Collection

2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Mary Cardenas

-Level Undergraduate Engineering LaboratoryDuring the 2011-2012 academic year, we implemented a transition from paperbound laboratorynotebooks to electronic laboratory notebooks in an undergraduate experimental engineeringcourse. Experimental Engineering (E80) at Harvey Mudd College is a sophomore-level,semester-long course, involving multiple experiments covering a number of engineeringdisciplines. The objectives of the course are to teach basic instrumentation and measurementtechniques; good lab notebook practice; technical report writing; analysis and presentation ofdata; the usage of experimental results for engineering design purposes; and the beginnings ofprofessional practice. The course explicitly requires learning in multiple

Collection

2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

David Clague; Joshua Wilbur; Elizabeth Stasiowski; Alyson Telford

gainthe desired Engineering intuition necessary for design and problem solving. The logical solutionto this educational gap is to include experimental laboratories; however, key aspects ofBiotransport Phenomena, e.g., wall shear stress and diffusive processes, are difficult (or too time-prohibitive) to incorporate into a hands-on laboratory experience.In the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo BME curriculum, a set of in-silico laboratory activities havebeen developed using an easy to use multi-physics Finite Element Package (FEA), COMSOLMultiphysics, to augment teaching Biotransport Phenomena. More specifically, in this upperdivision Biotransport course, there are six required FEA laboratories and one extra credit FEAlaboratory. These laboratory exercises

Collection

2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Ding Yuan; Nebojsa Jaksic; Jude DePalma

486 LEGO Mindstorms: EV3 versus NXT 2.0 A Laboratory Study in an Introduction to Engineering Course Ding Yuan, Nebojsa Jaksic, and Jude DePalma Colorado State University, PuebloAbstractThe LEGO Mindstorms NXT programmable robotics kit has been a successful tool for enrichingK-12 math and science education and for improving recruitment and retention in college-levelengineering programs since it was released in late July 2006. Many educational research papershave shown positive results from integrating the LEGO Mindstorms NXT robotics kits intoappropriate

Collection

2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Thomas Korman; Hal Johnston; Kay Gore

173 Increasing the Success of Lower Division Undergraduate Students through the Use of Common Teaching Tools Thomas Korman, Hal Johnston, and Kay Gore California Polytechnic State University, San Luis ObispoAbstractThis paper describes the development and use of common teaching tool, the ConstructionIndustry Simulation (COINS), at Hartnell College community college and in the lower divisionundergraduate level at Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo designed to increase thesuccess of community college transfer students and lower division undergraduate

Collection

2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Baird Brueseke; Gordon Romney

tailored to their teaching methods. Proceedings of the 2014 American Society for Engineering Education Zone IV Conference Copyright © 2014, American Society for Engineering Education 89Now that this practice is become widespread, institutions need new methods to define and deployeasily laboratory configurations in a repeatable manner which is consistent with course learningobjectives. This need applies to courses taught in both brick and mortar classrooms as well asthe virtual classrooms populated by distance learners.The nation faces an ever growing number of cyber security threats from causal hackers

Collection

2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Lisa Wang

students’ understanding of physical phenomena as well asanalytical and creative thinking skills. Another study4 investigated the effects of computersimulations to the students prior to performing laboratory experiments helped students predictthe physical phenomena in subsequent laboratory experiments, and that the computer simulationsadded depth to students’ theoretical understanding of scientific principles. Proceedings of the 2014 American Society for Engineering Education Zone IV Conference Copyright © 2014, American Society for Engineering Education 431Need of Innovative Teaching PracticeThe developed computer

Collection

2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Reza Raeisi; Max Gardner; Ricardo Rangel

dissemination of an Embedded System Course through activeparticipation of students in the virtual environment.The VLES has been designed to deliver technical instruction and course materials in embeddedsystem design course through audio-video based distance learning. The supporting distancelearning curriculum and laboratory modules, using modular instructional materials along withVLES training, will be presented. The curriculum has been tested through summer workshopswhich demonstrated that VLES can be used for real-time teaching and learning hands-ontechnical subjects. A curriculum focusing on embedded system programming and utilizing thedeveloped training system, with lessons focused on Assembly Programming with peripheralsinterfacing modules, will

Collection

2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Fariborz Tehrani; Nell Papavasiliou; Frederick Nelson; Carol Bohlin; Mara Brady

for grades K-6 classrooms. Fundamentalunderstanding of the engineering profession is an essential key for elementary teachers toimplement this curriculum. The presented approach is an initial effort targeted at increasing theengineering knowledge of prospective K-6 teachers. This step involves developing a course titledEngineering Literacy, taken by those undergraduates who typically plan to enter the credentialprogram for elementary teaching (i.e., Liberal Studies majors). Engineering Literacy is a three-unit combined laboratory and lecture course. Hands-on activities are coupled with lectures onengineering topics. Expected outcomes of Engineering Literacy are aligned with the generalbody-of-knowledge in both engineering and liberal studies

Collection

2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Loukas Lazos; Elmer Grubbs

240 Student Engagement, Learning, and Retention in a Freshman, Large Class Setting at the University of Arizona Loukas Lazos and Elmer Grubbs University of ArizonaAbstractThis paper describes a new approach to teaching a large lecture C Programming class (ECE175)in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Arizona. Theapproach demonstrates a method of increasing student engagement, student learning and studentretention by using Undergraduate Laboratory Assistants (ULAs) in conjunction with GraduateTeaching

Collection

2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Galen Pickett; Prashanth Jaikumar; Michael Peterson

weeksassisting students in the PHYS 151 laboratory, and ten weeks in the college’s student supportingcenter offering free walk-in tutoring for PHYS 151. Upon completing the course with at least a“B” grade, they are eligible to be hired as a “Learning Assistant” in the department. These arenot “teaching assistants” in that they have absolutely no grading or evaluation duties, and theyare not responsible for creating lecture content as a Supplemental Instructor is required to do.Their basic role is to ask and answer questions, and even more importantly to know whichquestions must be answered with other questions in order to advance learning. We have placed Proceedings of the 2014 American Society for Engineering Education Zone IV Conference

Collection

2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Zekeriya Aliyazicioglu; Rajan Chandra; Phyllis Nelson; Jolly Kuo; Shailesh Sujanani

understanding and receive feedback on their progress with self-test problems(c) Verify their results, as well as and investigate the effects of parameter variations and other modifications of a circuit with CircuitLab and,(d) Validate their results by building the circuit and testing it with the myDAQNone of the above activities require specialized laboratory facilities, so a student can work on all phasesof circuit analysis and design in their normal study environment (for example, their dormitory room).This flexibility allows students to actively explore circuit concepts and remedy deficiencies outside ofthe traditional classroom and laboratory. The use of the myDAQ supports a key requirement ofengineering pedagogy: comparing actual measurements

Collection

2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Andriani Parastiwi; Taufik Taufik

been inspiring all the staff and faculty toserve students at their best with the belief that student success drives faculty and staff success,which is in turn nurturing a very positive academic atmosphere on the Cal Poly campus. Positiveacademic atmosphere has been proven to develop and inspire whole-system thinkers who canhelp solve society's most complex problems. One example of how student success can beachieved is by having the Career Service as a division of Student Affairs which is offeringnumerous workshops aimed to increase student potential. Academic departments within Cal Polycontribute to the student success through well-structured curriculum and well-equippedundergraduate teaching and research laboratories. Unlike in many research

Collection

2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Education (Walden University). Panadda Marayong, Ph.D. (Associate Professor/Director of the Robotics and Interactive Systems Engineering Laboratory, Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering/California State University, Long Beach) Marayong's research interests are in haptics and human-machine collaborative systems. She is a member of IEEE-Robotics and Automation Society, ASEE, SWE, Tau Beta Pi, and Phi Eta Sigma. She currently serves as the faculty advisor for CSULB’s Society of Women Engineers. She is involved in many STEM educational outreach programs. Marayong received a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering (Florida Institute of

Collection

2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Brian Arnold; Jodi Reeves

and rigorously keeping them focused on relevant curricula is the key.In order to successfully and consistently engage their students, educators must be armed with techniquesand strategies adapted for teaching effective online courses.6 The often missed opportunity foruniversities moving courses from onsite to online is the chance to evaluate their practices and onlytransport over the ones which show the most promise of student engagement and a robust fitness for theonline delivery environment. However, initial attempts to adapt onsite teaching methods to onlinecourses achieved little more than copying onsite practices into the digital environment. The sageremained on the stage, simply changing the performance venue. Unfortunately this does

Collection

2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Gordon Romney; Pradip Dey; Mohammad Amin; Bhaskar Sinha

to have an individual, dedicated“virtual” computer on which to experiment and complete a laboratory assignment withoutmodifying, if desired, the host “physical” computer and its resources11. Operating systemvirtualization has been a great facilitator at SOEC in the teaching of computer science,information technology and security courses6,10. A physical, hypervisor host machine has thecapability of running multiple operating systems concurrently, each of which is a guest machineor virtual machine (VM)12. Examples of a Hypervisor executing as an application are: 1)VMware Workstation under the Windows 8 O/S; 2) Parallels under the Mac OS X, or c) OracleVirtualBox on Windows, Mac OS X or Linux. Virtual Labs (VL). Lab assignments using VMshave

Collection

2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Samuel Landsberger; Artin Davidian; Juan Garibay; Richard Valenzuela; Barbara Wheeler

Proceedings of the 2014 American Society for Engineering Education Zone IV Conference Copyright © 2014, American Society for Engineering Education 196process of teaching that their academic studies have enriched them far more than they initiallythought!Experiences make a difference! Just as the K-12 students receiving mentorship benefit from theHERO Outreach, the college participants have grown through their experiences in ways thatprove helpful in their later applications for employment and graduate studies. An importantoutcome of the HERE/HERO programs has been the success of several alumni in finding goodengineering jobs and graduate

Collection

2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Christopher McComb; Fariborz Tehrani

both analytical and experimental studies in addition toliterature studies, data mining, etc. Fresh graduate students coming from other schools may needadditional training on research methods and components, if they have not learned them duringtheir undergraduate programs. Further, graduate students are expected to mentor theirundergraduate assistants in the laboratory. Therefore, developing supervising and mentorshipskills are another part of their training. To accomplish such extensive training, graduate studentsmeet the faculty advisor at least once a week. To prepare graduate students for PhD programs,they also participate as teaching assistant and grader, as well as developing proposals for externalfunding. Alumni members of the group

Collection

2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Mudasser Wyne; Alireza Farahani

). Improving laboratory effectiveness in online and onsite engineering courses at National University. Journal of Research in Innovative Teaching, 26-38.6. Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology. (2013). http://www.abet.org/ Proceedings of the 2014 American Society for Engineering Education Zone IV Conference Copyright © 2014, American Society for Engineering Education

Collection

2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Manoochehr Zoghi; Hernan Maldonado; Syreeta Martinez

science and other general education courses, thus, very littleexposure to engineering. Students are dissatisfied with the teaching and advising within theengineering disciplines. Also, the curricula may be too restrictive. Attrition is typically higheramong women and minorities.Fresno State, designated as Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI), faces similar challenges. Firsttime/full time freshmen 4-year graduation rate is 14%, 6-year graduation rate is 49%,respectively. Lyles College of Engineering has launched a number of initiatives in relation tostudent success to improve retention. These entail summer enrichment workshops, articulationswith community colleges, academic success workshops, intrusive academic advising for studentsthat are

Collection

2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Kathryn Bohn; Jeff Georgette; Brian Self; James Widmann

first hand.Similarly, toy gyroscopes can be used to help teach students about precession and demonstrate howgyroscopic navigational devices operate. These hands-on laboratories can be much more powerful thandemonstrations and lecturing – the students can actually feel the gyroscopic moments generated. TheIBLA was assessed through two problems on the final examination. The first asked what happens to themotion of a gyroscope when you push gently on the outer gimble. The second involved the action-reaction moments involved with gyroscopic motion (e.g., if you are riding your bike and lean to the left,which way to do you have to push on your handlebars). Scores on these different problems along withsubjective survey results were used to assess the

Collection

2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Marissa Buell; Nehad Dababo; Rene Figueroa; Peter Moala; Amelito Enriquez; Kanjun Bai; Hamid Mahmoodi; Cheng Chen; Kwok-Siong Teh; Hamid Shahnasser; Wenshen Pong; Hao Jiang

importance for many electricalengineering (EE) disciplines. Nationwide, it is a required course in the EE undergraduatecurriculum. In spite of its importance, most students perceive the circuit course as one of the mostabstract courses in the undergraduate curriculum1. This perception is largely attributable to thefollowing reasons: 1) the classical approach of teaching circuit principles is based on linearalgebra and complex number. The traditional chalk/blackboard instruction is in many casesdifficult to follow for students with weak mathematics skills and they often feel lost; 2) studentsperceive the course is “too theoretical”, therefore, irrelevant for their education2. Students loseinterest in the course as soon as they fail to see how the

Collection

2014 ASEE Zone 4 Conference

Authors

Gino Galvez; Eric Marinez; Alvaro Monge

, professional development workshops, opportunity to travel to a STEM-centered conference, and a $4,000 stipend. The Summer Bridge to the Beach is a 9-weekprogram for incoming Latino STEM transfer students. In the program’s first week, studentsattend an intensive one week orientation, which includes a brief introduction to the CSULBcampus and to a multitude of student services offered by the Learning Assistance Center, theCareer Development Office, campus library, and college specific academic resource centers —“Student Access to Science” (SAS) Center and “Engineering Student Success Center” (ESSC).In addition, students are provided with research- focused trainings that include laboratory safety,professional responsibility and ethical conduct in