Conference Session

Aerospace Curriculum and Collaborations

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Leigh S McCue, Virginia Tech; Joseph A. Schetz, Virginia Tech

Tagged Divisions

Aerospace

dedicated to the memory of George Inger.Abstract:At the 1973 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference, Profs. Schetz,Marchman, and Inger presented the case for a combined curriculum in aerospace and oceanengineering (Schetz, Marchman, & Inger, 1973). Their paper summarized the justification forthis combination, program implementation, and preliminary feedback from students andemployers. The purpose of this paper is to reflect upon the program evolution that has occurredin the 38 years since the initial creation of this merged department. The present paper describesthe current state of teaching and research in the combined Aerospace and Ocean Engineeringdepartment and provides both student and employer feedback on the dual

Conference Session

Aerospace Teaching and Learning I

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Maxwell Stuart Reid, Auckland University of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Aerospace

sustainability inrelation to engineering. The reviewed literature revealed many options, and changes weremade to the inaugural curriculum design as the module evolved over a four-year period. Thisongoing development is described as action research. McNiff promotes the action researchmethod for use by individual educators to improve their own practice in teaching as a regularcycle of self-reflection and course appraisal.17 Consequently, the stages of action researchcycle – observation, review, plan and activate – involved lecturer observation and reflection,coupled with a combination informal feedback, and the more formal formative andsummative student appraisal.Project GoalThe project goal was to design and assess a curriculum relevant to an

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kathleen Alfano, College of the Canyons

Tagged Divisions

Aerospace

, and implementregionally programs in renewable energy technology that reflect existing and emerging industryneeds and that incorporate identified industry skills standards and certifications.Performance Outcome--In response to regional industry needs, as well as state and nationalrequirements, curricula at all partner colleges are being adapted to meet those very specific needsin order to make students qualified and competitive for employment for renewable energycareers, with particular focus on the needs for qualified wind and solar technicians.1.A Verify key technical and soft/professional skills derived from both the State DACUMsurvey and focus group data already and match this data with existing national skillscertificationsand

Conference Session

Aerospace Teaching and Learning II

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Radian G. Belu, Drexel University; Irina Nicoleta Ciobanescu Husanu, Drexel University; Alexandru Catalin Belu, Case Western Reserve University

Tagged Divisions

Aerospace

manually; other than some well known examples, mostapplications of theory are omitted. One reason that those examples are well known is that theyadmit analytic solutions. However, they typically represent simplified solutions that generallyfail to fully reflect reality. In most real-world situations, the analytic solutions simply do notexist, and one cannot proceed without the assistance of a computer. Although some textbookhave sections discussing numerical methods, many of them contain just the theory of numericalmethods, and one is required to posses programming skill for practice; this part has generallybeen neglected. Under a conventional curriculum, a student’s ability to calculate and to extract

Conference Session

Aerospace Teaching and Learning I

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Hadi Ali, Purdue University; Robin Adams, Purdue University, West Lafayette

Tagged Divisions

Aerospace

the instructor making them aware of the iterations that took place during their design process. Reviewing case studies of strategic design thinking “can help students realize the power and utility of iterative design.”1 Reflection in various contexts can be very helpful as well32. 4. Risk-taking and iteration: Offering students with lessons about learning from failures, approaching and accepting them, can be very effective in allowing students to appreciate iteration and take more risks while designing. “Instruction and scaffolding for systematic design” was selected as an appropriate teachingstrategy to illustrate the role of iteration in spacecraft design with respect to cost and schedulingissues. In particular

Conference Session

Aerospace Curriculum and Collaborations

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Valana L. Wells, Arizona State University; Jenefer Husman, Arizona State University; Praveen Shankar, Arizona State University; Wen-Ting Chung, Arizona State University

Tagged Divisions

Aerospace

(Homework Assignment #3).Students complete six assignments throughout the semester: 1. Integrating pressure and stress to get forces on an airfoil. 2. Forces on a NACA 0012 and a NACA 2412 airfoil. 3. Lift and drag as a function of angle of attack for cambered and uncambered airfoils. 4. The effect of airfoil thickness. Comparison with thin-airfoil theory. 5. The Oswald efficiency factor and three-dimensional lift curve. 6. Skin friction and pressure drag as a function of angle of attack.The assignments require considerable effort in computing, reporting and reflecting on results.Several also require problem solving using thin-airfoil theory, lifting-line theory or boundary-layer results. It is expected that students produce

Conference Session

Aerospace First-Year Project-Based Learning

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kristi J. Shryock, Texas A&M University; Kaushik Das, Texas A&M University, College Station; Stephen Oehler, Texas A&M University; Jacques C. Richard, Texas A&M University; Dimitris C. Lagoudas, Texas A&M University

Tagged Divisions

Aerospace

% is earned through the portion of daily work completed as a team andcomponents of the projects, such as weekly technical memorandums and final reports. Thetechnical memorandums are quite useful in the course as they assist in guiding the teams throughthe design process and require them to reflect quite often on their progress with the design.New ProjectFor the final five weeks of the semester, the smart materials project is introduced to the classteams in the form of a "request for proposal." In summary, design requirements are outlined andspecified for each team to design and build a supporting structure and lifting crane arm that canlift its own weight, while actuating through an angle change of at least 45o. Each team usesLEGO Mindstorm

Conference Session

Advanced Aerospace Student Projects

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Narayanan M. Komerath, Georgia Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Aerospace

as well, so that the spread in the class grade distribution became quitelarge. As the above assignment started (after Drop Day, which comes past the middle of thesemester), there were many questions asked in class about the prospects for supersonic flight.One feature of the final reports is that even the students who did not pay much attention to theassignment, actually did some exploration and rationalization regarding hydrogen-fueledsupersonic airliners. The best assignments reflected superlative independent thinking andexploration, (“superlative” is not defined as “agreeing with instructor!”). Before going into theirown approach they sought and found relevant references from the literature and actually readthrough them to a good level of

Conference Session

Aerospace Teaching and Learning II

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Praveen Shankar, Arizona State University; Jenefer Husman, Arizona State University; Valana L. Wells, Arizona State University; Wen-Ting Chung, Arizona State University

Tagged Divisions

Aerospace

for cruising flight.Homework 3: Longitudinal Static Stability (Hand Solved)Students’ understanding of longitudinal static stability was tested in this assignment. The effectof configuration of aircrafts including the location of the center of gravity, location andinclination of the horizontal tail on the static stability was evaluated using hand-solved numericalproblems.Homework 4: Longitudinal Static Stability (DATCOM)Prior to this assignment, students were introduced to the USAF DATCOM software. Descriptionof how to modify the input file to reflect the geometric configuration of the given aircraftfollowed by execution of the program and analysis of the data was discussed in the classroom.Students were provided with 3 wing models and 3 wing