Summer Engineering Experience (SEE) Program - A Program to Prepare Freshmen Students for Engineering Studies

Hossein Rahemi; Shouling He; Margaret Ducharme

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Conference: 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Publication Date: June 24, 2017
Start Date: June 24, 2017
End Date: June 28, 2017
Conference Session: ETD Freshmen Students
Tagged Division: Engineering Technology
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 10
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--28884
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/28884
Download Count: 565

Paper Authors

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Hossein Rahemi Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology

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Dr. Hossein Rahemi is a professor and department chair of Engineering and Technology at Vaughn College of Aeronautics & Technology. He is the author of two books, Vaughn College Journal of Engineering and Technology (VCJET), numerous conference papers in the areas of solid mechanics, computational mechanics, vibration analysis, fracture mechanics and reliability analysis. He is also a principle investigator for the NSF S-STEM grant and the HIS-STEM grant and a student adviser for a number of technical papers in the areas of mechanics, robotics and industrial automation.

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Shouling He Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology

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Dr. Shouling He is an associate professor of Engineering and Technology at Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology, where she is teaching the courses in Mechatronics Engineering and Electrical Engineering Technology. Her research interests include modeling and simulation, microprocessors and PLCs, control system designs and Robotics. She has published more than 45 journal and conference papers in these research areas.

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Margaret Ducharme Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology

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Dr. Ducharme is the Chairman of Arts and Sciences at Vaughn College of Aeronautics and
Technology. She has a Ph.D. in English from the University of Toronto, Canada. Dr. Ducharme is on the Development Committee of The Association of Literary Scholars, Critics and Writers, an international academic organization dedicated to the promotion of Liberal Arts in education and society, and she is a published author within the journal Literary Matters. She has presented papers at the annual conferences for both the North Eastern Modern Language Association and the ALSCW.

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Abstract

This paper details the development process of a Summer Engineering Experience program that has been implemented at Vaughn College to prepare first-year students for engineering programs. Unlike the traditional pre-engineering programs held in other universities or colleges, where mathematics or physics courses are main subjects to be taught, this program is designed with an objective to enhance students’ hands-on, computational, programming, communication, and problem solving skills.

The five-week SEE program was offered in the summer 2016. Monday through Thursday (from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm) sessions were devoted to the lectures and hands-on classes that covered topics related to engineering computation using MATLAB and C++, robotics, bridge truss design & analysis, technical writing and presentation. The Friday’s session of the SEE program is designated for technical seminars and workshops. This session is designed to enhance students’ learning outcomes related to critical thinking, problem solving, and life-long learning. Guest speakers from industry were invited to deliver lectures and host workshops current to today’s technology. Given the rapid pace of technological change, the Friday’s seminar series and workshops helped Vaughn’s engineering students to develop a mind-set to adopt changes in technology and prepare them for their future professional careers.

During the last two weeks of the program, students were grouped in two to three persons per group to work with a SEE faculty mentor and develop a project with real-world engineering application. These projects were presented during the last day of summer session and student performance based on attainment of a specific learning outcome was evaluated by faculty members. Also a rubric survey is distributed to students to assess the program effectiveness. The implementation and assessment process of Vaughn’s SEE program based on both faculty and students’ survey results will be discussed in detail at ASEE Annual Conference.

Overall, the program has been successfully implemented and many students of this program are currently engaged in robotics club, the knowledge and skills they learned in SEE program helped them to develop and design innovative robots for the 2016-2017 VEX U robotics competition.

Citation
Format

Rahemi, H., & He, S., & Ducharme, M. (2017, June), Summer Engineering Experience (SEE) Program - A Program to Prepare Freshmen Students for Engineering Studies Paper presented at 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Columbus, Ohio. 10.18260/1-2--28884

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - This paper details the development process of a Summer Engineering Experience program that has been implemented at Vaughn College to prepare first-year students for engineering programs. Unlike the traditional pre-engineering programs held in other universities or colleges, where mathematics or physics courses are main subjects to be taught, this program is designed with an objective to enhance students’ hands-on, computational, programming, communication, and problem solving skills. 

The five-week SEE program was offered in the summer 2016. Monday through Thursday (from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm) sessions were devoted to the lectures and hands-on classes that covered topics related to engineering computation using MATLAB and C++, robotics, bridge truss design &amp; analysis, technical writing and presentation. The Friday’s session of the SEE program is designated for technical seminars and workshops. This session is designed to enhance students’ learning outcomes related to critical thinking, problem solving, and life-long learning. Guest speakers from industry were invited to deliver lectures and host workshops current to today’s technology. Given the rapid pace of technological change, the Friday’s seminar series and workshops helped Vaughn’s engineering students to develop a mind-set to adopt changes in technology and prepare them for their future professional careers. 

During the last two weeks of the program, students were grouped in two to three persons per group to work with a SEE faculty mentor and develop a project with real-world engineering application. These projects were presented during the last day of summer session and student performance based on attainment of a specific learning outcome was evaluated by faculty members. Also a rubric survey is distributed to students to assess the program effectiveness. The implementation and assessment process of Vaughn’s SEE program based on both faculty and students’ survey results will be discussed in detail at ASEE Annual Conference.   

Overall, the program has been successfully implemented and many students of this program are currently engaged in robotics club, the knowledge and skills they learned in SEE program helped them to develop and design innovative robots for the 2016-2017 VEX U robotics competition.

AU  - Hossein Rahemi
AU  - Shouling He
AU  - Margaret Ducharme
CY  - Columbus, Ohio
DA  - 2017/06/24
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Summer Engineering Experience (SEE) Program - A Program to Prepare Freshmen Students for Engineering Studies
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/28884
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--28884
ER  -