Impact of New FE Test Availability
- Conference
- Location
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Columbus, Ohio
- Publication Date
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June 24, 2017
- Start Date
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June 24, 2017
- End Date
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June 28, 2017
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Mechanical Engineering
- Page Count
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7
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--28470
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/28470
- Download Count
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547
Paper Authors
Jason Andrew Roney University of Denver
Dr. Roney is currently a Teaching Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Materials Engineering. Dr. Roney joined the University of Denver (DU) in Autumn 2014. Prior to joining DU, Dr. Roney held both industry and academic positions. One of his areas of research interest is Learning and Teaching Styles in Engineering Education.
Breigh Nonte Roszelle University of Denver
Dr. Breigh Roszelle completed her undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering at Colorado State University in 2006. She then continued in academia, completing her Masters and PhD in Bioengineering at The Pennsylvania State University. At Penn State Breigh worked in the Artificial Heart Lab, her research focused on studying the biofluid mechanics associated with the development of a pediatric ventricular assist device. After completing her PhD in 2010, Breigh came to Arizona State University to work as a post doc in the Image Processing Applications Lab. In 2013 she became a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at the University of Denver. Here Breigh teaches courses in the fields of thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, biofluids, and introduction to engineering. Her educational research interests include first-year engineering experiences, engineering assessment, and active learning pedagogy.
Matt Gordon P.E. University of Denver
Dr. Matt Gordon is Professor and Chair of the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering. His research areas include numerical and experimental plasma physics, chemical and physical vapor deposition, electronic packaging, and bio-medical engineering. He has supervised to completion 26 MSME students and 5 PhD students. Publications include 1 book chapter, 32 journal publications, 47 refereed conference proceedings, 29 non-refereed publications, and 27 non-refereed presentations. He is responsible for funds as PI or Co-PI from 52 separate proposals totaling almost $6,500,000. Courses taught include undergraduate finite elements, thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, heat transfer, and engineering economics and ethics, and graduate finite elements, numerical methods, thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, plasma fundamentals and gas dynamics.
Bradley Davidson University of Denver
Dr. Bradley Davidson is an Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering and director of the Human Dynamics Laboratory at the University of Denver and Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. He holds a BS in civil engineering from Tennessee Tech, an MS in engineering mechanics from Virginia Tech, and a PhD in biomedical engineering from the Virginia Tech–Wake Forest School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences. His research focuses on understanding and characterizing human movement across healthy and pathologic populations through in vivo experimental measurement and musculoskeletal modeling. Applications focus on fall prevention, spine stability, rehabilitation after total joint surgery, and muscle coordination and proprioception in the lumbo-pelvic region.
Abstract
At first glance, it would seem that when the NCEES decided to offer the FE exam repeatedly throughout the year, as opposed to just two times a year, it would be a big improvement. And, no doubt, in the long run it will be. However, in the short run, at the University of X, where all Mechanical Engineering students are required to take (not pass, but take) the FE exam to graduate, we have found that having more options on when to take the exam has negatively impacted our pass rate, at least before adapting to the new schedule. With a few exceptions, our senior mechanical engineering students, who previously took the FE exam in the April offering, passed at a rate right at the national average. During the first year the format of the FE exam was changed, we saw little change to our pass rate; we believe this was because the great majority of our students still took the exam in April or May. This past year, in contrast, our students took the exam throughout the year and we had a substantial drop in our pass rate. In this paper we will detail why we believe this temporary drop in pass rate occurred and what we did to adapt to the changes to return our pass rates back to national averages.
Roney, J. A., & Roszelle, B. N., & Gordon, M., & Davidson, B. (2017, June), Impact of New FE Test Availability Paper presented at 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Columbus, Ohio. 10.18260/1-2--28470
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