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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Clark Colton; Bonnie D. Burrell

Session NO. 2642 How to Initiate Dialogue in Student Research Teams Bonnie D. Burrell and Clark K. Colton Department of Chemical Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139AbstractIn the process of integrating teambuilding training into a chemical engineering projectslaboratory, we concluded that a pedagogical tool was needed to move the student teams throughthe early team life cycle and communication stages in order to create the needed trust to begineffective communication. The tool we developed consists of two parts: (1) an

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Charyl Delaney; Alejandro Scalise; Larry J. Shuman; Harvey Wolfe

SESSION 1430 Engineering Attrition: Student Characteristics and Educational Initiatives Larry J. Shuman, Cheryl Delaney, Harvey Wolfe, and Alejandro Scalise University of Pittsburgh Mary Besterfield-Sacre University of Texas – El PasoAbstractRoughly fifty percent of the students who begin in engineering leave the field before receivingtheir engineering degree. Typically half of this attrition occurs during the first year. Its causesmay vary widely from student to student (e.g. disinterest in the field of engineering, lack

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Gearold R. Johnson; Dueb M. Lakhder

Session 3460 UNESCO Initiatives in the Field of Engineering Education Dueb M. Lakhder, Gearold R. Johnson UNESCO/National Technological UniversityAbstractEngineering education is an essential component of UNESCO’s science programmes and it isoriented towards serving Member States on a continuous basis. After a discussion of severalmajor distance learning programmes in the world, this paper concentrates on the status ofUNESCO’s current distance learning initiatives: the Satellite Universities of Science andTechnology for the Arab States, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Africa, and Central America.A

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Sandra J. Miller; Paul Yock; Mark C. Tsai; Kenneth L. Melmon; Christopher T. Shen; Larry Leifer

learning that will beable to be substituted for ineffective didactic learning that requires attendance at conferences.SHINE's users will be able to get CME credits in the course of becoming more effectivepractitioners of medicine; so might engineers be helped in their practices by employing a systemthat allows access to a learning base that focuses on self-initiated and self-contained responses togenuine issues of product design.To examine the information needs of the medical device designers and the usability andusefulness of SHINE, the SHINE program was examined within a large diverse biomedicaldevice company by over one hundred users for four months. Forty-eight users participated in thesurveys and interviews. The research focused on two parts

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Norman L. Fortenberry

) Office ofEducational Research and Improvement, under its Field Initiated Studies competition, made 30awards totaling over $5 million in fiscal year 19973. The National Science Foundation’s(NSF’s) Division of Research, Evaluation, and Communication invested over $25 million insupport of educational research projects in 1997 alone, and invested an additional $30 million ineducational technologies and evaluation activities. Not included in these totals are fundsinvested by other operating divisions (e.g., Division of Undergraduate Education, Division ofEngineering Education and Centers, and Division of Social, Behavioral, and EconomicResearch) and certain NSF-wide initiatives which include significant elements contributing toeducational research

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Winston F. Erevelles

overall process has been initiated in some cases by the authorpublishing an RFP for interested students or by students approaching the author with requeststhat have been triggered by a past course, tours through the facility, or a stated interest in thearea under study. The author has treated independent research programs have been treated asindependent study projects at Kettering University. Assigned a designation of IMSE-499, eachof these courses has had a published syllabus with goals/objectives, guidelines, andreporting/assessment/evaluation procedures. These and other managerial issues will beaddressed from a global perspective in a subsequent section. Students spend several hours eachweek at scheduled times and on their won time working on

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Shani Francis; Neal Pellis; Keith Schimmel

Session 3613 Integrating Research into the Undergraduate Curriculum – NASA’s Microgravity Bioreactor Shani Francis, Keith Schimmel / Neal R. Pellis North Carolina A&T State University / Johnson Space CenterAbstractCurrently, there is an emphasis in many funding agencies on integrating research results into theundergraduate curriculum. The basic rationale is that research expenditures will thus beleveraged to improve the quality of undergraduate education by providing students withinteresting, real world engineering problems that will motivate, provide opportunities forstudents to

Collection

1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Robert L. Powell; Michael J. McCarthy; Michael H. Buonocore

, and MRI is treated as a scientific discipline to be critically studied. MRI isalready being regarded as a sub-discipline and professional focus within Engineering, just asNuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) has reached that stature in Chemistry.The Web site described in this paper is largely supported by the National Science FoundationCombined Research Curriculum Development (NSF-CRCD) program. The NSF-CRCD Programis a joint initiative of the NSF Directorates in Engineering (ENG) and in Computer &Information Science & Engineering (CISE). The program supports development of curricula innew emerging technologies, and development of new ways of teaching that utilize the newcommunication technology. MRI is believed to be an important area of

Collection

1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Robert Engelken

faculty sizes andgraduate students, to do this at smaller institutions is no small feat. The researcher, often a "loneranger," must assess the benefits of research to himself, the university, clients or funding agencies,and society in light of what it costs in everything and realistically adjust one’s goals and efforts formaximum rate of return and "Academic Balance"5 in one’s professional and personal life.Achievement of worthy research goals or "effectiveness" is still the bottom line but "efficiency"is also important given other time demands and opportunities that a new engineering educatorexperiences.This maximum rate-of-return comes after an initial incubation period during which one is writingproposals, obtaining data, presenting and

Collection

1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Sima Parisay

Session 2663 Implementation of Classroom Assessment Techniques and Web Technology in an Operations Research Course Sima Parisay California State Polytechnic University, PomonaAbstractThis paper introduces the process and discusses the analysis for upgrading a course, OperationsResearch. The direction for upgrading the course was based on the objectives of the department,the requirements by employers, and the new Accreditation Board of Engineering andTechnology (ABET 2000) criteria. This course is a senior level course for Industrial andManufacturing Engineering students

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Richard R. Schultz

. Page 4.253.2 A definite disadvantage of introducing research activities to all students is that some individualsare naturally more interested in a particular subject matter than others. Research requires a hugecommitment from the students and the instructor, and success often results due to the passion for aparticular subject rather than innate intelligence. An instructor must carefully choose research projectstailored to the students’ interests and abilities. Granted, not all research projects are successful; in fact,most initial attempts at solving a difficult problem are not fruitful. However, by selecting projects whichare (1) interesting and exciting to a group of students, and (2) challenging but not beyond theircapabilities allows

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Melinda J. Piket-May; Julie Chang; James Avery

their motivation and initiative. Good undergraduatecandidates are often identified by their initial follow-ups.III. Undergraduate research assistantsUndergraduate students can conduct good research. However, their skills are often underutilizedand unrecognized by faculty. We strongly suggest that you consider including them in yourresearch projects for a number of reasons:1. Typically young students are very knowledgeable about computers. You can initially involve them in your research by letting them develop or maintain the research group’s web page. Web page maintenance will expose the undergraduate students to your research as well as the other students in your research group. As a result, the student may decide to get more involved

Collection

1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Michael A. Kriss

importance of electronic imaging. Each version of the final proposal wasreviewed by the all the team members and after several iterations the final draft was sent to thevarious deans and department chairs for their approval.IV. Industrial support for the electronic imaging systems curriculum Early in the process the author contacted research managers and scientists at Kodak andXerox to expose them to the new curriculum initiative. The author sought three things formthese corporations. The first was their willingness to support the new curriculum by makingtheir scientist available for teaching some parts of the new courses and giving seminars to thestudents and faculty on cutting edge applications and technology in Electronic Imaging

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Thomas G. Stanford; Donald Keating

in regional industry the opportunity to continuetheir postgraduate professional education and growth while employed full-time in industry and while pursuingleadership of creative technology development work. Recognizing the unique blend of technical, professional,ethical, creative, and leadership dimensions, the initiative will set a new direction in professional-oriented graduateeducation. The program of professional-oriented graduate education will not be intended to serve as a “steppingstone” along the research-oriented path of graduate education, but rather as a path of excellence in its own righttoward the highest creative leadership levels of professional engineering practice — through the professionalmaster’s level, the professional

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Magaly Moreno; Mary E. Besterfield-Sacre; Larry J. Shuman; Cynthia Atman

more informed understanding of students’ underlying attitudes as they begin their engi-neering studies and tracking how these attitudes affect learning. Previous research indicates thatstudents enter their first year with a range of perceptions and attitudes about engineering. How-ever, little is known as to how student attitudes vary across institutions. Are initial attitudes cor-related with the type of school the individual attends? Do students who attend a private (versuspublic), or large (versus small) engineering school enter with different perceptions of engineer-ing and their abilities to succeed in engineering? Do students’ choice of environment (urban ver-sus rural) and the subsequent culture it provides or whether the institution

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

R. J. Soukup

, ask a colleague for advice. Goto Washington to visit the funding agencies. Funding is more likely if the people with themoney know who you are.You may need to search for new areas to conduct research other than your dissertation work.After all, your advisor, who supported you, is now in competition for the same money if youcontinue to try to do the same work. He or she has more experience and is more likely to get thefunding than you are. Team up with other faculty members, sole principal investigator grantsare becoming more difficult to obtain as time goes on.Your initial efforts should be to obtain money so that you can later, but not much later, publishthe results of your research. Scholarly activities are a must, whether it is in research

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Ganesh Pandit; Gopal Mohan

Data and Discussion of FindingsThe first research hypothesis being examined here was that undergraduate college studentsweighed certain factors in the selection of their academic majors. Table 1 presents the meanratings given by the respondents to different variables that were hypothesized as being importantin the selection of their academic disciplines. The current data showed that all students in thesample placed very high importance on factors such as earning potential (initial and future), careeroptions, self-employment opportunities, nature of the subject matter studied and their ownaptitude for the field when selecting their academic major. Also, they placed relatively lowerimportance on the early influence factors such as advice from

Collection

1999 Annual Conference

Authors

J. A. Bragg; Stephen P. DeWeerth; Clinton D. Knight

Session 2532 Java Programming for Engineers: Developing Courseware for a Computer-Enhanced Curriculum Julian A. Bragg, Clinton D. Knight, and Stephen P. DeWeerth Georgia Institute of Technology School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Atlanta, GA 30332-0250The School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech has embarked on aComputer Enhanced Education (CEE) initiative to augment the core ECE curriculum(courses in signal processing, circuits, digital systems, microelectronics, andelectromagnetics). One of the goals of this initiative is

Collection

1999 Annual Conference

Authors

David A. Sabatini

sabbatical leave is anopportunity to refocus and pursue new initiatives, which can be a very rejuvenating exercise.It also provides an opportunity to benefit from unique expertise and/or equipment at the hostuniversity. Personally, an international sabbatical can be a real time of bonding as a familyexperiences the trials and triumphs of such an opportunity. However, a sabbatical leave isnot without challenges and concerns. Such a leave can be a serious discontinuity in an activeresearch program, as the program scales down before and up after the sabbatical, or if theprofessor tries to manage the research program long distance (which can somewhat defeat thevalue of the sabbatical). Renting out the family home and finding housing in the hostcommunity

Collection

1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Timothy Robert Wyatt; Emir Jose Macari

research andstudy plan into areas that they view as more practical. The problem is that a strongunderstanding of mechanical concepts is important in all aspects of geotechnical engineering. In Page 4.363.1engineering practice, design procedures often make use of mechanics-based equations that havebeen derived for use in the general case. However, real life typically presents not the generalcase but some variation thereof; a strong background in mechanics is required to know how tomodify the general equations for application to the specific conditions.Geotechnical engineering education typically includes both classroom instruction in

Collection

1999 Annual Conference

Authors

T. T. Maxwell; J. C. Jones; D. L. Vines; M. E. Parten

an impact on the final problem solution to provide a unique educational experience for students on project teams to enhance the students communication skillsThe projects for the course come from industry, research efforts and other faculty initiatives. Page 4.4.1LecturesThis multidisciplinary course includes both electrical and mechanical engineering students.The entire class meets for lectures for one hour each week. The lectures are presented byfaculty from the Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Departments or industrialrepresentatives selected by the faculty team. The material covered during lectures is

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Jeffrey A. Griffin; Rick L. Homkes

technologies that will form the basis of future products, and professional engineers gain from the cutting edge research coming out of our labs. [7]”Through use of professional relationships, and by using the advisory council to give directionand blessing to the internship, the contact with the company can be made. A great deal ofpreparation is needed prior to meeting with the corporate contact for the first time. Backgroundinformation about the corporation is useful in understanding potential benefits a faculty internwill offer to the organization. It’s important to be able to identify the “what’s in it for me”issues from the perspective of the corporation. This initial meeting is truly a marketing call thatwill set the tone for any

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

W. Brian Hyslop; Susan L. Burkett; Susan Vrbsky; Laura Ruhala; Richard Ruhala; John Lusth

residents. Candidates are matched with only onehospital, so much of the decision as to where Brian would perform his residency was eliminated.Luckily, Brian matched with the University of Alabama in Birmingham (UAB) hospital, whichwas only 50 miles from Tuscaloosa.While Brian completed his 4-year Radiology residency, Susan V. began her career in researchand teaching. Susan developed her research area of real-time databases and database security,and she received an NSF Research Initiation Award for her work in real-time databases. Brianalso completed his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Illinois in the area of microscopy. Inthe summer of 1997, Brian’s residency ended and the dual-career challenges arose again. Brianwanted to pursue an

Collection

1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Robert Waters

thedepartments, the author believes, is the success of the paradigm shift represented by the strategydeveloped by the Department of Engineering Management.History of the DepartmentOver the 45 years of its operation, the Department’s program has been very adaptive in termscourse offerings and sources of students. The program was initiated in response to the request ofa committee of Navy personnel officers for a program to assist Navy engineers from theWashington Naval Shipyard to transition from design and production positions to projectmanagers, at the closing of the shipyard in 1953. The backgrounds of most of the Navy engineersdid not include education in management, communications, accounting, contract law, projectmanagement and statistics, which it

Collection

1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Eric Connell; David L. Batie

the strengths and minimizingthe weaknesses of the A/E and Construction components. Figure 1 Design/Build Project Delivery SystemSchools have previously provided classes in Design/Build at some construction-focusedarchitectural programs 6, however these classes have dealt primarily with creating a hands-onclinics to teach students about sites, structures, materials, and joinery. Research did not uncoverany true Design/Build courses directed towards the complete development of such a projectdelivery course. With this need to expose graduates to the reality of the fastest growing methodof project delivery in the design and construction industries, the course was developed.II. Class OrganizationThe initial Internet Design

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Kathy Bearden; Donald D. Harter; Jerry W. Samples

consulting and research, and places application above theory. • Working with students who work hard, have a purpose, and appreciate the success they achieve and the role of the instructor in that process. • The local community, the recreational possibilities, and the opportunities to serve the community in a variety of ways.There are few surprises here as the faculty is viewed from a distance. There is an obvioussynergy, but until they wrote their responses, it was not obvious that the order was as listed.The results of the first question are important because they tie directly to the next question; whatcharacteristics of a new hire are important in defining a good fit in the current faculty? The topfour answers to

Collection

1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Tom Gasque Smith; Deanna E. Ramey

seeking to integrate communications instruction into their curricula. But thewriting center model, long a fixture at most colleges, offers a flexible program that meets theneeds addressed in ABET criteria while avoiding cookie-cutting demands from on high about theshape of communications instruction in every course.Because of the humanities backgrounds of most writing center staffs, involving them in theactivities of an engineering college presents interesting opportunities and problems. To make thecollaboration effective, it is useful to find a common language to discuss communicationsinstruction. Three areas of research on writing center programs find interesting parallels inengineering: the idea of consultancy as collaborative learning, the

Collection

1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Raymond Berg; Homayun K. Navaz; Brenda S. Henderson

experimental techniques and analysis, and used those techniques tovalidate analytical and computational results. Toward the end of the course, the studentsselected an applied research project, and conducted an experimental investigation involvingflow-induced noise generated by flow over a component similar to that found on the exterior ofa vehicle. This paper addresses the process and techniques used to conduct this type of course.Samples of the students’ work are also presented.IntroductionKettering University, formerly GMI Engineering & Management Institute (GMI), is the nation’sonly engineering university employing a mandatory, full-time cooperative education workexperience. The university ranked first in BSME graduates in the period 1997-1998

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Richard Enbody

slides. The result is a videolecture with slides available over a 28.8 modem which can be watched asynchronously at thestudent’s convenience. An important goal of our research is to humanize asynchronous distanceeducation. That is, insert the human component into a web-delivered course. The RealVideolectures provided through the Sync-O-Matic 3000 software is an important first step in deliveringa human component asynchronously. This paper describes how this course is delivered. Thebest way to appreciate our approach is to see it in action athttp://www.vu.msu.edu/preview/cps230/.1. IntroductionIn the Fall Semester of 1998 we began offering a standard CS1 Introductory Computer Sciencecourse1 on Michigan State University’s web-based Virtual

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1999 Annual Conference

Authors

Bopaya Bidanda; Kim LaScola Needy; Gary RAFE

virtual manufacturing laboratorymay be used by various agencies to provide continuous training and education in value-adding,manufacturing-related domains. In the next sections, we review background issues that motivatethis research.BackgroundIn its report on information technology for manufacturing, the National Research Council’sCommittee to Study Information Technology and Manufacturing called for a wide rangingresearch agenda that included investigations into tools and techniques to help enterprises andindividuals understand and manage the rapid changes they are expected to face.1 Thecommittee identified the need for better means of educational delivery to facilitate the renewaland currency of employee knowledge in manufacturing enterprises