carried out atNASA shows that out of 38 skills, 36 are directly related to communications, leadership,attitudes, and systems thinking. While only 2 of the skills are the "hard skills" dealing withtechnical acumen. The data yielded 38 key characteristics or behaviors which were grouped intofive categories: 1) leadership, 2) attitudes, 3) communication skills, 4) systems thinking, and 5)systems acumen; the results clearly indicate the soft skills above and beyond the technical“acumen” are clearly what set the best NASA engineers apart.31This paper concentrates on the Systems Engineering (SE) graduate programs developed in theCollege of Engineering (COE) at the University of Texas at El Paso; similar efforts onredefinition of curricula at the
thatin their study, ―above all other skills required to be ‗an effective engineer‘ communication wasranked as ‗essential‘ by more than 60% of [their] respondents.‖ They call out three themes withinthe communication skills category: ―[1] big picture awareness . . . being able to communicatewith others outside of his [sic] discipline. . . . [2] willingness to proactively seek out discussion,clarification, or even debate. . . [and] 3] being a good listener.16However, they conclude by suggesting a dissonance with these professional abilities and thecommunication practices presently assessed in engineering education.16Approaches to Teaching Engineering CommunicationTo address the need for well-prepared engineering communicators, nearly every
level and for community college vocational programs for mechanics. The project also includes a public dissemination component, including partners from the St. Louis Science Center. This program began recently, in the fall of 2010. In order to provide an initial evaluation of a sample of courses in the program a survey was administered to students currently enrolled in undergraduate and graduate courses that are part of the program. One part of the survey focused on the impact of the courses on motivation and engagement, and the other consisted of Felder’s Inventory of Learning Styles (ILS) [1]. Results indicated that motivation and engagement, in this context, could be conceived of as
style, and although class levels and disciplines weredifferent, significantly similar positive perceptions were recorded for different criteria.I. INTRODUCTIONMany instructors have difficulties making students read outside the class [1]. We use onlinequizzes for obtaining feedback on the students’ comprehension of topics not yet taught in theclassroom. Variations of the method were originally developed in 1996 at IUPUI and the USForce Academy; the term “Just in Time Teaching” or JiTT was coined. In this approach, studentscomplete online assignments/quizzes [2] by a certain deadline. Instructors adjust lectures “Just intime” not only to cover the curriculum but also to respond to student needs [3] so that thefeedback loop is closed. The end
keynote, Kerns asked several questions to stimulate member thinking.1 How, throughASEE members, could ASEE become a critical player in solving the world’s greatest challenges?For example, how could corporate partners advocate for funding needed for engineeringeducation and research in ways that academia cannot? Where do we begin? Why? How? Whatdo we know? What do we need to learn?The first reference to the term “Citizen Engineer” the authors can find is from a 2002 IEEE-USApresentation to the Student Professional Awareness Committee.2 The opening power point slideof the presentation states:“Being a Citizen Engineer Implies Recognizing and Acting On • Professional Responsibilities • Public Responsibilities • Enlightened Self Interest”The
mandated learning management system. This information can be helpful in improving Page 22.171.2training, support and usage of LMSs.MethodFor the purposes of this study, we sought to address three main questions: (1) How do universityfaculty feel about the learning management systems in use at their institution? (2) Do theybelieve they are engaging students with their use of the learning management system? (3) Whatelements do they consider to be crucial or important in a learning management system?Full-time faculty from eight departments and every level of teaching experience from theCollege of Technology Purdue University were invited to participate
students; reportingincreased rates of learning and improved comprehension [1, 2]. Additional studies haveexplored the relationship between student learning styles and student retention rates [3].While learning styles data has been routinely published for students in many fields; there is littledata on students in Electrical Engineering Technology programs. This study examines thelearning styles of two groups of incoming students (n = 154) in a four year ElectricalEngineering Technology program. Data for this study was obtained using the Felder-SolomonIndex of Learning Styles (ILS), a freely-available instrument used in the assessment of learningstyles in a range of fields.Students in this study exhibit a distinct preference for visual learning
, this paper describes the key functions and roles associated with mentoring in thecapstone course as well as a factors that can influence these mentoring environments. The resultsprovide the engineering education community with a more complete understanding of the natureof design teaching in a way that can be used not only for professional development of currentdesign faculty, but also in the training of new design educators.IntroductionThe capstone course in engineering emerged as a result of the perceived lack of practical skillsin graduates that resulted from a strong focus on theoretical knowledge in the curriculum in thecold war era 1, 2. Among the strategies for addressing that imbalance, ABET, Inc. now requiredthat programs incorporate a
resultcounterproductive since the students will be overloaded with information. Another extreme willbe to teach them only one or few methods; although this avoids an overload, the authors haveobserved that most instructors do this, teaching just a couple of preferred methods. The premiseof this research work is that there is a lack of guidance when it comes to design methodselection. This situation is also reflected in the professional world where it is well known thatdesigners will stick to just a couple of methods in each category for the most of their professionallife. This is understandable because (1) the designer is familiar with the method, and (2) there isnot a clear guide to help decide which other methods to use. A test-bed for an expert system toguide
a premier “best-shore” destination for development inside HP. HPLabs hopes to continue to explore OI collaborations around the globe using GUAPO’s modelto augment and enhance its research portfolio, as the 5+year outcomes of the relationshipwith the Jalisco Government show. HP’s experience with this kind of industry-government-academia partnership can be used by other companies and regions who wish to establishsimilar win-win collaborations to advance science and technology. 1 Morell, Lueny, Martina Y. Trucco, Edgardo Torres-Caballero and Francisco Andrade. HP UniversityRelations: helping build engineering capacity in Latin America. 2007 ASEE Conference Proceedings2 Banerjee
consortium of smaller companies may sign a formal agreement for a body ofongoing research activities with a particular university. The Ford-MIT alliance is an example ofthis sort of partnership. (1) At the other extreme, a single company may choose to sponsor asingle student or small group to develop a design. Many schools operate such a sponsorshipsystem for their capstone design courses. (2) In between, there are many different levels ofcooperation.This paper discusses collaboration between an industry consortium and a mechanical engineeringdepartment that involved several different types of work over a six-year period. Initially, theconsortium provided a project for inclusion in a single-quarter senior design course. Later, theyfunded a number of
with step-by-step instructions showing how to build and troubleshoot the motor. In addition, preliminaryexperiment testing and student reactions are presented.1) IntroductionMotors are an important part of the mechanical engineering (ME) curriculum as well as incurricula developed for high school science and robotics clubs – in fact, this experiment wasdeveloped as part of a curriculum to accompany the Navy’s SeaPerch program1, which focuseson junior high and high school students. In college ME programs, motors are introduced infreshman and sophomore introduction to engineering courses, and then elaborated upon in higherlevel classes, such as system dynamics, control systems, and mechatronics. Most commonly,experiments involving motors focus
Rican-born parents). *U.S. Natives with Native Parentage or Third-and-higher Generations—U.S.-born citizens withboth parents born in the United States (including persons born as U.S. citizens in foreigncountries with two U.S.-born.”[8]The Hispanic profile we would like to study are Hispanic currently or recently enrolled in K-12that consider going to higher education. The following table describes the personas.Table 1 - Personas Born K-12 Education Parents1. Joseph Non US US US citizen2. Judy US US Non-US citizen3. John Non US Non US US
Electrical orComputer Engineering) or a Biomedical Sciences minor (through Mechanical Engineering) 1;both options offer students an opportunity to take coursework and some laboratory work in thebiomedical area well into their plan of study. Implementing a full scale biomedical engineeringprogram is not feasible without significant additional recourses or an affiliated medical school.There is little opportunity to work in a laboratory setting on projects related to biomedicalengineering in the first year of study, as is the case for most if not all engineering programs.Engineering faculty met with faculty from the Department of Nursing while pursuingopportunities for undergraduate student research projects and, together, an undergraduateresearch and
accomplish these outcomes, while retainingdeclared majors as a small emerging program in an established college, innovative techniques wereencouraged and applied throughout the program coursework. Of particular concern is the first yearexperience, or freshman year, as the first year has been cited as a critical decision making juncture forretention in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) (1, 2).Completion surveys from previous students consistently pointed to the traditional common freshmanengineering introductory course as lacking in engagement. Anecdotal evidence on these surveys associatedthis course with major changes out of engineering. To achieve retention of majors and stay competitivewithin an established college, the newly
them canreach the target. In the mass-integration exercise, a recycle problem is presented to the students.Data for process streams and units as well as constraints on acceptable recycles are given. As theuser defines the flowrates assigned from the process streams (sources) to the process units(sinks), infeasible solutions are detected and the student’s score is penalized. When a feasiblesolution is finally obtained, the grade is assigned based on the number of trials and the ratio ofthe student’s answer to the optimal value. Figures 1 and 2 are snapshots of the graphical userinterface (GUI) for the mass-integration exercise.Figure 1: Mass integration solution tableFigure 2: Mass integration error messages. In the heat integration exercise, a
memory (MEM) for storing both programs and data.The complete data path is shown in Figure 1. BUS A BUS B BUS C 6 PC IR A1 A2 1 REGS 2 MUX 2 A ALU R B
. Thus, there is an urgent need toprepare future engineers for solving unknown problems. The emphasis should be on teaching tolearn rather than providing more knowledge. Teaching engineers to think analytically will bemore important than helping them memorize theorems. Teaching them to cope with rapidprogress will be more critical than teaching them all of the technology breakthroughs.1 In theopinions of engineering managers, thinking and problem solving skills are evaluated as the mostimportant skills of an engineering professional, and are becoming even more vital in theextremely challenging world of today.2Currently, most of our engineering schools have developed curricula by creating scenarios orpredicting the expected problems. In doing so
describesone of these interdisciplinary freshman projects. The project, known as Analytical andExperimental Evaluation of a SMARTBEAM, combines elements of civil, mechanical andelectrical engineering in the study of flexural behavior of expanded wide flange steel beamsknown as cellular beams. The project combines finite element analysis, flexural stress concepts,strain gauge instrumentation and experimental investigation into a unified experience. Detailsrelated to course development and structure, lecture content, method of delivery, outcomes, andlearning assessment are presented.1. IntroductionEngineering analysis, design and research investigation must rely on theory, computationalanalysis and experimental evaluation. In order to effectively
valuable educational experiences, andenhances student performance. This work reviews the robotics course, highlights the role ofmechanical and electrical engineering technology students in several projects, and presents theassessment data showing the positive results of this course.1. Introduction A mobile robot is a system that contains mechanical and electronic parts that can beprogrammed to perform specific functions, responding to sensory inputs under the control of aninternal or external computer. The reasons to use mobile robots as the main topic for the roboticscourse is that in addition to involving the electrical and mechanical engineering disciplines,robotics deals with other sciences and humanities subjects, such as animal and human
Castor Level Adjustment ScrewFigure 1. Setup for the “Torsion Experiment” Using “Optical Measurement System” aτ = T.r / J (1) 2φ 1 2φ = Tan― ( b/ a)φ = T.L / G.J (2) c b Where: τ = Shear Stress, T= Torque, J = Polar Moment of Inertia, r = radius of the round bar, φ
Page 22.187.5experiences pertaining to topics emphasized in the curricula, professional skills and problemsolving, and design skills development. In Table 1, below, we first show the comparison of theP2P data to the Irish set. In the table, mean, standard deviation as well as the significance of thedifferences across means are provided. As it can be observed in the following table, on the fourdistinct items, Irish data and the P2P data significantly differed, three of which are in the topicsin engineering. While Irish students perceived that the ethical issues in the engineering practiceare addressed better in their curriculum, the comparisons indicated that the US sample studentsperceive the inclusion of emerging engineering technologies and
State of the Union address, President Obama declaredthat “Next, we can put Americans to work today building the infrastructure of tomorrow”[1], andhe stressed the importance of keeping pace with China, Germany and India in providinginfrastructure to support economic development. Across the spectrum of American politics,from local to federal, there is an emerging consensus about the need for greater focus on therenovation and creation of infrastructure. It would be a mistake to believe that this is just a fad.Two previous trends, environmental remediation and sustainability, serve as examples of long-term engineering issues that somewhat suddenly went through a large increase in publicawareness, and ten to twenty years later, those issues have
.” communicate problems and their solutions “Junior class hit [learning] targets much more than senior effectively) ones.” “I feel that I have unique training in the biomedicine field. There are very few people who can sit down and figure out a problem using logic in the first year of graduate school. I feel that the “non-book-smarts” that the BIOEN program has given me has allowed me to succeed now.”Table 1. Representative quotations submitted by student alumni regarding their perceptions of theirpreparation received in our BIOEN program.This student alumni survey provided qualitative results (Table 1) which were instrumental inidentifying aspects of the curriculum which required attention. Many of the concerns cited
students recorded their perceptions of their educational experiences,and then summarize the qualitative study findings to outline the benefits of being immersedin different educational settings through study abroad experiences. Given the current resourceconstraint environment in higher education settings, we hope to help our community inmaking better decisions relevant to developing and sustaining study abroad programs.IntroductionGiven the projections1 that (1) the pace of technological innovation will continue to be rapid,(2) the world in which technology will be deployed will become progressively moreinterconnected, and (3) designers, manufacturers, distributors and users will be increasinglydiverse and multidisciplinary; our graduates will
vision of MartinLuther King, and the curiosity and wonder of our grandchildren.” This statement implies thatnot only should our graduates be very well equipped with analytical skills but also mastercreative problem solving. Indeed, given the projections2 that (1) the pace of technologicalinnovation will continue to be rapid, (2) the world in which technology will be deployed willbe intensely globally interconnected, and (3) designers, manufacturers, distributors, users willbe increasingly diverse and multidisciplinary; our graduates will need to develop these skillsto a higher degree.Despite this need, however, the engineering education has been observed to do the opposite,at least on enhancing creative problem solving skills. For example
for our gateway energy class were developed within the morebroadly defined learning objectives of Miami University’s Liberal Education classes. Theselearning outcomes are shown in Table 1.Our vision presented us with an opportunity to design a course that would address these fourbroad goals. Institutionally, being able to define our outcomes against these objectives allows usto offer our course as a one that meets certain university-wide graduation requirements, thusincreasing its appeal to the student body. By increases students’ potential exposure to the topicwe may increase the number of students interested in pursing energy as field of study, and thevarious engineering, natural and social science disciplines that make it up
“understand how to acquire knowledge, how to develop personal strategies,how to discern their own capacities and limitations, and how to approach new bodies oflearning.” We set out to develop a curriculum that would provide opportunities for STEMstudents to develop these skills. Because we were departing from our typical on-campus programand were determined to create a quality online version, information on how to build an effectiveonline class was also researched. Johnson and Aragon7 state that "powerful online learningenvironments need to contain a combination of these principles: (1) address individualdifferences, (2) motivate the student, (3) avoid information overload, (4) create a real-lifecontext, (5) encourage social interaction, (6) provide
, Page 22.194.2programmable logic controllers, and field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). The second is toprovide the student with an understanding of the relative suitability of these components inindustrial and technical applications with respect to key selection criteria including cost,performance, power requirements, and ease of implementation. The final objective is tofamiliarize the student with a set of industry-standard tools used to program these devices and tomake estimates of their performance and power requirements.Course ContentThe course is designed for a ten-week (plus final exam) quarter system. The topic schedule isshown in Table 1. Week Topic 1 Introduction to
for technical-managers.Admission requirementsIn addition to the general Drexel graduate admission requirements applicants mustprovide a preliminary proposal of their intended plan of study, which should include ageneral set of objectives, an outline of the courses to be taken, and identification of amaster's project topic to be pursued.To be admitted to the graduate program in Engineering Technology, the following courses mustbe completed at the undergraduate level with a minimum grade of C: 1. Calculus 1 2. Calculus 2 3. Physics 1 (algebra-based) 4. Physics 2 (algebra-based) 5. DC/AC Circuit Analysis 6. Digital Electronics 7. Industrial Materials 8. StatisticsCandidates for the MSET degree must complete a