Collection

2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Ronald Rockland

the term, the instructor tried to develop a “champion” in each group,who would support this procedure. Most groups had at least one champion.Eventually, those students who offered some resistance found that, contrary to initial beliefs, thelaboratory assignments actually took less time to complete, if the procedures were followed.Some students told the instructor that they applied this problem solving approach to other labbased courses.ConclusionA six- step method of problem solving for laboratory based classes was presented. Studentswere initially resistant to completing all the steps prior to performing the experiment. However,student assessment, at the end of the semester, was very favorable to the method. It is hopedthat these students in

Collection

2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Gary Lewandowski; Carla Purdy

more talented young peopleto make their careers in academia. Similar programs can be instantiated elsewhere with littleoverhead and similar successful results.Bibliography1. Computing Research Association, The supply of information technology workers in the United States,http://www.cra.org/reports/wits/cra.wits.html. Accessed 01/05/01.2. T.W. Fowler and G.C. Markle, Advanced Teaching Techniques, University of Cincinnati.3. National PFF website, http://www.preparing-faculty.org. Accessed 01/05/01.4. Elaine Seymour and Nancy M. Hewitt, Talking About Leaving, Ethnography and Assessment Research, Bureauof Sociological Research, Univ. of Colorado, 1994.5. David A. Torvi, Engineering graduate teaching assistant instructional programs: training

Collection

2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Charles Pierce

the course schedule and coordination with a willing participant from theengineering community.III. Student SurveyTo assess the potential impact of this new teaching strategy, the author conducted an e-mailsurvey of former students from the past two classes. A total of 22 out of 53 students responded,yielding a response rate of 42%. The majority of responses were received from the most recentclass conducted during the Spring 2000 semester. The survey summary provided to the studentsreads as follows:“I am planning to moderately change how ECIV 330 is taught in an effort to improve students’learning of soil mechanics. I believe that students will better understand the fundamentalconcepts of soil mechanics if they can directly and immediately

Collection

2001 Annual Conference

Authors

William J. Daughton

theBaldrige assessment methodology are shown in Table 1. Table 1. Baldrige National Quality Award Performance Categories and Their Weightings Baldrige Categories Relative Weighting Leadership 12.5% Strategic Planning 8.5% Customer and Market Focus 8.5% Information and Analysis 8.5% Human Resource Focus 8.5% Process Management 8.5% Business Results 45.0% 100.0%The first sessions of the course are devoted to a course introduction

Collection

2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Otto Helweg

-D Visualization Skills ofEngineering Students in Brazil and in the United States," Proceedings of the International Conference forEngineering Education, Rio de Janeiro, August, 1998, CD-ROM3 Sorby, S. A. and B. J. Baartmans, "The Development and Assessment of a Course for Enhancing the 3-D SpatialVisualization Skills of First Year Engineering Students," Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 89, No. 3, July2000, pp301-3074 Gimmestad, B. J., "Gender Differences in Spatial Visualization and Predictors of Success in an EngineeringDesign Course," Proceedings of the National Conference on Women in Mathematics and Science, Sandra and PhilipKeith, eds. St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud MN, November 1989, pp 133-136.5 Peters, M., P. Chisholm

Collection

2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Weining Feng; Alberto Gomez-Rivas

Session 1874 VB for Control & Instrumentation Program W. Feng, A. Gomez-Rivas Engineering Technology Department University of Houston-Downtown One Main Street Houston, TX 77002Abstract:This paper assesses the unique role of Visual Basic (VB) in the curriculum developmentfor a four-year degree program in Control & Instrumentation Engineering Technology. AVB program is presented which was developed in-house and has been used todemonstrate the fundamentals of control system theory

Collection

2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Terry Derossett; Steven Nesbit; Scott Hummel

engineeringshop support from the Engineering Division. The project appears to be meeting its goals. Student satisfaction with the project is high,and project assessment indicates that the integration of subject matter and engineering functionsis successful. Based upon the success of the load cell project and the importance of integratingsubject matter across courses, the Department will attempt to develop more of these types ofprojects. Page 6.731.9 8References1 TransCalc, Version 1.11, Measurements Group, Inc., Raleigh, NC, (1997).2 ANSYS, Version 5.7, ANSYS Inc., Canonsburg, PA, (2000).3 Virtual

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Steven McCabe; Francis Thomas

Page 6.69.5 Copyright 2001, American Society for Engineering Education”April 2, 2001 GIS Applications in Flood Plain AnalysisApril 9, 2001 Risk Assessment and ManagementApril 16, 2001 Concrete DurabilityX SummaryThe Professional Development Series provides a new means of providing continuing educationto practicing engineers in the greater Kansas City - Topeka area. It provides a transfer of currentstate of the art information to the engineers thus allowing them to remain current in theirprofessional development. The lecture series also provides the opportunity for the department toattract qualified candidates to the masters degree programs on both the Lawrence and Edwardscampus

Collection

2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Devin Shunk; William Duff

segments:having the students assess presentations of groups otherthan their own. z := 30Most groups chose to use PowerPoint to build theirpresentations. Several of those presentations will be n := 2shown when the paper is presented. One of the better  f (x) := 200⋅  x  ⋅ exp −2x presentations was a well-annotated Mathcad program, a

Collection

2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Trevor Tyler; Steven Miner

Isometric Sketch Figure 5 Object to Sketch ProjectAs a means of assessing the benefit of this portion of the course the students are given a Prelimi-nary Visualization Test which is based on the Purdue Spatial Visualization Test3. Only the rota-tions and views from the Purdue test are used. Examples of the rotation and view test questionsare shown in figures 6 and 7. The students are given twelve of each type of question with an aver-age of thirty seconds to answer each. After the visualization portion of the course is completed thetest is repeated with six of each type of question, with an average of thirty seconds for each. Overthe past two years we have seen an average improvement of 11% on the rotations and 13

Collection

2001 Annual Conference

Authors

David Voltmer; William Tierney; B. Garner

& Exposition Copyright  2001, American Society for Engineering Education”To date, VEM 2.0 has not been required for students, but is readily available for their use asdesired, especially in “what if” homework situations. Preliminary student reaction to VEM 2.0 isvery positive. Definitive assessment of the effectiveness as a learning tool is currently underway.Bibliography1. Voltmer, D. Undergraduate Electromagnetics: Discrete, Numeric, and Continuous,Proceedings of Progress in Electromagnetic Research, Cambridge, MA, July 2000.2. URL http://www.vectorfields.com/op2d.htm3. URL http://www.quickfield.com/4. URL http://www.sonnetusa.com/lite/index.htm5. URL http://www.ansoft.com/products/em/max2d/max2d_brochure.html6

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Ronald A. Cox; Richard Grieve; Jeffrey Mohr

andprocess to determine limits of the polymer and caster design in order to assess the currentproduct and establish a benchmark for future changes. Three undergraduate engineering studentsworked on the project, assisting in the design and manufacture of a test fixture and dataacquisition system. This multidisciplinary project required that the students interact with theclient, vendors, and a variety of departments on campus. The students gained experience inCAD design, software development, data acquisition, non-destructive testing, and performancecharacteristics of a variety of polymers.ConclusionsThe use of undergraduate students in ISU’s industrial outreach program has lead to a win-winsituation for all parties involved. The College of

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Loren W. Zachary; Janet M. Sharp; Barbara M. Adams

Science and Technology. (1992). Learning to meet the science and technologychallenge Washington DC: Eric Document Reproduction Service No. ED360163.6 George, M. (1996). Shaping the future: New expectations for undergraduate education in science, mathematics,engineering, and technology Advisory Committee to the NSF Directorate for Education and Human Services.Available: http://www.her.nsf.gov/her/due/documents/review/96139/summary.htm7 Congress of the U.S., Office of Technology Assessment, (1988). Elementary and Secondary Education for Scienceand Engineering: A Technical Memorandum. WashingtonDC: Eric Document Reproduction Service No. ED3014728 George, M., Ibid.9 Billett, S. (1986). Towards a model of workplace learning: The learning

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Donald N. Merino

EM program made the executive list. It is common forEM programs to require that a student have an engineering and/or science undergraduate degreefor admittance to the program.IX. Some ObservationsWithout the discipline imposed by accreditation guidelines and standards it is difficult to assess,with any degree of precision, what are basic and advanced/executive level graduate programs.Despite this lack of “official” standards or criteria, executive level masters programs in TM andMoT have been designated, are well developed and are supported by the industry/customer theyserve.However, a general consensus was achieved on how to designate executive level graduateprograms. The major criteria were years of experience and age of students, advanced

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Peter J. Shull

together in small groups and learning to critique each other as they edit and evaluate the group reports.III. Initial Assessment of the Group Writing StrategyA. Writing QualityIn the initial decision to introduce group writing, the assumption was made that the studentswould perform at least in a manner equivalent to that of their individual reports. That is, thedistribution of quality of the writing would be the same as or similar to that of the individualreports. Irrespective of the focus on writing quality in the course introduction, the “mean” ofwriting quality appeared to decrease in the group reports.The decrease in the mean of writing quality was notably exhibited through a comparison of thegroup reports with the individual reports

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Richard Gilbert; Wayne E. Wells; Marilyn Barger, Hillsborough Community College

learning tasks. Such tools might include the basicsof specific software or calculator routines for particular problem types that have beenencountered in the module. The emphasis here will be alerting students who may be unfamiliarwith available and useful tools about their existence as well as lowering the barrier to the use ofthe new tool by providing simple verbal and graphic instructions for its use.The final component of each module will be a self-evaluation. The intent of this module is toallow the student to privately assess his competency of the skills learned in the module. Onegoal for the self-evaluation exercises of these modules will be to reinforce the typical Englishpresentation of the concepts and problem statements without being

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Oguz A. Soysal

Maryland, http://mfg-57.umd.edu/ecsel/enes100kit/files/99_report.html4. G. Zhang, "A Support Structure of Teaching Engineering Design to Freshman Students," ASEE’99 Annual Meeting, Charlotte, NC, June 20-23, 1999.5. T. M. Regan, G. Zhang, P. F. Cunniff, L. Schmidt, and J. W. Dally, "Curriculum Integrated Engineering Design and Product Realization," ASEE’99 Annual Meeting, Charlotte, NC, June 20-23, 1999.6. J. Schmidt, C. H. Yang, O. Wilson, G. Zhang, "Assessment of the Teaching-Learning Effectiveness of a Freshman Design Course," ASEE’99 Annual Meeting, Charlotte, NC, June 20-23, 1999.7. M. Horenstein, Engineering Design-A Day In The Life Of Four Engineers, Prentice Hall, 1998Oguz A. Soysal received the B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

William E. Cole; Walter Buchanan

mechanical measurements. Purpose of the lab was to: • Provide students with a Hands-on Experience; • Develop self learning skills; • Develop Critical Thinking Skills; • Provide a basis to help them decide between the Electrical Engineering Technology, Mechanical Engineering Technology, and Computer Technology programs offered at Northeastern University.Described in this paper are the experiments, the delivery at Northeastern, and an assessment ofthe lab effectiveness.1. IntroductionIn January of 1999, six faculty members from the College of Engineering visited DrexelUniversity to review their pioneering freshman program, including the instrumentation lab.Their curriculum and

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Robert A. Merrill; Elizabeth A. Scholle

be controlled by the MMET Department, and assessing alternatives assoon as problems arose. All of this was accomplished with exceptional input and cooperationfrom faculty, students, and the MMET Department administration.Phase II of the building will require the construction and equipping of a thermal fluids lab andperhaps a machine shop, a manufacturing processes lab, and plastics lab. Although timeconstraints are not likely to be as severe a problem in Phase II, the lessons learned in Phase I willprovide guidance. For example, it is apparent that paying careful attention to details and dealingwith problems as soon as they occur are very important. Also, the model of having studentprojects contribute to the design of the lab proved to be

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Howard A. Canistraro

MathCAD has also greatly eased the complex equation usage required. In general, thelevel of complexity and depth of course has been expanded. A detailed discussion of theapplication of the theory to the hardware, a description of the laboratory activities, a discussionof the use of MathCAD in machine design, and an evaluation of the student assessment of thecourse will be presented in the paper.Description of the Course:The primary goal of the course is to familiarize students with the common task of solving open-ended engineering design and analysis problems. Courses of this type cover all aspects of basic Page 5.28.1machinery with an emphasis on

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Ronald W. Garrett; Paul L. Stephenson III

variable-type data. The objective of this projectis to conduct a process capability study on important characteristics affecting the qualityof the product. The result of a process capability study is a measured assessment of theability of a process to produce parts that conform to specification.Deliverables: Each student group will be expected to turn-in the following:1. appropriate numerical descriptions for each of the variables (e.g., the mean, median, standard deviation, range, etc.),2. a box plot or histogram of the data for each of the variables,3. a time series plot of the data for each of the variables and a description of any observed trends and/or cycles,4. upper and lower natural limits for each of the variables, and5. a computed

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Laurence J. Logue

used to describe the technique of varying constraints in order to assess their effect on thefunction of the system being designed. Constraints may include factors such as size, weight,relationships between elements, types of materials, cost, and function. In this context,designing linkages for a particular purpose, we will focus on the sizes of elements andrelationships between those elements. Page 5.591.1The constraints we will consider can be divided into three basic categories: geometric;dimensional; and algebraic. Examples of each category are listed below: Geometric Constraints: Intersections Direction in space Location in

Collection

2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Robert Fithen

to use thesespecifications to determine the grade on a particular assignment. The major problem withthis approach is twofold. First, the professor must write a detailed specification for eachassignment. Second, the professor must carefully assess each assignment to determine ifin fact the student satisfied the given specifications. The second item requires the mosttime and effort. Traditionally students simply handed in printouts of their computercodes, outputs and some descriptive comments. As a result of the written presentationskills of some students, large amounts of time is required to determine if the givenspecifications were actually met. In response to this issue the author has written adynamic web based system that automatically

Collection

2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Michael Ruane

Ed, John Wiley, 1997.10. Leitzel, J. and Tucker, A., (ed.) "Assessing Calculus Reform Efforts" MAA Notes, Mathematical Association of America, Washington, DC, 1994.11. Roberts, A. (ed.) "Calculus The Dynamics of Change", MAA Notes, Mathematical Association of America, Washington, DC, 1995.12. Barker, W. "The Curriculum Foundations Project" http://www.maa.org/data/news/cupm.html and http://www.maa.org/data/news/curriculum%5Ffoundations.html13. Barker, W. Links to all workshop documents are found at http://academic.bowdoin.edu/math/faculty/barker/dissemination/Curriculum_Foundations14. Blanchard, P., Devaney, R., and Hall, R., Differential Equations, Brooks/Cole Pub Co., 1998.15. Boston

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Nancy L. Denton

tracking continuous improvementprojects, based on the form shown as Figure 1. One or more faculty members develop aproject to address a perceived need. The current situation is described (to establish a“baseline”). Action(s) required to improve the situation are determined, including whatmeasures will be tracked to assess improvement. The actions are then implemented, tracked,and reviewed to determine whether or not improvement occurred. The project can then becontinued, modified, or scrapped, as appropriate.7,8 The remainder of this paper willgenerally conform to the content indicated by the main headings of the project summary formto provide an example of the continuous improvement process.PROBLEM DESCRIPTIONPrior to enrolling in the strength of

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Susan L. Miertschin; Carole E. Goodson

is impractical to expect all students to submit electronically since this would require each student to have access to (perhaps) a scanner or sophisticated software for typing math equations.• Lack of scheduled direct contact with the students (i.e. formal classes) made it more difficult to assess and address particular student problems. It became important for the instructor to schedule times for contacting students by telephone to discuss their progress. Regular e-mail reminders were helpful but not sufficient. A primary function of these contacts was to motivate students to complete and submit materials in a timely fashion.• The absence of regular face-to-face contact precluded using typical teacher-class discussions

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Paul J. Eagle; Jonathan M. Weaver; Roger W. Pryor; Mukasa Ssemakula

: • Case studies and "real-world" examples • Manufacturing relevance A typical module starts with a digitized video or animation demonstrating amanufacturing application of the content to be covered in that module. Figure 2 belowleads into a discussion of deformations resulting from application of cutting forces. Page 3.209.5 Figure 2. A Digitized Video of a Manufacturing Scene A set of learning objectives, as well as topical pre-requisites for the module, arethen presented. The interactive capability of the computer is utilized to carry out an on-line assessment of how well the candidates understand the pre

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Terry Berreen

Council and Corporate Roundtable of the American Society for Engineering Education, Engineering Education for a Changing World, 1994.2. Institution of Engineers, Australia, Changing the Culture: Engineering Education into the Future. Canberra: IEAust, 1996.3. Berreen T & Alfredson R, CD-Engineering Mechanics, QED Interactive Pty Ltd, Australia, 1998.4. Devenish D G, Entwistle R D, Scott N and Stone B J, The teaching of work/energy to first year engineering students, Proc. 7th AAEE Conf on Engng. Educ., Melbourne, Australia, 64-69, 1995.5. Scott N & Stone B J, The qualitative assessment of curvilinear motion, Proc. 7th AAEE Conf. on Engng. Educ, Melbourne, Australia, 271-274, 1995.6. Sipcic S R, What is Wrong With the Way We

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Joseph Cataldo

evaluate floodway enroachments may be evaluated by the steady flow systemcomponent of the program. Also, capabilities are available for assessing the change inwatersurface profiles due to the channel improvements, levees, and ice cover.Special features of the steady flow component include: multiple plan analysis; multiple profilecomponents; and multiple bridge and/or culvert opening analysis.The HEC-RAS computer model has a large number of options, such as mixed flow regimeanalysis, allowing analysis of both sub- and supercritical flow regimes in a single computer run,culvert and bridge routines allowing for multiple openings of different types and sizes, quasi 2-Dvelocity distributions, and x-y-z graphics of the river channel system.HEC-RAS

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Dongmei Gui; Jens Jorgensen; Joseph A. Heim

TRP/MET projects, the participants will also be charged withidentifying innovative and effective Internet-based activities that can facilitate an expandedinteraction of the academic and industrial design and manufacturing communities. Furthermore,the Planning Workshop participants will collaboratively establish the long term structure andparameters of the Electronic Forum and Workshop for Design and Manufacturing Education andthe metrics for its on-going qualitative and quantitative evaluation and assessment.5 Current StatusThe Electronic Forum and Workshop is still in the initial planning stages, since funds from theNational Science Foundation were only recently awarded. We have, however, acquired a largeserver computer system that