Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Kevin R. Lewelling; Kevin S. Woolverton; Michael C. Reynolds

project. Our selected project stressed management principles bycreating realistic budgets, Gantt charts, fundraising, advertising, and managerial interactions.Likewise, teamwork was encouraged by real-world time demands, task complexity, moderncommunications, and public visibility.2.0 Project objectives and outcomesThere were four main objectives considered in selecting the “Holiday Light Show” project whichintroduced first-year engineering students to the following concepts. 1) Exposing students tocommunication methods within the global business environment will better equip students forinternational offices and understand differences in multicultural ethics. 2) The second objectiveis to encourage creative thinking. As the pace and volume of

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Day W. Radebaugh

1 The Devil is in the Details: Why Engineering is an Inexact Science Day W. Radebaugh Assistant Professor of Philosophy Department of Philosophy Wichita State University Wichita, Kansas 67260AbstractOne of the main reasons cited for the choice of an engineering career is the desire toemploy an exact science. Most students of engineering distinguish themselves from thepractitioners of “soft” sciences, such as psychology, marketing, sociology or

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Christi Patton Luks; Laura P. Ford

studentslearn to model transient systems, develop transfer functions from those models, create blockdiagrams and P&IDs, and select components for simple feedback PID control systems. Thissecond course continues with tuning PID feedback controllers on physical systems and goes onto feedforward, cascade, ratio, and multivariable control systems. The textbook for the course isProcess Dynamics and Control1, and this text covers these control systems and tuning processesfor them. The course is set up as 1 hour of laboratory and 2 hours of lecture per week, onaverage over the semester.The class was scheduled to meet from 8:00 to 10:45 am on Tuesdays and Thursdays, taking uptwo 3-hour class slots. Lectures usually ran from 9:30 to 10:45 am. There were a

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Stephan A. Durham; W. Micah Hale; Seamus Freyne

Teaching Aids and Laboratory Experiments to Enhance Materials Learning Stephan A. Durham1, W. Micah Hale2, Seamus Freyne3 1 University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center / 2University of Arkansas / 3Manhattan CollegeAbstractMost civil engineering programs across the country require one course in materials and materialstesting. Many times these courses are structured to provide students the basic understanding ofthe production, properties, and behavior of common structural materials. Emphasis is oftenplaced on concrete, steel, and wood. This paper presents teaching aids and laboratoryexperiments that can be used

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Ken Barnard; Greg Stephens; Raju Dandu

build success. Next year we can planearlier, think bigger, and generate more support. Given more time, more communityorganizations would likely become involved. One suggestion would be to include them earlier inthe planning process. In conclusion it is our hope that our experience will help other college anduniversities promote Earth Day activities on their campuses across the nation.BibliographyAmerican Chemical Society, “Chemists Celebrate Earth Day”, Downloaded June 23, 2007http://www.chemistry.org/portal/a/c/s/1/acsdisplay.html?DOC=oca%5Cearthday%5Cindex.htmlAn Inconvenient Truth, Downloaded June 23, 2007 http://www.climatecrisis.net/Earth Day U.S. Government Portal, “Earth Day April 22, 2007”, Downloaded June 23, 2007http

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Ramesh V. Narang

companies have realizedthe tremendous benefits of understanding the basic principles of measurement variation withoutwhich it is impossible to implement six sigma.Six sigma is a quality-improvement tool that is designed to make businesses as successful aspossible. Its primary objective is to deliver world-class performance, reliability, and value to thecustomer. The tools of six sigma are applied within a framework known as Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control (DMAIC). In DMAIC, the measure phase establishes techniques forcollecting data about the current performance and how well it is meeting customer requirements[1]. Upon completion of this phase, the six sigma team expects to have reliable and accuratemeasurements for further analysis and

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Wei Zhang

learning outcome.1. IntroductionMost computer science and computer engineering programs have two or more computerarchitecture courses [4]. The introductory computer architecture course typically followsa programming course and a logic design course, which is often offered to sophomore orjunior students. The goal of the first computer architecture course is generally to providea basic introduction to the organization and input/output interface of a simple general-purpose microprocessor. More advanced architecture concepts and optimizations areusually provided in the secondary computer architecture course.Proceedings of the 2007 Midwest Section Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Shannon G. Davis; Carol S. Gattis; Edgar C. Clausen

laboratory exercises. ThePartnership Program consists of three parts: 1) instruction at the institutes using a number ofhands-on activities that will be used in the classroom; 2) follow-up activities at the middle andjunior high schools and; 3) evaluation, both during and after the summer institutes.In evaluating Year 1 of the program, several important lessons were learned:• Arkansas Science Curriculum Frameworks are structured with minimal overlap from grade to grade, making it difficult to structure activities that fit equally well in each middle school grade levels.• Despite the imperative to directly align experiments with the Curriculum Frameworks, teachers and students thoroughly enjoyed experiments with an engineering theme.• None

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Lawrence Whitman; S. Hossein Cheraghi; Janet Twomey

commented that they have“really learned” the course content through the simulation. Through the existingproject the students develop a more thorough understanding of traditionalproduction systems concepts. The existing class project uses a simple, non-trivialfactory as shown in figure 1.Proceedings of the 2007 Midwest Section Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education 4Figure 1. Factory FlowMany students are unaware of issues beyond typical classroom lectures. Theexample used here is related to the idea of lean and green. The basic concept oflean and green manufacturing is for production systems to view pollution as

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Lawrence Whitman; Zulma Toro-Ramos; Steven Skinner

local and national industries. This paper describes the details of therequirements at WSU, the resources required, and the linkage to ABET outcomes.I. Introduction and MotivationThe College of Engineering (CoE) at Wichita State University (WSU) haslaunched a strategic initiative, Engineer of 2020, in order to prepare graduates foreffective engagement in the engineering profession in the year 2020. Thisinitiative is in part motivated by two reports from the National Academy ofEngineering, of the National Academies, entitled The Engineer of 2020 [1] and itsfollow-on Educating the Engineer of 2020 [2]. These reports, written by twogroups of distinguished educators and practicing engineers from diversebackgrounds, were developed in response to a

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Joseph J. Rencis; Sachin Terdalkar

hasintegrated stress concentrations and static failure into introductory finite elementundergraduate courses, graduate courses and industrial short courses. The authors havefound through experience that students and practitioners are not familiar with the stressconcentrations and static failure associated with these elements.1. IntroductionThe finite element method (FEM) has been used extensively during the past thirty yearsin industry and is now a standard engineering tool for both analysis and design. Years ofexperience with the method have shown that by understanding the fundamentals of thetechnique, real complex systems can be modeled with a high degree of reliability. It isimportant to emphasize, however, that the reliability of the process is

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Behnam Bahr; Kurt Soschinske; George Gray

numerical controlled (CNC) machining. A recent acquisition ofdonated equipment from Haas Machine Tool equipment consisted of two vertical machiningcenter and a turning center was worth $250,000 1. However, even though the focus of each institution is concentrated on a core area(engineering science / design with WSU and applied design / manufacturing with WATC), abasic understanding and familiarity of the manufacturing, measurement, and technology skillstaught to WATC students must be understood by WSU ME students in order for them as newengineers to effectively develop marketable product designs. This manufacturing experience isnot fully accessible to WSU ME students for their design development activities due to multiplefactors including

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Day W. Radebaugh

1 Complexity in Engineering: The Silent Killer Day W. Radebaugh Assistant Professor of Philosophy Department of Philosophy Wichita State University Wichita, Kansas 67260AbstractA review of the list of recent technological disasters suggests that the risk to society oflarge-scale engineering projects has grown in proportion to the complexity of thedesigned system. Illustrative cases include the Challenger explosion, the power gridblackouts of

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Kimberly H. Henthorn

participation, and feedback to theinstructor and students. In 2006, the 3-hour lab block associated with the course was reorganizedinto 3 1-hour problem solving sessions. This modification greatly increased students’ retentionand understanding of the material by efficiently utilizing class time, which resulted in anoticeable improvement in overall course grades.CollaborationOne of the most important and hardest skills to teach students is collaboration. Many youngerstudents in engineering were at or near the top of their high school and freshman college classesand have learned that they work most effectively by themselves. However, the problem-basedcourses they encounter in engineering are very different and many students who do not learn towork

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Ana Goulart; Charles Watkins; Robert Hegedus

to new technologies through network simulation.1 – IntroductionIn the design of new systems, modeling and simulation allow us to verify new architecturesbefore their actual implementation. In the analysis of existing networks, modeling and simulationallow us to identify bottlenecks and evaluate the impact of new users, applications or changes tothe network infrastructure. Using OpnetTM as a software tool to simulate and model computernetworks, our course on Communication Networks Modeling, Simulation and Testing, in theTelecommunications Engineering Technology program at Texas A&M, teaches our students toevaluate and identify limitations in network architectures and protocols.Moreover, one of our goals is to teach them to integrate new

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Theodore W. Manikas; Gerald R. Kane

industry and academia is essential for all engineering fields. Engineeringstudents benefit from intern programs, as these provide practical experience and developmentalmaturity 1. By working in an industrial engineering environment, students learn how to translatethe theoretical background of their coursework into actual product development. In addition,students are exposed to the interaction of engineering design with corporate concerns such asproject managements, finance, and manufacturing.Employers are more likely to hire engineering students that have some experience and haveacquired a basic knowledge on how their specific industry works. Also, the internshipexperience will increase students' confidence in their engineering abilities, and will

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Ramazan Asmatulu; Waseem Khan; Humphrey Wamocha; Adebayo Adeniji

, devices and/or systemsat the near-atomic or nanometer levels (roughly 1 to 100 nm). A nanometer is 10 angstrom orone billionth of a meter - nearly 100,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. Thistechnology involves fabrication, imaging, measuring, modeling, and manipulating matter at thislength scale. The goal of nanotechnology is to control individual atoms, molecules or particles tosignificantly improve physical, chemical, physicochemical and biological properties of novelmaterials and devices. It is impacting broad ranges of highly multidisciplinary fields, such asengineering, materials science, colloidal science, physics, chemistry, medicine and biology [1-3]. There are several nanomaterials created using nanotechnology or

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Surendra Singh

to a B.S. degree, students have to takealmost two years of math, physics, humanities and other required courses, thereby, leaving thejunior and senior years for courses in their major. Some programs include a two-semestersequence of senior design course [1], which allows the students to design and build circuits orsystems. There is hardly a component in the education process where the students are able to getpractical work experience. Of course, some students find summer employment in theirhometown or get an internship in one of the national laboratories. But for the most part, there isno formal work experience built in the educational process. To quote Zdunek [2], “Formalcourse work is only part of an engineer’s education; training for

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

W. Roy Penney; Rachel M. Lee; Meagan E. Magie; Edgar C. Clausen

principles.Rating a Jeep Grand Cherokee Cooling System RadiatorObjectiveThe purpose of this project was to rate a 2006 Jeep Grand Cherokee radiator relative to the dutyrequired to cool the engine.Equipment and MaterialsFigure 1 shows a photograph of a section of the junk radiator that was used in calculating therating. The photograph shows a cut-away of the tubes through which the ethylene glycolsolution flowed, as well as the perforated fins over which the air flowed. Figure 2 shows aMicrosoft Visio schematic of the radiator section that depicts the dimensions of the tubes and theair fins, as determined by direct measurement, using the help of the Chemical EngineeringDepartment Machinist. Dimensions are shown in Table 1. Figure 3 shows both a

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Larry A. Glasgow

opportunities to explore forces, causal factors, and effects inthe real world. Diminished opportunity to physically experience produces diminished ability toperceive. The predictable result is that students in engineering and the applied sciences struggleto critically evaluate their work in problem-solving exercises. In the fall of 2006 efforts were undertaken to reconnect undergraduate chemicalengineering students with the physical world. Four groups of volunteers (27 students) from ChE530, Transport Phenomena 1, were provided with a large-scale field experience in which waterwas: 1) pumped through a series of nozzles (trading pressure for kinetic energy), 2) pumpedinto a 325 gallon tank to test the delivery rate achieved by the pump (and the

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Christi Patton Luks; Laura P. Ford

whoreview the technical aspects of each project as well as cultural and health concerns.All new projects must be approved by the TAC. The application process for a newproject ensures that all projects: 1) agree with EWB-USA’s mission; 2) benefit the community and do not discriminate against sub-groups; 3) involve the community; 4) have a well-defined scope of work; 5) are of reasonable cost for volunteers to fundraise; and 6) avoid serious safety concerns and do not involve travel to any country under state department warning.The project application asks students to consider both positive and negative impacts tothe economy, the environment, the culture and the ecosystem. The students must discussthe social and governmental

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

J. Oh; B. Kissick

. • Value people, hard work, humor, knowledge and service.1 O’Donovan, E. “Professional learning communities” District Administration 43.3 2007 Vol.2 p942 Kraat, S. B. Ed. Relationships between Teaching Faculty and Teaching Librarians. New York: Haworth20053 Elmborg, J.; Hook, S. Ed. Centers for Learning: Writing Centers and Libraries in Collaboration.American Library Association 20054 Information literacy in action: collaboration, retrieved February 2007, from Association of College andResearch Libraries Web site:http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlissues/acrlinfolit/infolitresources/collaboration/collaboration.htm5 Oh, J.; Collins, J.; Kissick, B.; Starkey, A. “Information Literacy Teams: Bridging the Fluency Divide”2005 ASEE Conference

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Stephan A. Durham; W. Micah Hale; Seamus Freyne

Distributing Course Materials Through Online Assistance Stephan A. Durham1, W. Micah Hale2, Seamus Freyne3 1 University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center / 2University of Arkansas / 3Manhattan CollegeAbstractOften times a professor encourages students to review lecture topics, book chapters, and papersprior to class. This preparation allows students to become familiar with the lecture subject andprovides opportunity for in-class discussion. It is also ideal in a laboratory setting to distributeexperimental data to the entire class with minimal effort. The author currently utilizes a web-based educational tool called Blackboard ™. This online

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Christi Patton Luks; Laura P. Ford

Outcomes. The IAB is viewed asproviding input from both alumni and employer constituencies.IAB surveys for the Program Objectives, Courses, Curriculum, and Program Outcomes will bepresented. We have completed only the first year of this two-year cycle, so only the ProgramObjectives and the Course Objectives will be discussed.Assessment ProcessesThe assessment processes of the department are described in the flowcharts of Figure 1, in theAppendix. The Program Objectives, Course Objectives, Curriculum, and Program Outcomes arereviewed in turn over a two-year period. Each review process includes the measurement of howwell the students are meeting each item and the consideration of those results by the faculty andthe Industrial Advisory Board (IAB

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Abu S.M. Masud; Don E. Malzahn

other issues, program objectives (evaluation/ review), curriculum/laboratory update, and any program-related issue that may arise. • Odd Years, College of Engineering administers the Alumni Survey, the results of which are distributed to departments. PROGRAM EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES AND ASSESSMENTBased on ABET statement [1], our working definition of the program educationalobjectives (PEOs) is that these are statements that describe the expected accomplishmentsof graduates in the first few years after graduation. Program objectives can be of twotypes: (a) what all graduates will do, and (b) what some graduates will do. Programobjectives are written to be used as descriptors of the program and are such

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Leroy R. Cox; Katie Grantham Lough

skills of engineers duringtheir academic preparation, Artemeva, et al. aimed at developing a course tailored toengineering’s specific communication needs and difficulties.1 Significantly, these authorsimmediately identified that “the first challenge is to recognize that these students usually bringwith them a resistance to the notion of engineering as a profession that requires literacy.”1 Thesetting of an engineering class in which the technical writings are of the students’ choosing basedupon their subject matter was an interesting means to overcome the challenge. Specifically, thecourse provided the context whereby students could acquire the rhetorical skills and strategiesnecessary to integrate into a discipline-specific discourse community

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Yahong Rosa Zheng; Sarat K. Chitneni; Daryl G. Beetner

) curriculum. The importance of DSP design and its integration in to the undergraduatecomputer engineering curriculum is considered critical for educating the 21st century computerengineers and preparing them to be on par with the ever increasing contribution of DSP in manyreal-world applications today. However, incorporating DSP into CmpE curriculum presents twomajor challenges: the limited number of lecture hours allocated to the DSP component and theintegration of the DSP component with other CmpE components. The curriculum guidelines [1] Proceedings of the 2007 Midwest Section Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education 2suggests

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Brandon W. Olson

between theory and practice are notclear, students are often left attempting to build their own associations between ideas andmathematics that seem unrelated or oversimplified when compared to their hands-onexperiences. The current paper details an application of composite exercises in a sophomore levelthermodynamics course. Specifically, exercises are presented for: 1) phase behavior andthe property tables and 2) the ideal gas law. Organizational outlines are presented alongwith recommendations for future improvements.Introduction Engineering pedagogy has traditionally been defined by lecture style materialpresentation interspersed with a handful of lab courses. While this presentation formatpermits high volume material coverage, from the

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Jeff Parker; Ping Liu

equalization first verified in Matlab on PC. It is further collaborated afterprinciple [1],[2], especially when source alphabets from a M - being implemented on TI TMS320C6713 DSP board in C.PSK constellation. Since proposed by [1],[2], CMA has beenextensively studied. An excellent review about this algorithm II. S YSTEM M ODELcan be found in [3]. The convergence property of CMA has Consider a widely adopted input/output model in a commu-been analyzed [4]. Connection between CMA and Wiener nication system with a blind equalizer [5], which is shown inreceivers are also build based on a novel geometrical concept Fig. 1:[5]. It has been proved that the zero cost can

Collection

2007 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

William A. Kline; Thomas Mason

, to havestudents think of themselves as contributing professionals and to start and stop projects at anytime. In addition, six years of data will be used to summarize key steps in program compositionand evolution, history of student involvement, and measured outcomes of the program forstudents and the Institute. Annual assessment data will be used to demonstrate the high level ofstudent satisfaction with the experiences offered, as well as the important educational benefits.1. Program History and BackgroundRose-Hulman Institute of Technology is a private institution that offers mathematics, science andengineering degrees at the bachelors and masters levels. From its origins in the late 19th century,the school has emphasized the integration of