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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Thomas Currin

representatives and ITE membership further supported theneed for increased undergraduate transportation education. The department’s industrial advisorycommittee cited at several meetings the need for students to be well versed in all the civilengineering specialty areas including transportation, while members of the Georgia Section ofITE openly wondered why undergraduate students were not given more exposure totransportation engineering as a career path. There was a concern that the confinement oftransportation engineering studies to the graduate level will and is stifling the development offuture transportation professionals.The Challenges to Change: As a result of the expressed need for more transportation engineering education in

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Raymond Luebbers; R.A. Rodríguez-Solís; José Colom-Ustáriz

instrument to attract students is by providing them with undergraduate researchopportunities. The Industrial Affiliates Program (IAP) of the ECE Department is one of theprograms providing such opportunities. IAP is supported by 13 companies and it has beenrunning continuously for the last 11 years, supporting over 300 undergraduate students. Thestudents participating in the program usually register in Undergraduate Research (INEL 4998),which is a flexible course that can count for up to 3 credit hours a semester for a maximum of 6credit hours during the student’s career. The size of the course is four students in average. Themain advantage over a capstone design course is that the student has two semesters to completethe project under close

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Douglas Ludlow

(l), 23-26 (1996).10) Bourne, J.R., A.J. Brodersen, J.0. Campbell, M.M. Dawant, and R.G. Shiavi, “A Model for On-Line Learning Networks in Engineering Education,” Journal of Engineering Education, 85(3), 253-62 (1996).11) Orr, J.A., D. Cyganski, and R. Vaz, “Teaching Information Engineering to Everyone,” 1997 ASEE Annual Conference Proceedings, CDROM, Session 2532 (1997).12) Pfaffenberger, B. and M. Shields, “Teaching Engineering Career Literacy and Teamwork Communication Skills in the First-Year Writing Course,” 1997 ASEE Annual Conference Proceedings, CDROM, Session 2561 (1997).13) Lilja, D.J., “Suggestions for Teaching the Engineering Research Process,” ASEE National Meeting CDROM, Session 0575 (1996).14) Agrawal, P.K

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Willis Tompkins, University of Wisconsin, Madison

of clothing the bare bones ofscience with life, comfort, and hope.” With our design courses and particularly the designbackbone of the BME curriculum, we hope that we are helping BME graduates to see how to“clothe the bare bones of science” regardless of whether they choose to continue their careers inengineering, medicine, or any other field.AcknowledgementsDevelopment of the biomedical engineering design sequence was supported in part by aWhitaker Foundation Special Opportunities Award. The faculty who have contributed todeveloping and teaching this sequence are David Beebe, Frank Fronczak, Jordan Lee, MarkNicosia, Nimmi Ramanujam, and John Webster. The EPICS program is supported by an NSF

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

William Watkins; John Sullivan

disciplinary orientationsneeds to increase.Earlier exposure to interdisciplinary teamwork activities may tend to lessen the impact of the“preconceptions and attitudes” exhibited by some students. Since “preconceptions and attitudes”tend to be self-correcting with the interdisciplinary experience, an earlier exposure may allow theeffected student, through practical experience, to develop the more appropriate perspectiveearlier in their academic career, thus providing an expanded opportunity for other relatedlearning experiences. Frequent exposure to interdisciplinary may also lessen the reinforcementof preconceptions and attitudes that result from the stronger/weaker student combination. Effortsare currently underway to include on a routine basis

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Philip Lau; Merredith Portsmore; Scott McNamara; Chris Rogers

not been foundelsewhere in their education. They also expressed that although ROBOLAB would not be usedin their future careers they had been able to address more concepts and topics than with aprogramming language they were unfamiliar with.Conclusions and Future DirectionsThe combination of the RCX , ROBOLAB and Lego elements provide a tool set that is easy forthe students to use and learn and is also easy for the instructor to teach. It requires a smallamount of time for instruction which frees up class time to focus on the topics of the course.Little support from the instructor or teaching assistants for hardware or software problems isneeded. As the students can program at home or in existing computer facilities, it does notrequire lab

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

James Hedrick

, Computer Science, and ComputerSystems). A recurring theme in all of the engineering careers studied is that of problemsolving. Students prefer to study concepts in the context of a practical application. For thisreason, part of the course is a “Design Studio” in which students learn about engineeringprinciples by applying these principles to solving the problem of implementing a machine todump ping-pong balls into a basketball hoop. To add interest to the project students competeby pitting their machine against other students’ machines to see who can place the most ballsin the hoop in the shortest time. The problem-solving theme is also used to connect the“Design Studio” to the lectures. The concepts presented in the lectures are connected using a

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Eli Fromm; Jack McGourty

participate in course pilot test Spring courses evaluation system 2000 A2. Establish system in Design system • Increasing input from • By the end of year 9, • Institutional collaboration with and surveys Fall external constituents 100% of departments Metrics (E6) career services to 2000 on student learning will participate in first solicit information outcomes administration of on student and Implementation employer survey graduate learning Spring 2001

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Jeffrey Johnson; Janet Rutledge; Eric Sheppard

30000 25000 20000 15000 10000 5000 0 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 Year Computer sciences, Total Computer sciences, Female Figure 3: Computer Science Graduate Students, all U.S. Institutions4Many under-represented minority (URM) applicants to GRF (and, previously, MGF)started their educational careers at Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs, such asHistorically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) or Hispanic Serving Institutions(HSIs)), as can be seen in the first column of Table 1. However, the second column ofthe

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

John Klegka; Robert Rabb

Page 6.54.1 Copyright © 2001, American Society for Engineering Educationmechanical engineering curriculum at USMA and show how it meets the needs of the institutionand the engineering profession.USMA must prepare its mechanical engineering graduates to meet diverse expectations in atechnical army and in careers beyond the military. They need experience and exposure with thediscipline’s wide range of topics. By providing students the opportunity to study a broad andbalanced choice of mechanical engineering offerings, the Academy responds to the requirementsfor graduates with the capabilities to solve complex, ill-defined problems and who are preparedfor advanced schooling in a wide range of technical areas.However

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Larry Williamson; William Drake

@aol.comMexico State University ahyde@nmsu.eduPinewood Preparatory School (SC) coolchemist@rocketmail.comSaint Martin’s College esjoblom@stmartin.eduSouthern Illinois University mrtfehr@aol.comSouthwest Missouri State University billdrake@smsu.eduTennessee Technological University rcp5542@tntech.eduThe College of New Jersey sepahpou@tcnj.edu Page 6.743.8UniTec Career Center (MO) bminkel@peoplepc.comUniversity of New Hampshire moon.buggy@unh.eduUniversity of

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Mark Smith

after a career in the information technology industry, working in management andtechnical positions in the Industrial Sector and as a consultant with IBM. Mark received an A.A.S in ComputerTechnology and B.S. in Management from Purdue University, and an M.B.A. from the University of Notre Dame. Page 6.183.8 Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright @ 2001, American Society for Engineering Education

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

David DiBiasio

multidisciplinary project thatexamines technology-society interactions. The project is called an Interactive Qualifying Project(IQP). Students research, address and report on a problem examining how science or technologyinteracts with cultures, societal structures, and values. Project objectives include enablingstudents to understand, as citizens and as professionals, how their careers will affect the largersociety of which they are a part. Projects are done in small, multidisciplinary teams, they arebroad and integrative, are not limited to major field, and are equivalent in credit to three courses.Since the inception of this academic exercise, we have tried to find ways to get students off-campus to do these projects. The first such resident project

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Matthew Ohland; Richard Layton

majors and students in KFF were all chemical engineering majors. Students in this study are from several engineering disciplines (mechanical, electrical, civil, and so forth) and we know that some students and faculty deem certain engineering disciplines more demanding than others. Peer ratings may have been influenced by such prejudices.3. Perception of ability based on age and experience. Students in L&O I were all at essentially the same point in their academic career. Students in this study ranged from first-semester jun- iors to graduating seniors (and one graduate student as well). Peer ratings may have been in- fluenced by prejudices based on academic level.The previous studies tend to refute explanation 1. Peer-rating

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Ilya Grinberg

area in the table.4. As usual, make conclusions.Every exam includes one more question about the technical article in the most recentprofessional publications. The answer is expected in the form a memorandum to their supervisor.Students should be current in their specialty from the beginning of their careers, right here, at theCollege. Development of their communications skills is also a target.At the beginning of the semester students are assigned a library research project. They canchoose topics freely as long as they are related to electrical engineering/electrical engineeringtechnology field. The structure of the project should reflect the following: 1. Why did I choose this topic 2. What did I know before I started my research 3

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

William Sutton; Kathryn Laskey; Elbert White; Mark Houck

exclusively on ensuring that the large bodyof data that we had gathered could be clearly tied to our mission, program outcomes, and acontinuous improvement process. In the end, all of the hard work required by EC2000 was feltto be well worth the effort.3. Focus on constituency needsBecause of the excellent job market, most of our graduates and students are able to find jobswithout going through traditional channels such as University Career Services offices.Consequently, collecting complete and accurate data on where our students work is challenging.It was to our advantage that George Mason University is located in the Northern Virginia hightechnology community where the demand for our engineering graduates exceeds the supply.Each engineering

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

C. Richard Helps; Barry Lunt

theircareer and university experience, we believe there should be a greater focus on these threespecific thinking skills.CreativityTechnical students, particularly Engineering Technology students, are expected to create anumber of devices or systems during their student career, and probably many more after theyhave graduated. They are also often called on to generate multiple solutions to a single need orproblem. In these activities, they can benefit greatly from learning how to think creatively. “Inthe competitive marketplace, [creativity is] a crucial asset in the bid to win the race to buildbetter machines, decrease product delivery times, and anticipate the needs of futuregenerations.”2 Additionally, “Engineers and technologists bring mathematics

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Stephen Bronack; Horace Moo-Young

fostered and made moreconcrete for students is one such use. It is with this in mind, that Lehigh Universitycreated an innovative course in which engineering students entered into a relationshipwith an industry client to produce an instructional product. The completion of thisproduct required the students to incorporate their subject matter expertise as well as touse critical thinking and problem solving skills.II. Literature ReviewAccording to Sengupta 1, the very definition of engineering as an applied science isproving to be a myth. An applied science indicates a profession in which students studyfundamental scientific theory and then apply it in a professional career. It is becomingclearer that an engineering education requires more than

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

David Gray; Christopher Timmons; Robert Hendricks

readers may be found athttp://www.mse.vt.edu/faculty/hendricks/publications/publications.html. Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2001, American Society for Engineering Educationcharacteristic variables of the processes such as diffusion and oxide growth rates correspond wellwith literature, thus allowing the students to compare and model their results.Students taking this laboratory class learn the basics of a complete transistor manufacturingprocess and develop an appreciation for the processing equipment. This gives them a significanthead start towards a career in semiconductor manufacturing or semiconductor related research.The

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Charles Yokomoto; Maher Rizkalla

, students attend a formal class that alternated between building design skills andhearing speakers from local industry. Skill building was comprised of instruction in teambuilding and design, while industrial speakers were brought in to help students prepare for jobinterviews and career path selection.The weekly topics were as follows:Week #1: Course guidelines and descriptions of projects that students may select, and formation of teams.Week # 2: Design emphasis in bioengineering. The objective of this topic is to introduce the students to an area of applications not normally discussed in a traditional electrical and computer engineering program. ECE students have had signal

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Mark Smith

Technologycourses. He joined the university after a career in the information technology industry, working in management andtechnical positions in the Industrial Sector and as a consultant with IBM. Mark received an A.A.S in ComputerTechnology and B.S. in Management from Purdue University, and an M.B.A. from the University of Notre Dame. Page 6.850.8 Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright @ 2001, American Society for Engineering Education

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Authors

Joseph Orlins

lecture portion of Freshman Clinic I focuses on developing students’ problem-solving skills,engineering ethics, history of engineering, and career-building skills such as resume writing andmock interviews for summer internships.The overall theme of the lab-portion of Freshman Clinic I is Engineering Measurements4. Thelaboratory portion allows the students an opportunity to experience each of four engineeringdisciplines for three weeks. In the Civil and Environmental Engineering laboratory sessions,students are presented with a different laboratory module each of the three weeks:Environmental, Structural, and Water Resources Engineering.Water Resources Engineering ModulesTo date, two different modules relating to Water Resources Engineering have

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Authors

Shirley J. Dyke; Phillip Gould; Kevin Truman

), “Earthquake Engineering Educa- tion: A Modern Approach,” Proceedings of the American Society of Engineering Educators Conference, St. Louis, Missouri, June (in preparation). Page 5.184.8SHIRLEY J. DYKEShirley Dyke is an Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis. She is the Director ofthe Washington University Structural Control and Earthquake Engineering Lab. Dr. Dyke received her B.S. degree inAeronautical Engineering from the University of Illinois in 1991, and her PhD in Civil Engineering from the Universityof Notre Dame in 1996.Dr. Dyke was a recipient of the 1997 Presidential Career Award for

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Rosa Betancourt de Perez; Rosa Buxeda; Moises Orengo; Lueny M. Morell; Jose R. Lopez

and universities. The LSAMP project supports undergraduate education systemic reform in alliances that include partners from two- and four-year higher education institutions,businesses and industries, national research laboratories, local, state, and federal agencies. Inaddition to this principal focus, LSAMP projects also give consideration to the critical transitionpoints in SMET education: high school to college; 2-year and 4-year college; undergraduatestudy; and graduate-to-faculty career. Page 5.185.11 NSF Grant # HRD

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Authors

John Razukas; Jean Le Mee; Gerardo Del Cerro

theirperceptions on personal progress in each of these competencies With only a few exceptions,students in each year seemed to have enjoyed and learned from their experiences in the course.They recognized that the course had exposed them to substantial learning experiences in theabove competencies. In addition, they became aware of the importance of these competenciesfor their professional careers, and seemed to have developed them to a considerable extent.When asked “What is the most important thing learned?” the most frequent comments were“Interpersonal interaction,” “working in groups,” “enjoy doing work and not to freak out,” and“look at complete picture” when doing design.Students commented very enthusiastically about the opportunities given to them

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Authors

Jr., Michael E. Hanyak; James A. Van Fleet

,courseware development and the electronic classroom. Courseware and pedagogical developments have been thefocal points of his professional career. Page 5.262.6

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Douglas H. Baxter

from teaching fundamental prin-ciples.The balance between teaching skills and fundamental principles is further strained by making stu-dents learn several major software packages during their freshman year. Students are expected touse these software packages throughout their career at Rensselaer. Students must understand howto use the software, and, more importantly, how the software works. If students have some under-standing of what the software is accomplishing, then they are better able to recognize when thesoftware can be utilized in future assignments. Again, it becomes necessary to teach a skill (usingthe software) but more importantly, to teach the fundamental principles so that students under-stand why the skill they are learning

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

William Peterson

students can fit into their schedules. Since thecurriculum requires 16 to 18 credits per semester, a third semester of eight to twelve credits isneeded. The students and local companies enthusiastically support the full year intern (versusrotating coop plans) so the MFE program has evolved into three semesters per year, whichallows students to still graduate in four years with extensive practical experience.ConclusionsThe manufacturing engineering program at Western Michigan University was design by industryto meet local industry needs. The program is designed to develop job-ready engineers, who willbe contributing to their organizations’ growth from early in their careers. All four of the studentsgraduating at the end of the Fall 1999 Semester

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Timothy Benson; Paul Berke; Nathaniel Bair; Matthew Scholtens; Kristen Lantz; David Woessner; Daniel Lappenga; Dale Corlew; John Krupczak

LANTZKristen Lantz is a physics major at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa. She contributed to this project whileparticipating in an NSF-sponsored Research Experiences for Undergraduates program at Hope College.DANIEL LAPPENGADan Lappenga is a physics and education major at Hope College. He plans a career as a secondary school physicsand mathematics teacher. He participated in the work described here through an NSF Award for the Integration ofResearch and Education.MATTHEW SCHOLTENSMatthew Scholtens is currently pursuing an MS degree in rehabilitation engineering at the University of Michigan.He was formerly and engineering-physics major at Hope College. Matthew’s work as a research assistant at HopeCollege led to numerous improvements in the

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Richard Felder

devise stimulatinglectures and rigorous but fair assignments and tests, how to motivate students to want to learnand how to make them active participants in the learning process, and how to help them developcritical problem-solving, communication, and teamwork skills. Perhaps hardest of all, they havehad to figure out how to balance the competing time demands of teaching, research, and otherprofessional and personal responsibilities. Learning all these things by trial and error usuallytakes years. Some new faculty members eventually learn them; many others never do and eitherfail to earn tenure or spend their careers as unproductive researchers and/or ineffective teachers.Both experience and common sense suggest that appropriate mentoring and