ASEE Gulf-Southwest Section Annual Meeting 2018 Papers

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/2152/65338

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Adaptation of a University Soils Mechanics Course for a Union Technician Training Program
(American Society for Engineering Education, 2019-04) Dobrowski, Thomas J.
When dealing with the term “geotechnical”, most often engineers associate this with the engineering during the design phase. However, equally important is the quality control performed during the construction phase. While great time and expense is used in the initial investigation, the field quality control is usually regulated to the lowest bidder. In 2002, the International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 150 started an organizing effort in the Chicagoland area. In the area of Soils, the Union relied on certifications revolving around laboratory testing and not actual field work. This is in a large part due to the fact that the in the field evaluation of soils there is not a trade organization acting as governing body (such as the American Concrete Institute, American Institute of Steel Construction, or the American Welding Society) for certification. Experience is paramount in the field as the evaluation of soils can be as much “art as science”.
Analyzing Multidisciplinary Team Effectiveness in an Engineering Environment: A Case Study of the West Point Steel Bridge Design Team
(American Society for Engineering Education, 2019-04) Etringer, John; O'Brien, Stephen; Updegraff, Austin; Langerhans, Timothy; Nadjari, Andrew; Kim, Chan; Hill, Aaron; Campbell, Michael
The West Point Steel Bridge Design Team is a group of five undergraduate seniors working to design and build a steel bridge for the annual ASCE Steel Bridge Competition. The purpose of our group’s research is to discover how multidisciplinary teams perform in academically competitive environments. This project provides a unique opportunity in the field of multidisciplinary collaborative work because the team’s success can be objectively measured against this year’s competitors and the team’s performance in previous years. The traditional structure of the West Point team consisted of three-to-five civil engineering majors. This year’s team includes a law and legal studies major and five civil engineers, two of which recently switched from systems engineering. Past designs have relied heavily on the work of previous years, which has led to stagnant performance at competitions. Our hypothesis is that by entering different perspectives into the group at an early stage, a revolutionary approach will ensue and overall performance will increase. The team did not completely disregard the designs and methods of previous teams, but the reliance on their decision-making process was more heavily scrutinized with the current multidisciplinary team. Our research is not solely limited to competitive performance. We also analyzed the decision-making process of this year’s team in comparison to previous years. While data on decision-making is not readily available, both the faculty advisor and two current team members who served on the team last year were able to provide personal insight into how the teams compare. Ultimately, this research seeks to provide groups in similar academically competitive environments an indication of whether a multidisciplinary composition will provide benefit to their team’s performance.
Applying Problem Based Learning to Improve Student Engagement in an Engineering Economics Course
(American Society for Engineering Education, 2019-04) Donndelinger, Joseph A.
Maintaining high levels of student engagement and interest is a widespread challenge in teaching Engineering Economics courses. To address this challenge at Baylor’s School of Engineering and Computer Science, a series of problem-based homework assignments focused on personal investing and tax return preparation have been developed and integrated into the Global Business Economics and Communication course. This transition in course structure has resulted in significant improvements in student engagement as measured by class attendance, homework completion rates, and course evaluation statistics. This transition also increased polarization of students’ academic performance which may be addressed through further development of the problem-based learning course content.
BAJA SAE: Building an Engineer
(American Society for Engineering Education, 2019-04) Sloan, Myles; Goh, Chung Hyun; Brown, Fredericka
of the necessary experience needed to perform the job with a high level of competence. Simulating this real-world experience in a classroom or lab becomes difficult when it has to be squeezed into a class like senior design. While for some, a good grade might be incentive enough to put forth the effort to properly gain these experiences, other things will likely become a larger priority. The SAE student design series introduces students to a competitive atmosphere that promotes extreme learning growth in a short period of time. Each portion of the competition has a specific aim that, when combined together, train a student into an engineer who is far more experienced and educated than one born from a traditional classroom. The opportunities that come from this competition, presented both to learn and grow more familiar with the real world environment of engineering are invaluable. It submerges students into an environment that encourages and promotes growth in every dimension.
Best Practices of Honor Societies
(American Society for Engineering Education, 2019-04) Watkins, Steve E.; Ostin, Nancy M.
Academic honor societies are widely available within university communities. These student organizations can fill valuable roles within engineering departments. The inception of engineering-related honor societies followed the establishment of engineering education within American universities. Honor societies with their student focus grew as complementary organizations to the professional societies for engineering disciplines. The national or international structure of honor societies generally provides considerable resources for professional education, leadership training, and service activity. For departments, an honor society chapter can provide engagement with students, alumni, community, etc. However, the existence of an honor society chapter at an institution does not necessarily mean that the chapter is effectively serving the host department(s) and its engineering students. This paper describes commonalities among engineering honor societies, the possible roles of an honor society within an engineering department, and some best practices for effective honor society chapters. Specific examples from the operation of IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu (IEEE-HKN), the honor society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), are given.
Beyond First/Last Mile Active Transportation - BikeShare@UH
(American Society for Engineering Education, 2019-04) Alonso, Julio; Vargas, Jesus; Li, Daniel; Elizarraras, Abraham; Hoang, Tony; Vu, Khanh; Patterson, J.; Palwala, Mohammad; Maldonado, Marco; Isago, Masaki; Aranda, Mark; Trinh, Lan; Huynh, Tu; Nguyen, Tie; Ly, Bao; Huang, Jiao; Malki, Heidar; Yuan, Xiaojing
Bike sharing is a new green transportation solution that has been developed and adopted at various cities around the world. In this paper, we present the process and results of the design and prototypes that a group of undergraduate students developed for a BikeShare@UH program during Summer 2017. After presenting the detailed results of four project teams focusing on customer discovery, bike share station (BSS) location identification, cloud-based mobile computing platform for user engagement and bike share program operation and management, smart lock, and alternative energy source based on PV panel. With the phase one implementation at the University planned in Spring 2018, we anticipate gathering real time data and feedback to improve the system.
A Brief History of Engineering Technology and a Case for Applied Engineering
(American Society for Engineering Education, 2019-04) Buchanan, Walter W.
This paper will present a brief history on Engineering Technology. It will then make the case why the four-year programs should be called “Applied Engineering.
Challenges to Developing Professional Skills in Undergraduate Chemical Engineers at a Minority Serving University
(American Society for Engineering Education, 2019-04) Alexander, Matthew
Undergraduate engineering students at a minority serving institution present unique challenges for professional skill development. Students in the Chemical Process Design II and III course sequence in chemical engineering at Texas A&M University-Kingsville are introduced repeatedly to the importance of communication skills, and the topics of professional engineering licensure and life-long learning. A fraction of these students have English as their second language, and development of oral and written communication skills to the level of fluency expected of engineers in the United States is challenging. The students are tested in their oral communication skills through delivery of six group-format project presentations in the two course sequence. The course sequence also requires significant written communication exercises, particularly in the second course which is a writing intensive course. The overall performance of those students with English as a second language is reasonably strong once the instructor’s grading expectations are realized and the students avail themselves of outside assistance, such as provided by the University Writing Center. The undergraduate student’s development of a sense of the importance of life-long learning is also challenging for the instructor to instill. An open-ended technical problem requiring solution as part of a senior design project is an opportunity for the instructor to use coaching methods to guide students to their own independent solution, thus reinforcing self-learning outside of the instructor-led paradigm. Instilling an interest for professional registration is also difficult to accomplish, in particular because the fraction of chemical engineers that become registered in their career is far less than in other engineering disciplines such as civil engineering. The approaches used to accomplish instruction of these important professional skills at a minority-serving institution are presented.
A Conceptual Mechanism Design Activity for an Introduction to Mechanical Engineering Course
(American Society for Engineering Education, 2019-04) Rios, Oziel; Fadda, Dani
A conceptual design activity is presented in this paper to introduce freshman students to motion transmission with simple gear train mechanisms. The activity requires students to select components from a catalog and perform kinematic simulations using CAD software. The activity described in this paper was implemented in an introduction to mechanical engineering course but it could also be deployed in an upper-level, undergraduate mechanisms course. The activity was successfully administered to a class of 221 students during the Spring 2017 semester but can be administered to smaller classes as well. A description of the activity is presented along with a discussion of the resources and personnel required (instructors and teaching assistants). The activity is considered simple to implement, requiring only a computer station with CAD software available in most engineering schools. Continuous improvements to the project are made based on faculty observations and assessments, as well as a survey administered to the students.
Control Systems and Robotics Outreach to Middle-school Girls: Approach, Results, and Suggestions
(American Society for Engineering Education, 2019-04) Bhounsule, Pranav A.; Taha, Ahmad; Nugruho, Sebastian
We conducted a three-day outreach camp focused on control systems and robotics for 8th grade girls from economically disadvantaged families. The overall objective of the camp was motivating the young girls to consider pursuing a career in engineering and sciences. The main focus of the camp were hands-on labs using LEGO Mindstorms EV3 kit. Students learned about programming, sensors, motors and put their skills to test by creating a mobile robot that took part in three contests: car racing, line following, and parallel parking. A pre- and post-camp survey indicated that although program did not predominantly change the girls’ excitement towards careers in engineering and sciences, it increased the girls’ knowledge and excitement towards robotics and control systems. Our results indicate that short camps help kindle the interests of young girls, but are not able to sway them to take on engineering/science careers. In the latter case, we hypothesize that long-term STEM-based programs (e.g., a quarter or year-long robotics course) might be more effective.
Coordinating Summer Undergraduate Research Programs for Expanding Diversity and Impact: Opportunities and Challenges
(American Society for Engineering Education, 2019-04) Cousins, Margo; DeMont, Brandi; Suggs, Laura; Markey, Mia K.
During summers 2015-2017, we operated a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site, “Biomedical Engineering Community of Undergraduate Research Scholars for Cancer” (BME CUReS Cancer) at The University of Texas at Austin. The directors of the BME CUReS Cancer program have sought to multiply the impact of our Site by embedding students supported by other summer research experience grants, which we refer to here as Affiliated Scholars. In this paper, we will discuss the opportunities and challenges we encountered in coordinating these summer undergraduate research programs. CUReS Scholars were matched with a summer project from among a rich variety of research endeavors within strategic areas identified by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Each Scholar was part of a research team with both faculty and graduate student mentors, a mentoring system that is effective and widely employed. Scholars also benefited from: a research skills boot camp their first week; weekly educational seminars with fellow summer scholars led by the program directors; shared on-campus housing; and social events. Affiliated Scholars were supported by a variety of other funding mechanisms with a variety of research areas. By grouping these scholars into the CUReS structure with a shared scientific theme of engineering approaches to cancer research, regardless of their funding source, we sought to facilitate their identification with a larger, diverse student cohort. Criteria across the programs introduced challenges to establishing a shared community, such as subsets of Affiliated Scholars entering the summer program with existing social relationships. We will discuss specific challenges and opportunities we observed and provide recommendations for blending a primary REU with Affiliated Scholars based on our experiences.
The Design and Development of a Multi-Disciplinary Project in Embedded Systems Design
(American Society for Engineering Education, 2019-04) Fry, Cynthia C.; Potter, Steven P.
As has been noted over the past ten years, “The wall between computer science and electrical engineering has kept the potential of embedded systems at bay. It is time to build a new scientific foundation with embedded systems design as the cornerstone, which will ensure a systematic and even-handed integration of the two fields.”[1] In Baylor University’s School of Engineering & Computer Science, the Embedded Systems course in the Department of Computer Science, and the Embedded Systems Design course in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering have been offered independent of each other in the recent past. In the past year, however, this is beginning to change, with plans developing to combine the project portion of the two courses into one multi-disciplinary group project. This paper will document the two courses – scope and sequence, as well as emphasis, equipment used, and delivery style – highlighting the need for a new and innovative approach at the systematic integration of software and hardware in the design and development of a mutli-disciplinary group project. The beta test of this group project is occurring in the fall 2017 semester, with full first-time full-scale deployment during the spring 2018 semester. The results of this beta test will be discussed, and the lessons learned and planned modifications to the course will be considered.
Designing Effective Simulation Games for Active Learning in Systems Engineering
(American Society for Engineering Education, 2019-04) Wan, Hung-da; Gupta, Nihar
Simulation games have been an effective method of teaching, especially for Systems Engineering concepts. The hands-on activities facilitate active, experiential, and collaborative learning with fun elements. Many simulation games have been developed in the past, but not all are equally effective. How to design a simulation game that is effective and easy to implement? This paper attempts to identify the key design factors that affect the performance of simulation games for teaching systems engineering concepts. By reviewing designs of several existing simulation games, important design factors were identified and verified. With these factors, a more effective way to design new simulation games has been suggested.
Developing a Graduate Master's Degree Program in Engineering Technology: Overview of Program Objectives, Structure and Impact
(American Society for Engineering Education, 2019-04) Leon, Jorge; Hill Price, Angie; Kuttolamadom, Mathew
A study was conducted to outline the state of graduate master’s degree programs in engineering technology that are currently offered in the nation and particularly in the state of Texas, and to reflect on their core learning objectives, structure, demand, demographics, and impact. The trends identified were discussed in light of assembling a Master of Science in Engineering Technology (MSET) degree with a concentration in Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering Technology (MMET) within the department of Engineering Technology & Industrial Distribution (ETID) at Texas A&M University (TAMU). Though Bachelor’s degrees in engineering technology are generally larger in terms of the numbers of programs offered as well as in enrollment, graduate master’s degrees in engineering technology are becoming increasingly popular, especially since they offer a unique hands-on and industry-focused education at a graduate level that many regional employers seek. In this paper, the commonalities among these currently offered programs were outlined and discussed, especially in terms of the makeup of the program structure, courses, and learning objectives; these were then contrasted with aspects of the degree program currently being developed at TAMU. Further, a brief assessment of the potential job market awaiting the graduates from this program, as well as the expected student demand was presented. Future work includes continued refinement of the curriculum and other program details by drawing upon the best attributes of currently offered similar programs.
Development and Transfer of Innovative Problem Solving Strategies and Related Confidence in Biomedical Engineering
(American Society for Engineering Education, 2019-04) Clegg, John R.; Diller, Kenneth R.
Twenty-nine biomedical engineering (BME) undergraduates participated in a challenge-based instruction biotransport course, offered by the UT Austin BME Department in an accelerated format, at the University of Cambridge. Students’ attitudes toward, and aptitude for solving genuine and complex biomedical problems were assessed throughout the semester through surveys, interviews, observations, and in-class examinations. Students’ aptitude for problem solving improved throughout the semester, in a manner independent of content knowledge development. By the end of the semester, students readily transferred the problem-solving framework, learned within a biotransport context, to solve biomechanics problems. Additionally, we observed significant increases over time in students’ confidence in their ability to complete challenges within and outside of the biotransport domain. We believe that this illustrative case study provides significant quantitative evidence supporting the effectiveness of challenge-based pedagogies for engineering courses.
Development of a Personalized Quantitative Faculty Annual Evaluation System
(American Society for Engineering Education, 2019-04) Han, Hai-Chao; Wan, Hung-da; Wang, Xiaodu
Faculty annual evaluation is critical for faculty career development and department success. Our department developed a quantitative faculty evaluation metrics system that is more objective, consistent, flexible, personalized, transparent, and dynamic scoring system. We have implemented the system for 2 years and the outcomes are very encouraging in promoting faculty and department success.
Development of a Rooftop Collaborative Experimental Space through Experiential Learning Projects
(American Society for Engineering Education, 2019-04) Rose, Heather S.; Upshaw, Charles R.; Rhodes, Joshua D.; Edrey, Yuval; Webber, Michael E.
The Solar, Water, Energy, and Thermal Laboratory (SWEAT Lab) is a rooftop experimental space at the University of Texas at Austin built by graduate and undergraduate students in the Cockrell School of Engineering. The project was funded by the Texas State Energy Conservation Office and the University’s Green Fee Grant, a competitive grant program funded by UT Austin tuition fees to support sustainability-related projects and initiatives on campus. The SWEAT Lab is an on-going experiential learning facility that enables engineering education by deploying energy and water-related projects. To date, the lab contains a full weather station tracking weather data, a rainwater harvesting system and rooftop garden. This project presented many opportunities for students to learn first hand about unique engineering challenges. The lab is located on the roof of the 10 story Engineering Teaching Center (ETC) building, so students had to design and build systems with constraints such as weight limitations and wind resistance. Students also gained experience working with building facilities and management for structural additions, power, and internet connection for instruments. With the Bird’s eye view of UT Austin campus, this unique laboratory offers a new perspective and dimension to applied student research projects at UT Austin.
Digital Systems Teaching and Research (DSTR) Robot: A Flexible Platform for Education and Applied Research
(American Society for Engineering Education, 2019-04) Leonard, Matt; Morgan, Joseph; Coffelt, Jeremy P.
The DSTR (pronounced “Disaster”) robot has a strong history of being adaptable to different user’s needs, and there are many opportunities ahead that indicate that the sky, quite literally, is not the limit for this robust platform. This paper provides a historical perspective on the development of the DSTR robot as a collaborative design developed by the Mobile Integrated Solutions Laboratory (MISL) at Texas A&M University and ASEP 4X4 Inc. Texas Instruments has been a major partner in the integration of the control electronics, and Texas Space Technology Applications and Research (T STAR) LLC has played a significant role in the propagation of the DSTR robot as an adaptable applied research/education/STEM outreach platform. The paper will present examples of the strong industry-academic relationships that allow the DSTR robot to be utilized in a multitude of experiential learning environments. In addition to a number of STEM outreach activities, the DSTR robots are being used in the Introduction to Engineering course at Blinn College and in the Freshman Engineering curriculum at Texas A&M University. DSTRs have also been selected by NASA scientists as a low-cost lunar sample collector. The paper will also discuss the newly developed DSTR-E (DSTR Engineering) unit which requires students to perform several engineering tasks during the build process. The paper will also include the lessons learned from initial design through its transfer to the private sector for commercialization and future plans.
Do Engineering Students Learn Ethics From an Ethics Course?
(American Society for Engineering Education, 2019-04) Taraban, Roman; Marcy, William M.; LaCour, Mark S.; Pashley, Dashiell; Keim, Klara
The goal of the present research is to develop machine-assisted methods that can assist in the analysis of students’ written compositions in ethics courses. As part of this research, we analyzed Social Impact Assessment (SIA) papers submitted by engineering undergraduates in a course on engineering ethics. The SIA papers required students to identify and discuss a contemporary engineering technology (e.g., autonomous tractor trailers) and to explicitly discuss the ethical issues involved in that technology. Here we describe the ability of three machine tools to discriminate differences in the technical compared to ethical portions of the SIA papers. First, using LIWC (Language Inquiry and Word Count) we quantified differences in analytical thinking, expertise and self-confidence, disclosure, and affect, in the technical and ethical portions of the papers. Next, we applied MEH (Meaning Extraction Helper) to examine differences in critical concepts in the technical and ethical portions of the papers. Finally, we used LDA (Latent Dirichlet Allocation) to examine differences in the topics in the technical and ethical portions of the papers. The results of these three tests demonstrate the ability of machine-based tools to discriminate conceptual, affective, and motivational differences in the texts that students compose that relate to engineering technology and to engineering ethics. We discuss the utility and future directions for this research.
Effective Assessment Plan Leading to Strong Reform of Petroleum Engineering Graduate Program
(American Society for Engineering Education, 2019-04) Stockton, Charlotte; Gamadi, Talal D.; Emadi, H.
The Bob L. Herd Department of Petroleum Engineering at Texas Tech University has made a lot of significant actions of improvement to its graduate program that was motivated by a systematic SACSCOC assessment plan. This paper shows how the SACSCOC assessment plan aided in making continuous actions of improvement and as a conclusion of these actions, how the current graduate curriculum plan was improved. This paper highlights the details of the graduate department assessment plan, such as how graduate program objectives are assessed, what assessment tools are used, when data are gathered and evaluated, and when actions of improvement are made. This paper will also detail how the analysis of data was utilized in making actions of continuous improvement. At the end of the paper examples of the significant actions of improvement made based on the department assessment and evaluation plan are presented.

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