Collection

2012 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Joanna A. Badara; Buket Barkana; Nelson Ngoh; Allen Cook

advances in neurosciencespertaining to the specific processes that promote and interfere with learning. The STEM forTeacher Educators course will be improved to offer base-level information on the theory and useof digital imaging and audio to improve the understanding of mathematical and science concepts,thus providing opportunities for participants to view subject matter in new perspectives anddevelop science lessons. This interdisciplinary initiative is intended to improve the quality ofSTEM teachers, result in improved interest in STEM careers in K-12 schools, increase thesatisfaction, motivation and commitment to become STEM teachers, develop a robustcollaborative relationship between STEM departments and education departments, and

Collection

2012 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Sujata K. Bhatia; Brad Crane; David Goligorsky; Joseph P. Zinter; Gu-Yeon Wei

LowellExtended Abstract April 27-28, 2012Students additionally demonstrated a strong excitement regarding future studies of engineering, and future careers inengineering. Importantly, students strongly agreed that “Technology plays an important role in solving society’sproblems,” and that “Engineers have contributed greatly to fixing problems of the world.” Students displayedoverall excitement for the future. Further, students’ comments revealed the positive impact of the course. Onefreshman student stated, “It was awesome to see that there’s this whole world out there just meant to empowerpeople to build stuff. I really like that we had ideas and made them right away

Collection

2012 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Richard Harris; Hameed Metghalchi; Claire Duggan; Emanuel Mason; Rachelle Reisberg; Deepti Dutt

potentiallyaddress the discouragement experienced in particular by minority students with the straight lecture style pedagogycommon in mainstream science and engineering education [32]. A number of outcome studies have been conductedthat demonstrate the positive effects of cooperative education in the domains of career development, academics,2012 ASEE Northeast Section Conference University of Massachusetts LowellReviewed Paper April 27-28, 2012initial employment, economic gains, and personal growth. For example, co-op students have been found to makemore informed career decisions [37], have higher academic achievement and persistence

Collection

2012 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

David Kazmer; Katie Bardaro

standard error of the model is much less than the standard deviation of theobserved engineering salaries. The derived salary profile models are then used to evaluate the net present value(NPV) of engineering graduates from the 150 top-ranked engineering colleges. The NPV and model coefficients arethen regressed against the graduate’s college ranking and entry SAT scores. The results follow expectations, namelythat improved college rankings and SAT scores correlate with higher net present values of career earnings of $1,960per ranking point and $849 per SAT point. The models have also been used to evaluate internal rates of return onengineering educationKeywords: Human capital; internal rate of return; engineering education; college rankings

Collection

2012 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Keith M. Gardiner

]. LATE TWENTIETH CENTURY NEEDSPost-Sputnik (1957) there was surge in attention paid to science education in the US. During the late twentiethcentury there was an awakening emphasis on the skills needed by individuals seeking careers in the industrialworkplace – business-awareness, communication, project management/planning, presenting and reporting,teamwork plus integration were being reported as areas of weakness in engineering education by learnedprofessional society groups [6]. Concurrently, in the early eighties, this triggered the establishment of aManufacturing Technology Institute (MTI) under the aegis of the Corporate Technical Institutes at IBM [7]. MTIwas created as an IBM ‘university’ to revitalize and broaden the skill-levels of the

Collection

2012 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Edwin Schmeckpeper; Ashley Ater Kranov; Steve Beyerlein; Jay McCormack; Pat Pedrow

A Direct Method for Simultaneously Teaching and Measuring Engineering Professional Skills Edwin Schmeckpeper1, Ashley Ater Kranov2, Steve Beyerlein3, Jay McCormack4, Pat Pedrow5Abstract – Proficiency in professional skills related to teamwork, ethical responsibility,communication skills, the impact of engineering solutions, life-long learning, and contemporaryissues is critical for success in the multi-disciplinary, intercultural team interactions thatcharacterize 21st century engineering careers. Yet, programs across the nation have struggled todefine, teach, and measure professional skills since their introduction as ABET criteria forengineering programs in 2000. The Engineering Professional Skills Assessment (EPSA) is

Collection

2012 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

James A. Lee; Michael J. D'Agostino

careers in the design and construction of the builtenvironment, including civil engineering and construction management. As the concept of sustainable designcontinues to hold greater significance in engineering and related professional disciplines, the laboratory alsoprovides the opportunity to reinforce principles of sustainability, including embodied energy, life cycle assessment,waste management and minimization. In addition, the design project has and continues to provide undergraduateresearch opportunities in the area of concrete design. Some aspects of this work will also be presented in this paper.Keywords: Concrete; Recycling; Aggregates; Wastewater; Sustainability BACKGROUNDIndustry Need

Collection

2012 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Joseph J. Helble; Carolyn E. Fraser; Eric R. Fossum

students in academic positions at peer institutions. While this is one important outcome for Ph.D.engineering students, we estimate, based on the number of engineering assistant professors in the United States andthe number of Ph.D. degrees granted in engineering each year, that no more than approximately 10-15% ofgraduates obtain tenure track faculty positions [4, 5]. Most engineering Ph.D. recipients pursue careers in industry,often in industrial R&D, where their deep technical knowledge is of immediate application. In both of these paths,however, the educational program focuses entirely on the students’ technical education. Little attention is paid to thepotential benefits associated with helping engineering Ph.D. students develop, as part

Collection

2012 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

John Finnie

help and guidance.John FinnieDr. Finnie is currently a Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. He receiveda Ph.D. and M.S. in Civil Engineering from Utah State University and a B.S. in Agricultural Engineering fromCalifornia State Polytechnic University in Pomona. During his academic career, he has served as a departmentChair and Associate Dean of Engineering. He has taught courses in water resource engineering, engineeringmechanics, finite element analysis, surveying, and engineering economics. His research interests include numericalsolution of free surface and groundwater flows, engineering economics, and the history of technology.2012 ASEE Northeast Section Conference

Collection

2012 Northeast Section Meeting

Authors

Olga Lepsky; Michael Werner

. INTRODUCTIONAt our institution the majority of the undergraduate computer science majors go on to careers as software engineerswith a few continuing directly into graduate education. We have developed a hands-on approach to teachingalgorithms that emphasizes programming, benchmarking and tweaking. This report builds on our experience over athree-year period involving two different courses: “Analysis of Algorithms” and “Bioinformatics Algorithms”. Wefollow standard texts [10, 13], the students frame the problem, describe the solution and express an appropriatealgorithm in pseudocode. They derive a timing function and the Big-O behavior of the algorithm.Students then write programs in C++, C# or Java to implement the algorithms. After thorough testing to