (pictures), to organize information. Representations are effective because they localize information, reduce clutter, highlight missing details, and develop the "big picture," the relationships and patterns hidden in paragraphs, lists, and outlines. [1]DESCRIPTION OF BOOKLET We have prepared a booklet of 22 pages containing 11 diagrams showing theoperation the major types of transmitters and

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Ronald P. Uhlig; Shekar Viswanathan

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

James A. Sinclair; Kamal Shahrabi; Ali Setoodehnia

organizations which are notsatisfied with general data safety levels of most operating systems, are turning to UNIXto significantly improve levels of security within their networks, as well as individualworkstations. In many cases, elaborate and very costly training programs are beingimplemented in many companies to switch their employees to a UNIX environment. This work could be an excellent primer for anybody trying to learn the basics, andeventually master the complex arts of the UNIX operating system; it’s programming, andadministration.III. Task Analysis The following tasks will need to be accomplished to complete the project: 1. Design graphical splash screen. This introductory screen will display the logo of the

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

K. Markowitz; H. Marandi

social responsibilities” in the engineering profession and practice(1) per criterion 2i and 2j of the current ABET Criteria. Thus in effect, ABET is taking a position that students need to begin to think aboutethical issues in engineering before things go wrong. Just as good health habits minimize theneed for more serious medications later on, preventive ethics (2) may minimize or even avoidpainful consequences in the future. The intent of this paper is to discuss how engineering facultymay accomplish this goal. As educators, it is our responsibility to emphasize ethics as part of any technologyprogram. A strong technology program rich in ethics, and carefully guided by significantpsychological and philosophical principles will

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Ashraf M. Ghaly; Michael J. Bogino

different categories.1. Suspension bridges (The Brooklyn Bridge, NYC, New York), Figure 1 & 2.2. Underwater structures (The Chunnel Tunnel, France-Britain), Figure 3 & 4.3. Tall structures (The CN Tower, Toronto, Ontario, Canada), Figure 5 & 6.4. Hydraulic Structures (Hoover Dam, Nevada), Figure 7 & 8.5. Deep water structures (The Statfjord B Oil Platform, Norway), Figure 9 & 10.6. Cable-stayed bridges (The Sunshine Skyway Bridge, Tampa, Florida), Figure 11 & 12.7. Domes (The Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans, Louisiana), Figure 13 & 14.Implementation:Each module in the new course will detail the historical events that led to the thought of buildingthe selected structures. Some of these structures, such as the Chunnel

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Howard Silver

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Betsy Calhoun

RESEARCH PROJECTASEE Mid-Atlantic SectionSpring 2006 ConferencePaper due March 1, 2006Betsy Calhoun, R.A.Adjunct Assistant ProfessorDepartment of Architectural TechnologyAdjunct Academy at City TechNew York City College of Technology, CUNY LEARNING FROM ANCIENT TECHNOLOGY: ANCIENT TECHNOLOGY RELEVANT TO CONTEMPORARY ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION: The Interrelationship of Building and the EnvironmentNOTE: THIS PAPER IS TO BE A POWER POINT PRESENTATION WITH SLIDES OFPHOTOGRAPHS AND DRAWINGS TO ILLUSTRATE THE IDEAS I DISCUSS.Introduction and thesis statement. Today we speak of ‘technology’ and think solely ofdigital, computer-related ways of learning, communicating and designing. Are wethrowing

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Wei Cao; Peggy Vance

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Tatiana Malyuta

system with the Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) [1], [2].Furthermore, as ontological data, now it goes beyond a separate application or IS in the form ofthe Semantic Web and allows for linking various Web resources [3]. All these purposes of dataare supported by the corresponding data models: semi-structured and object-oriented, andtechnologies: eXtensible Markup Language (XML), Web Service Language Description(WSLD), Resource Description Framework (RDF), Ontology Web Language (OWL), andothers.The curricula of computer majors traditionally include the discussion of the concepts of design,implementation and management of a database as the object of processing of an application, aswell as the relevant technologies—Database Management Systems

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Keith M. Gardiner

everyday life and career choices of engineers. Key words: Engineering ethics, ethics and technology, first year students.IntroductionEthics, often viewed as a boring and fusty topic abounding with arcane phrases and eye-rollingphilosophy, has become a matter of almost daily concern and public interest. From Enron toVioxx with skewed or mis-reported data, to insulation breakdowns in defibrillators [1], NewOrleans levee failures, and with microelectronics manufacturers and plastics processesexperiencing difficult solvent choices [2][3], there are many issues for engineering decisionmakers. Ethics are also closely associated with the “rules and standards governing the conductof members of a profession.” [4]Ethics embraces more than the “Golden Rule

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Justin Highley

flow.However, the same conservation principles (mass, energy, momentum) apply toboth subjects - only the application is different. Second, some of the engineeringdisciplines (Civil, Environmental, Engineering Management) were required totake both courses to gain enough background knowledge to perform well on theFundamentals of Engineering Exam (FE). This in turn detracted from their abilityto take electives in their chosen field of study. In light of these issues and as part of a proposal to combine severalengineering courses, the CME faculty decided to integrate the two topics into atwo course sequence: ME311: Thermal Fluid Systems I and ME312: Thermal 1Fluid Systems II [1]. The decision to use two

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Robert Avanzato

orsimilar program, made available on the internet for downloading to a personal audioplayer"[1]. Podcasts (also known as “audio blogs”) are generally digital audio recordingsthat are stored in MP3 compressed format and typically consist of a series of episodeswhich are added on a regular basis, perhaps once a day, or once a week, or other timeperiod. Each of the episode recordings can be typically in the 2 minute to 30 minute ormore duration in length. The key to the success of the podcast technology is the ability to“subscribe” to a podcast series or program. Each podcast program available forsubscription has an associated RSS feed text file (in a special XML format) whichprovides content and episode information. Special software clients, called

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Andrew Grossfield; Jumoke Ladeji-Osias

st PRINCIPLES OF 1 ORDER LINEAR SWITCHED DC CIRCUITS by Andrew Grossfield, Ph.D., P.E. and Jumoke Ladeji-Osias, Ph.D. Vaughn College f Technology/Morgan State University AbstractIn the study of transient signals, an important class of circuits is those containing one energystoring element, resistors in any combination, constant voltage or current sources and either aswitch or a step signal source. This class is the simplest of the linear transient circuits and yetthe principles may apply to higher order circuits. We will list the principles governing thebehavior of such

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Zorica Suvajdzin; Miroslav Hajdukovic

moment that is widelyspread and practically applied. We believe that there is practical needfor such systems and we have decided to try intuitive approach,attacking the problem pragmatically.Program Composing Assistant (PROCOMPASS) is an interactive editingsystem that tried to strike a balance between user and tool. It is aimedto apprehend the features from the traditional structure editing systemsthat are certainly of benefit to the programmer. PROCOMPASS editoroffers unified user interface aimed to support structured but stillflexible syntax-oriented editing of program text with the equaltreatment of all programming language elements (e.g. expressions andstatements). Main features of PROCOMPASS editor are: (1) guiding auser, so a user does not

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Dietmar Wippig; Dernd Klauer; Oliver Seidel; Hans Christoph Zeidler

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Philip L. Brach; Ahmet Zeytinci

. Dan H. Pletta [1] defined morals asthe principles or the standards of right or wrong conduct involving voluntary action, and ethics asmore the study of human actions as being right or wrong.The focus of this paper will be on that aspect of acceptable human behavior known as ethics:precisely, the ethical behavior expected of engineers in the practice of their profession. At TheUniversity of the District of Columbia (UDC) in our senior course, which addresses this topic,we use two resources.The first one is a video dramatization on engineering ethics entitled “Gilbane Gold [2]”. This is acase study in ethics prepared by the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE). Thesecond one is the annual Milton F. Lunch Ethics Contest of NSPE

Collection

2006 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

William E. Kelly; Theodore A. Bickart; Richard J. Forselius

Engineering programs require students to incorporate engineering standards in the culminating designexperience; recent changes continue this requirement [1]. The United States National Standards Strategy (NSS) called for increasedefforts to educate future leaders in engineering, business and public policy on the value and importance of standards[2]. The NSS wasdeveloped by a diverse group of government and private sector representatives from industry, government, trade and professionalsocieties, and consumer organizations. To support the NSS, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) established aCommittee on Education (CoE) with one of its charges to support and assist engineering and technology programs in standardseducation. This effort