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2012 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

Authors

Brian Surgenor

CAN WE AFFORD THE WOW FACTOR ? A MECHATRONICS EXAMPLE Brian Surgenor Dept. of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Queen’s University, Kingston, CanadaAbstractA course in Mechatronics Engineering is used to provide an example of a course with the “wowfactor”. These are the courses that are oversubscribed and sustain their popularity from year toyear through word of mouth. As with most “wow factor” examples, the course is hands-on andproject based. A commonly held view is that the excitement and enthusiasm demonstrated bythe students in such courses should be duplicated throughout an engineering curriculum.However, a decade of experience with

Collection

2012 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

Authors

Patrick H. Oosthuizen

Illustrating Environmental Complexities Using a Course on Environmental Effects of Civil Aviation Patrick H. Oosthuizen Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON Canada K7L3N6AbstractReducing the environmental impact of civil aircraft involves a number of problems that require acareful balancing of a number of often-conflicting considerations. The field is therefore one thatcan be used to expose engineering students to complex real-world environmental problems thatinvolve making difficult decisions in arriving at an acceptable solution. In this paper such acourse that is intended to introduce students from all engineering

Collection

2012 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

Authors

Erin Zeqja; Rachael Ashton

James A. Mandel and Samuel P. Clemence Dubai Contracting Company Syracuse University Internship Program Erin Zeqja Rachael Ashton Syracuse University Author Note:Erin Zeqja, Syracuse University Student, Civil Engineering 2012Rachael Ashton, Syracuse University Student, Civil Engineering 2012Abstract Dubai Contracting Company (DCC), in collaboration with the Department of Civil andEnvironmental Engineering (CIE) at Syracuse University, offers a unique real-world experiencefor up to six (6) CIE students preferably in their Junior or Senior year of study to participate in amulti-week summer internship program in

Collection

2012 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

Authors

J. A. Rozzi-Ochs; C. J. Egelhoff; H.V. Jackson; S. Zelmanowitz

literacyskills in the curriculum, the development of relevant performance indicators, and steps taken tocollect and analyze this assessment data are presented. Analysis of student performance to datebased on assessment rubrics is also presented.Introduction According to the Final Report of the American Library Association Presidential Committeeon Information Literacy1, Information Literacy (IL) is defined as “an individual’s ability to knowwhen there is a need for information, to be able to identify, locate, synthesize, evaluate, andeffectively use that information for the issue or problem at hand.” IL knowledge and skill havebeen identified as critical components to gathering and using information. For the past decade,librarians have aggregated

Collection

2012 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

Authors

Bridgette Valencia; Shouling He

stepper motor driver. Fig.1. Basic structure of the four-legged walker(1) Mechanical FrameWith four legs, the walker can stably stand on the ground. The two front legs are made up ofthree concentric metal tubes which are shown in Fig. 2 (a). The outer tube holds the middle tubewhich compresses the spring coil surrounding the inner tube. A single aperture is drilled into the Fig.2. (a) Structure of the front leg; (b) Internal motor control of the front leg(2) Inclinometer The working principle of a gravity inclinometer is shown in Fig. 3. When the surface of an object is not perpendicular to the line through the earth’s center of

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2012 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

Authors

Nicole C. Corbiere; Laurel Kuxhaus

Collaborative Learning Journal Clubs in Biomedical Engineering Education Nicole C. Corbiere and Laurel Kuxhaus Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY lkuxhaus@clarkson.eduAbstract A challenge of teaching undergraduate biomechanics is providing content depth to studentsfrom diverse academic backgrounds, including a mix of engineers and scientists. Onecollaborative learning activity that is accessible to students from diverse scientific backgroundsis a Journal Club. Journal Clubs are popular educational tools in medical education.2-3, 5 In anextensive literature review, 80% of 101 studies reported that journal club

Collection

2012 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

Authors

Junichi Kanai; Mark Anderson

content and quality. The system made asignificant impact on the outcome of the project results. This paper will present issues indeploying the tools and the best practices for using these tools in capstone design courses.IntroductionTo become successful engineers, students must learn technical knowledge, good communication,skills, and teamwork skills. Traditional lecture-based coursework focuses on providing a solidtheoretical foundation and analytical skills for each of the various disciplines. On the other hand,laboratory courses and engineering design courses are often used to teach communication andteamwork skills4. Typical communication skills include, but are not limited to, maintaininglab/design notebooks, writing technical reports, and

Collection

2012 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

Authors

Johanna Comanzo; Chris Normile

Increasing Student Engagement and Persistence in Adult Distance Education Johanna Comanzo and Chris Normile Excelsior CollegeIntroduction Excelsior College, a leader in online and distance learning, provides global access toquality higher education for adult learners, helping them overcome barriers of time, distance, andcost. A world leader in the assessment of learning, Excelsior is naturally renowned for itsfacilitation of degree completion and its advocacy on behalf of adult learners. The School ofBusiness and Technology provides a holistic approach to degree completion to serve adultlearners in achieving their educational and career aspirations. The faculty

Collection

2012 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

Authors

Navarun Gupta; Manan Joshi; Bhushan Dharmadhikari; Lawrence V. Hmurcik

Aquarium Fires - Why Water and Electricity Do Not Mix Navarun Gupta, Manan Joshi, Bhushan Dharmadhikari, Lawrence V. Hmurcik University of Bridgeport, 221 University Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06604AbstractLarge aquariums (25 gallons or more) offer an amazing way to teach electrical safety insofar asthe prevention of electric fires is concerned. We report on 4 aquarium fires and their origin. Allwere started due to the presence of a large amount of water vapor in the air. All were caused byshort circuits, which were never truly short circuits in the conventional sense – had they beentrue short circuits, no fire would have started. All of the fires were put out by the water in theaquarium, though not

Collection

2012 St.Lawrence Section Meeting

Authors

R. John Milne

Teaching decision problem formulating and solving skills using spreadsheets R. John Milne Clarkson UniversityAbstractThis paper describes a variety of communication media and tactics used in teaching Engineeringand Management students to formulate and solve management decision problems usingspreadsheets. Many of these problems are framed as optimization models—where studentsspecify decision variables and objectives and constraints as a function of these decisionvariables. Other problems are solved with simulation models in which some spreadsheet inputcells have probability distribution functions and consequently key output cells are described andinterpreted