Collection

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

Collection

2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Jeffrey Johnson; Janet Rutledge; Eric Sheppard

, • References, and • Graduate Record Examinations ScoresWhat are the broader impacts of supporting the individual’s graduate study? • Contributions to community, both social and scholarly, • Consideration is given to unique characteristics of applicant's background (personal, professional, & educational experiences), • Applicants should address the integration of diversity into projects and activities, and • Applicants should address the integration of research and education in their research, projects, and other activitiesAttention to the two merit criteria is clearly reflected in the Guidelines for Submission ofApplications1, the application and reference forms and the reviewers rating sheet

Collection

2001 Annual Conference

Authors

John Klegka; Robert Rabb

employing three modules, this curriculum avoids a cumulativeexposure to a specific matter and, at the same time, introduces related material from otherdisciplines. Likewise, the proposed curriculum still demands the knowledge acquired inprevious courses. This sequential learning leads to a more refined understanding of subjectmaterial and promotes greater efforts at synthesis and analysis.This mechanical engineering curriculum concludes in a substantial project or course after thestudent has demonstrated a good understanding of the fundamentals of the discipline. In theAmerican Association of Colleges’ (AAC) view, this experience provides two great lessons: 1)the joy of mastery, the thrill of moving forward in a formal body of knowledge and gaining

Collection

2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Fred Lee; Connie Dillon; Arthur Breipohl

lognormal random variables with different hourlymean values, while quantities are assumed to come from a Gaussian stochastic process.Generating unit availabilities and transmission path availabilities are chosen from Bernoullidistributions. The final result is a histogram that estimates the distribution of profit over thesimulation horizon, from which expected profit and comprehensive risk measures are evident.During the course of this project, we intend to create a simpler simulator that accomplishes thesame functions, but with a simpler (and therefore more approximate) model.V. Delivery MethodThe goal is to place the material for the two courses described above into a format that is available toothers over the web. Also, we have proposed to place

Collection

2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Geraldine Milano; Gene Golub

Engineering Educationbody diagrams and the understanding of visualizing problems. In earlier years, engineeringstudents were required to take a two-semester engineering graphics course in their freshmanyear. Descriptive geometry clarified the meanings of parallel, perpendicular, projection, andangles. The hours spent in carefully constructing the graphics exercises in descriptive geometryprepared the student for the meticulous type of work expected of an engineer. It set the tone forlearning by doing. It also helped with visualization.Today’s engineering student has a brief experience with engineering graphics with emphasis oncomputer aided drafting and three-dimensional design software tools. Very little hand drawing isrequired of today’s

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Kisha L. Johnson; John Albert Wheatland; Grace E. Mack

youPractice! Practice! Practice! Plan to get to Calculus in one year-Get an “A” in have questions or need help, ask an upper levelAllocate appropriate time to study mathematics Math 106 and take 141 the next semester student or the student support staffAvoid making careless mistakes Take advantage of the summer “Bridge” programs Be persistent and persevereOrganize and work in a mathematics study Keep your books for future courses-You will see Get to know and work with faculty on researchgroup the mathematics again projects-They will get to know you better and whatBe cautious of the shaky “C

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Katherine A. Liapi

has always been the primary objective ofthis course, the integration of Units I and II has in essence expanded the knowledgecontent of the course and has introduced a more systematic approach to the study ofform by offering the students the tools to explore it.Architectural Engineering students are trained in aesthetic design through thedevelopment of 2D and 3D projects and assignments (the construction of 2D and 3Dphysical models is always part of the assignment requirement.) The “Introduction toDesign I” course is structured around a series of design assignments. In their designassignments, students are given a chance to develop their creative and artistic skills; as aresult they are almost always enthusiastically engaged in them.Design

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Richard Felder

Session 3630 Helping New Faculty Get Off to a Good Start Rebecca Brent, Richard M. Felder North Carolina State UniversityCollege teaching may be the only skilled profession that does not routinely provide training to itsnovice practitioners. New faculty members at most universities have traditionally had to learnby themselves how to plan research projects, identify and cultivate funding sources, writeproposals and get them funded, attract and supervise graduate students, and present their researchresults in an effective manner. They have also had to teach themselves how to

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Julie Ann Stuart

assignment that students complete is a case study analysis. Case studies fromindustries as diverse as pharmaceuticals and automotive provide students with further study of 20 21industrial ecology issues . The students study engineering problems in the case studies as wellas compare the total costs (including environmental impact costs) of the alternatives using the 29P2/Finance spreadsheet software tool .The third assignment is for the students to select an industrial ecology project topic to explore anarea of interest to them. Students have analyzed paint versus appliques for aircraft, powdercoating versus traditional paint, plastics recycling methodologies, improved packaging

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Qiuli Sun; Kevin Stubblefield; Kurt Gramoll

the introduction of theInternet technologies, these problems can be minimized. There are numerous web-basedsimulations in the literature. An example is “Mallard” which was developed by MikeSwafford and Donna Brown at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign [5].Another example is to use Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) to teach designover the Internet [6]. At Heriot-Watt University, UK, an ongoing project calledMultiverse provides a standard interface for various internet-based simulations andreduces the cost of developing simulations [7].Online CourseSince the Web provides unprecedented flexibility and multimedia capability to delivercourse materials, more and more courses are being delivered through the Web. At theUniversity

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Ofodike Ezekoye; Min Liu; Derek Baker; Colleen Jones; Philip Schmidt

links to other data sources, and• Enrichment resources, including pictures and explanations of thermodynamic applications and historical bases of thermodynamics, and links to other useful and interesting sites.Additionally, the ThermoNet project includes a significant effort in learning research which isexploring the use of online site-tracking, as well as other more conventional instruments, toevaluate how engineering students use hypermedia for mastering difficult cognitive tasks suchas understanding thermodynamics.ThermoNet is a work-in-progress which is in its initial stages of implementation. The followingsections describe the design of the ThermoNet site, its current content, design of the evaluationprocess and some initial

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

William G. Fahrenholtz; Mohamed N Rahaman

levels are prepared andthen fired under identical conditions. Fired density is measured to determine what effect heat hason the sintering process. Solid-state diffusion is used to incorporate a dopant, Al2O3, into aceramic, ZnO. The influence of dopant concentration on sintered density is determined in thislaboratory and the sintered samples are also used in the following semester for characterizationof microstructure.Second Semester Junior Experiments in Ceramic Engineering at UMR:The experiments in the first half of the second semester are devoted to characterization of crystalstructure and microstructure by x-ray diffraction and microscopy. In the second half of thesemester, the students undertake a project with the objective of producing a

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Abbes Berrais

Session 1315 Using Expert Systems Technology to Teach Earthquake Resistant Design of Buildings Abbes Berrais Abha College of Technology, POB 238, Abha, Saudi ArabiaAbstractComputers have been introduced as an element into the teaching environment for a long timenow. Until recently, computers have been used for relatively routine calculations such as:report writing, spreadsheets, drafting, and simple simulations. Very rarely are computers usedto help teach and visualize fundamental concepts, or to explore the alternative solutions of adesign project. Today the most

Collection

2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Stephen Stafford; Rosa Gomez; Daniela Castaneda; Connie Della-Piana

, organizational meetings, andcontact with a myriad of student development resources. Students in the freshmanorientation are introduced to the Center and have the opportunity to use the facility’sresources to complete assigned projects that are integral to their orientation experience.The compulsory freshman seminar course, promoting the Center among the enteringfreshmen, serves to establish the early connections to ACES. ACES was designed toserve as a hub for student connections to study and learning resources, pre-professionalemployment opportunities, tutors, student organizations, and a host of other speciallytargeted student development activities. ACES is a part of our retention solution for acampus serving a commuter student population. The ACES

Collection

2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Jay Porter; James Ochoa; Rainer Fink

the spoken requirements for tenure were very similar to myprevious position, a quick survey of other tenure-track faculty members suggested that I wouldneed to spend a lot more time at work. Also, I felt that it was very important to be involved, sowhenever a senior faculty member approached me to participate in a project, I did. I quicklyfound myself spread very thin trying to keep up with teaching, student advising, and all of myresearch interests and commitments. This led to many late evenings in the office and usuallyspending between sixty to eighty hours a week at my job. When I was not at work, I was usuallythinking about it at home.Fortunately, before I accepted the position my wife and I had discussed my career and we hadagreed that I

Collection

2001 Annual Conference

Authors

John Field; Janelle Tonti; Eric Beenfeldt; Isaac Horn; Edward Williams

teaching and learning and cover a broad range oftopics. Some emphasize the skills necessary to be a successful student, skills like, learningstyles, study skills team building, and types of engineering jobs. They might use texts similar toLandis1 or Donaldson2. Some of these also introduce design, using projects like egg drops,bridge building, or discipline related endeavors. Other introductory engineering coursesemphasize a more technical approach, using, for example, a text like White and Doering3. Someof the more technical courses are discipline-based4 while others serve as an introduction to themajor engineering disciplines5. ECE 101 combines the general skills development philosophywith an ECE discipline-based approach.Techniques used to

Collection

2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Jr., Edward Evans; Richard B. Englund

the completion of the session. The bridgewas the focus of the session, in lecture as well as hands-on, as an example of the types of workperformed by engineering technologists. The bridge proved itself a suitable introduction andrecruiting example, and indeed the girls were excited by the project and a possible career inengineering technology. At the end of the session the bridge was disassembled and stored forfuture use. The material cost for the bridge was small, although significant time was spent infabrication. The bridge can be readied for other recruiting sessions in less than thirty minutes.A set of alternative uses for the same bridge has been identified, most unrelated to recruiting, butsignificant enough in utility to suggest that

Collection

2001 Annual Conference

Authors

James Fuller

Session 2306 Classroom and Site Integration: Utilizing Site Documentation and Classroom Assignments to Make Connections Between Theory and Practice James E. Fuller, AIA University of HartfordAbstractThe late Italian master builder Luigi Nervi said “A good architect is someone capable ofseeing the main problems of a design, capable of examining with serenity the variouspossible solutions, and who finally has a thorough grasp of the technical meansnecessary to accomplish his project.” Ernest L. Boyer and Lee D. Mitgang, in their reportBuilding Community: A

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Michael Rudko

strategy. Thelatter is used to measure the degree of success in meeting the program objectives as well asCriteria 2000 objectives [a]-[k]. The preparatory activities at Union were more extensive thanusual because they included a major revision of the curriculum. Late in the fall term 1993,Union College received a five-year, $750,000 from the GE Foundation (now the GE Fund) toundertake a total redesign of the college’s nearly 150-year old engineering programs. During the1993-94 academic year, Dean Kenyon simultaneously led Union’s curriculum project andchaired the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET where the origins of what wouldbecome the ABET Criteria 2000 were being established. The Union College engineeringcurricula were therefore

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Wayne E. Wells

Another set of vital skills for the practicing engineer, regardless of area of specialty, isthat of cost estimating. Engineers must be able to forecast the cost effect of their decisions atthe time of the decision-making activity. To not have this skill means the engineer can notinclude cost in his decision making process and can never arrive at the correct decision by anycircumstance other than luck. It is also important to familiarize engineering students with the processes involved incost estimating, as projects move from the concept stage to full production, or as the projecttakes form in design and then under on-site construction, for those in the civil engineeringarena. The skills gained in cost estimating help students understand

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

W. Ernst Eder

for engineering design, does not consist of dumping students in at the deep end ofdesign projects (e.g. capstone courses, and competitions) and letting them sink or swim.The theory, methods, examples and practice for any particular topic should be introduced insuitable stages, coordinated with the progressive increase in difficulty and complexity of theproblems – it is definitely not advisable to present all the theory (or method, or practice) in onechunk. A useful guideline, attributed to Confucius, says:“Tell me and I will forgetShow me and I will rememberInvolve me and I will understandTake one step back and I will act.”In the usual interpretation, the first two of this set of items are often used to deny theeffectiveness of lectures and

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Suzanne Keilson

couple of useful techniquesmight be to have students explain their approaches to scientific problem solving in a fewsentences, or have them make up and grade their own questions. A small effort showing thestudents what you want them to do can lead to increased performance by students who have notpreviously leaned how to proceed. Another example is to provide grading mechanisms moreflexible than a “one-shot” exam or a single project deadline with chances for feedback andimprovement along the way. Yes, we should have expectations for responsible professionalconduct, which includes deadlines, but teach and foster that to freshmen and sophomores andassess and expect it in juniors and seniors. The key pedagogical shift is to see the teacher ascoach

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Albert L. McHenry; Lakshmi Munukutla, Arizona State University

main campus in theirentirety. Other programs will be relocated and new programs developed in response to studentsand employer demand. All programs at ASU East provide students with the knowledge andskills to succeed in the dynamic, technological, multicultural and transnational environment ofthe 21st century.ASU East opened for business on August 26, 1996. It was designed as a student-centeredcampus that welcomes and interacts with the community. This new campus is destined to helpArizona State University meet the needs of some 36,000 new university students projected forMaricopa County over the next 15-20 years. ASU East is expected to be ready to serve 15,000 to20,000 students by that time. Educational excellence at ASU East is defined by

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Murali Krishnamurthi

/she may not be competent in every problem domain and maynot be aware of all the techniques that are applicable to solving problems in all problem domains.All modeling projects require reporting and documentation of results in a truthful and objectivemanner and modelers have to interact with clients or model users on matters related to thedesign, development, testing, and use of models. Modelers and their employers may be temptedto solicit modeling projects that are not in their areas of competence or offer their services formodeling projects that do not warrant their particular modeling expertise. Therefore, thefundamental canons of the Code of Ethics do directly apply to modeling. The requirement byABET2000 to include ethics in the

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Murali Krishnamurthi

/she may not be competent in every problem domain and maynot be aware of all the techniques that are applicable to solving problems in all problem domains.All modeling projects require reporting and documentation of results in a truthful and objectivemanner and modelers have to interact with clients or model users on matters related to thedesign, development, testing, and use of models. Modelers and their employers may be temptedto solicit modeling projects that are not in their areas of competence or offer their services formodeling projects that do not warrant their particular modeling expertise. Therefore, thefundamental canons of the Code of Ethics do directly apply to modeling. The requirement byABET2000 to include ethics in the

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Scott R. Short

of notation. Facedwith having to learn statistics to complete their assigned materials science laboratory projects,most students succumb to the temptation to instead merely plug their data into a spreadsheetcomputer program (e.g., EXCEL) and command the software to perform a few basic cannedstatistical operations. Moreover, since most of the software statistical routines are based on thenormal distribution, students are led to believe that if experimental data are not normally distrib-uted, then “something is wrong.” Simply put, the majority of undergraduates do not realize thatthe underlying foundation of statistics is the frequency (probability) distribution which may takeany of several possible shapes depending on the processes and

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Robert P. Taylor; B.K. Hodge

in demand. Thus, the trend toward team projects inengineering education is likely to become more prevalent. Students may not particularly likeprojects, but they seem to realize that they need practice working in teams. Hodge et al. (1991)found that although ME students disliked team projects, they appreciated the need for suchexposure.Factor 18: MTV generationHave the learning styles of ME students changed over the years ? Although the authors have theresults of no studies carried out with validated assessment instruments, the anecdotal observa- Page 2.193.7tions are that current ME undergraduate students at MSU are less inclined to accept the

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Richard Gilbert; Marilyn Barger, Hillsborough Community College; Renata Engel, Pennsylvania State University

reading assignments,homework problems or even variations on the usual syllabus material.Intervention actions can also be at the individual student level and still have an effect onclassroom and course management. The typical examples deal with make up tests, latehomework or project submissions and other types of one on one actions generated by the studentor instructor missing a predetermined deadline. For most instructors these intervention eventsare governed by a strong desire to be fair. However, even with that guideline in mind, studentsnot immediately involved with the intervention or not immediately benefitting from thatintervention or perhaps even indirectly penalized by such an intervention will have a differentview of the action.Classroom

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Robert Underwood; Loren Douglas Poole; Barbara Blake Bath

from faculty on the CSM campusbut it draws from similar projects on other campuses. The National Science Foundationhas funded several of these projects such as the ones at Dartmouth, RensselaerPolytechnic University, and the University of Pennsylvania.i In developing this set ofproblems, these projects were consulted, but the mission of the Colorado School ofMines, with its emphasis on energy and the environment, has driven the characteristics ofthis set. Further reasons for developing the course are based on recent calculus reformefforts where an emphasis is put on problem solving with less emphasis of the strictlecture technique which students often find dull and unwelcoming.iiCourse Content The course replaces the traditional second

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

William E. Cole

Session 2533 Neural Network Modeling of a Power Generation Gas Turbine William E. Cole Northeastern University ABSTRACTOver the past several years, I have supervised students creating Neural Network computermodels of operating processes for their senior project. Processes modeled include a gas turbinepower generator, a furnace, and building energy use. Models were created and used forparametric analysis within the scope of a one semester course. This modeling effort brought theactual operating process into the classroom, demonstrated to