Emerging Technologies for Industry and Education
Annual Meeting of the St. Lawrence Section
American Society for Engineering Education
Friday, March 30 and Saturday, March 31, 2001
Rochester Institute of Technology
Friday: March 30, 2001
9:30 - 4:00
10:00 - Noon
Noon
Registration: Gordon Atrium - Kate Gleason College of Engineering
Tours: Engineering and Engineering Technology Facilities and off campus sites
Luncheon: Gordon Atrium
Executive Committee Meeting: Mobil Foundation Conference Room, 2030
Tour for Spouses starts at 1:00 p.m. George Eastman House and Museum
1:00 – 1:15
Welcome - Harvey Palmer, Dean, Kate Gleason College of Engineering &
Wiley McKinzie, Dean, College of Applied Science and Technology
Keynote Speaker: John Bourne, Professor of Electrical Engineering, Olin College
“The Birth of a New Engineering College, Funded by the Olin Foundation”
Xerox Auditorium
1:15 – 2:30
2:30 – 3:45
Session #1a: Room 2129: Moderator: Barrie Jackson, Queens University, Canada
* Hands-on Modules for Use in Chemistry of Materials Course, Linda Schadler,
J.H. Hudson and J. Moore, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
This talk will outline the structure of the course, the educational strategy, and present in detail the
following laboratory experiments: “One Component Phase Diagram”, “Kinetics of Phase
Transformations”, “Diffusion”, “Tensile Testing”, and “Brittle Failure.”
* NSF Sponsored Composite Materials Manufacturing and Experimental
Evaluation Facilities for Undergraduate Engineering Students, Ronald B. Bucinell,
Union College
With the help of the National Science Foundation’s ILI program, Union College has developed
manufacturing and experimental evaluation laboratories dedicated to introducing composite
materials to undergraduate students. Undergraduate students at Union College now encounter
composite materials as early as their sophomore year in their materials science and mechanics of
materials courses.
* Using Bulletin Boards to Build Learning Communities, S. K. Gupta, RIT
In the Spring of 1999-2000, I volunteered to teach 0304-359: Dynamics (5 quarter credits) when
a senior colleague remarked that many students in his upper-division courses were poorly prepared
in mechanics and dynamics. This presentation will describe what WWWboard is, how to set it up,
how to administer it, and how the students can use it.
Session #1b: Room 2149
Workshop: Developing the Creative Edge for Engineers, Frank L. Maraviglia
SUNY-ESF
This workshop will introduce the cultivation of deliberate efforts to enhance and increase
creative flow and outputs by using the Creative Problem-solving Process (CPS).
4:00 – 5:15
Session #2a: Room 2129
* Establishment of an Inter-Disciplinary Curriculum and Laboratory in Surface
Mount Electronics Packaging, S. Manian Ramkumar & Richard S. Clothier, RIT
This paper describes the development of one such interdisciplinary curriculum in Surface Mount
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Electronics Packaging, at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). This is a joint venture
between the Manufacturing & Mechanical Engineering Technology and the Electrical Engineering
Technology departments, in collaboration with leading industrial partners.
* An Image Sensor as an Undergraduate VLSI Project Chip, Wallace B. Leigh,
Alfred University
We have used an image sensor as a multi-year project chip for undergraduates. With this project,
students experience VLSI through an entire design cycle from start to finish.
* Case Study Based Laboratories for an Undergraduate Human Factors
Engineering Curriculum, Victor Paquet & Ann Bisantz, SUNY at Buffalo
This paper describes the ongoing implementation and evaluation of a set of design-oriented
laboratory exercises for two undergraduate Human Factors and Ergonomics (HFE) courses, which
draw from a case study.
Session #2b: Room TBA
Workshop/Demonstration: Virtual Simulation for Mechanical System Design
and Analysis in Mechanical Engineering Technology Education, Ti Lin Liu, RIT
The computer simulation tools are introduced in upper lever mechanical design courses in the
mechanical engineering technology curriculum. The combination of 3-D solid modeling with finite
element software provides a virtual reality of image generation, and product performance evaluation
for mechanical design and analysis
6:15
7:00
8:00
Reception: Mario’s Via Abruzzi, 2740 Monroe Avenue, Rochester, NY 14618
Banquet (at Mario’s)
Speaker: Paul Ruben, a Roller Coaster Historian, “Wild Rides”
Saturday March 31, 2001
7:30 - 8:30
Continental Breakfast - Gordon Atrium, Buffet, tables and chairs provided
General Committee Meeting: Lee & Sharon Garelick Conference Room, 3119,
breakfast, attendance by invitation: Executive Committee plus one representative
from each attending institution
8:30 - 9:15
Keynote Speaker: Richard Kenyon, Dean Emeritus, RIT
“Engineering Education: An American Model Goes Abroad”, Xerox Auditorium
Why has the U.S. model been so overwhelmingly selected and why is the pseudo-accreditation of
“substantial equivalency” seemingly so important to these schools (and the host nation)?
9:00 - 10:00
Spouse Breakfast, Radisson Hotel – Restaurant: Baxter’s
9:25 - 10:40
Session #3a: Room 2129
* Integration of Electronics, Math, & English and Its Impact on Retention, Ramesh
Gaonkar, Onondaga Community College, Syracuse, NY
At present, three forces are converging: 1) industry must compete globally in a rapidly changing
technology, 2) the nature of the workforce is changing; new employees will be older and ethnically
diverse, and will include more women, 3) the basic mathematical and communication skills of
incoming students are steadily declining. The project is concerned with preparing underprepared
students for the technical workforce in an environment of globalization, rapidly changing technology,
and the declining of basic skills (communication and math) of incoming students.
* Project Lead the Way, A Pre-engineering Program for Secondary Schools, Guy
Johnson, RIT
Project Lead The Way® (PLTW) is a national program forming partnerships among public
schools, higher education institutions and the private sector to increase the quantity and quality of
engineers and engineering technologists graduating from our educational system. The Rochester
Institute of Technology has joined in a partnership with PLTW by establishing a National Technology
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Training Center to work on the professional development of new and existing teachers in schools that
have adopted the PLTW curriculum. Currently operating in 26 states from New York to California,
PLTW also partners with the High Schools That Work initiative of the Southern Regional Educational
Board (SREB) with schools in 23 states.
Session #3b: Room 2149
* Autonomous Robots in Engineering Teaching: SPARKy and RITBug, Ferat Sahin,
RIT
The design of autonomous mobile robots is used as an effective teaching tool in engineering
schools such as the Rochester Institute of Technology and Virginia Tech.
* Reconfiguring Interactive Platforms for use in Undergraduate Laboratories,
Kimberly E. Newman, RIT
As part of the introductory course in digital logic and systems, students are exposed to
sophisticated development platforms in their laboratory sequence. While the students are learning the
fundamentals of combinational and sequential logic design, they are able to develop, simulate, and
implement a wide variety of designs using professional quality design packages. The students also
work in teams to implement designs on reconfigurable development boards and verify their circuits
using simulators and actual devices.
* Harnessing Industry-Standard Software for the Classroom, M. A. Hopkins, RIT
This talk presents a well-developed example of how industrial software (MATLAB®) can be
extended to help students visualize concepts during classroom lectures, and help them explore the
same concepts on their own time.
10:40 - 10:50
Morning Break – Coffee
10:50 - 12:30
Session #4a: Room 2129 Moderator: Paul French, SUNY College at Oneonta
* Successful Methods Which Improve Math Skills of Engineering Technology
Students at Buffalo State College, Steven Barker, Buffalo State College
This presentation will describe the successful methods used to improve math (primarily algebra)
skills of engineering technology students at Buffalo State College (BSC). The difficult and sensitive
nature of the task will be explored along with failed attempts over a five-year period. The ingredients
of the successful methods for improving math skills will be itemized. Proof that math skills actually
improved will be presented.
* Cooperative Learning as a Teaching Tool, Philip D. Krasicky, Cornell University
This talk surveys our experiences with cooperative learning in introductory physics courses for
engineering and science majors, including ideas about pedagogy and methodology as well as examples
of activities.
* The Inexperienced Educator’s Guide to Managing a Large Hierarchical Staff,
David I. Schwartz, Cornell University
To balance the needs of the course and staff with regard to time management, I will focus on
strategies that flatten portions of the hierarchy.
* Paper to be presented by Richard Culver, SUNY Binghamton
Session #4b: Room 2149
* Blurring the Boundaries: The EE/CE/CS Continuum, Raman Unnikrishnan, RIT
This talk will focus on the curricular synergies of these three disciplines and the strategies for
utilizing the strengths of faculty, students and facilities to meet professional needs. It will also address
some of the difficulties in such an ecumenical approach
* Concurrent Product/Package Design Concepts, Daniel Goodwin, RIT
Package designs can be developed much more effectively if the product designer has taken the
factors of use, disposal, remanufacturing, storage, handling and transportation into consideration.
* Teaching Technical Electives Based on Hands-on Research Projects, Satish
Kandlikar, RIT
Some of the advanced courses in specific topics are intended to enable the students to undertake
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independent project work from conceptualization to design, fabrication, data collection and data
analysis. Such an approach has been adopted in teaching Heat Transfer II in the Mechanical
Engineering Department at RIT for the past decade.
* An Innovative, Hands-on Vehicle Dynamics Laboratory Class, Kevin
Kochersberger, RIT
This paper presents laboratory activities that have been created to take a student from measuring
vehicle dynamic parameters to driving a course that demonstrates typical dynamic response. The lab
complements analytical predictions of vehicle handling so that the students can experience first-hand,
the characteristics of understeer and oversteer by driving standard skid-pad and step-steer experiments.
12:30
12:30
Lunch - Pick up Box Lunches, Gordon Atrium- Tables and chairs provided
Section Annual Business Meeting: By invitation, Lee & Sharon Garelick
Conference Room, 3119
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