Project Preserve: A Program to Retain Minorities in Engineering

A national effort, begun in 1972 to increase the numbers of minorities in engineering, has made substantial progress, but the attrition for minority students is still estimated at 70%. To address the problem, Project Preserve was designed to confirm, by demonstration, the results of previous research showing that the combination of explicit cognitive development, close relationships with faculty, and strong bonds to an institution can raise the performance and retention of minority engineering students. The project enrolled over 100 minority engineering students who had been dismissed from freshman engineering studies on other campuses or placed on academic probation, but whose high school grades and SAT scores were indicative of success. They were channeled into participating institutions chosen for their record of basic support services, willingness to augment or restructure those services, and for variation among institutional variables: Xavier University of Louisiana (XU), California State University at Northridge (CSUN), and City College of the City University of New York (CCNY). A 2 1/2 hour battery of evaluation instruments was given to 79 students upon entry and to 26 students upon their attaining Junior status after two years in the program. The results demonstrated that: (1) an admirable 64% of would-be drop outs had achieved Junior status or were still enrolled in engineering at the conclusion of two years; (2) cognitive growth occurred on basic memory skills and one critical thinking skill, but there were institutional differences in the extent of intellectual development, with Xavier producing the most change; (3) closer relationships to faculty were outcomes; (4) the most positive feelings about, or bonding to, the institution occurred at Xavier University, while the most evidence of social participation and connectedness occurred at CSUN.     

The Role of Undergraduate Honors Theses in a Computer Engineering Program

This paper is the result of a 7-year long experiment that I had initiated in 1989 as an attempt to integrate the tradition of undergraduate honors research at Brown University with the emerging ABET requirement of engineering design in the computer engineering program. The paper presents the philosophical principles, the underlying assumptions and goals of the experiment, and the character of the experiences learned at the conclusion of the experiment. The experiment involves a total of 17 students between 1989 and 1995, all of whom successfully complete their honors thesis. Most of the theses have been published in refereed conferences and journals, reflecting the quality of the work and the fundamental nature of the concepts learned by the graduating seniors. The experiment demonstrates a feasible approach to achieving ABET's goal of developing student creativity within the framework of the current faculty reward structure. The students emerge as self-confident and highly creative individuals, capable of critical, analytical thinking, and appreciative of the depth of knowledge. Key experiences that I had gained include the realization that every student, regardless of their prior grades in conventional courses, holds unlimited potential. This experiment witnesses the development of an amazingly sincere motivation and superior commitment when the advisor demonstrates genuine belief in students' capabilities and expresses gratitude to them for the value of their work and for the opportunity to collaborate. The significance of the experiment is reinforced by an independent 1993 survey of the Brown engineering alumni, who had graduated between 1983 and 1991.     

A Theme‐Based Seminar on Environmental Sustainability Improves Participant Satisfaction in an Undergraduate Summer Research Program

We analyzed seven years of pre‐program and post‐program survey data to evaluate the Clarkson University Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Site Program in Environmental Science and Engineering, and evaluated whether our program was successful at meeting the intended outcome of increasing participants' likelihood of attending graduate school and pursuing a career in science or engineering research or education. We also evaluated how participant satisfaction in the program changed with the addition of a weekly seminar on environmental sustainability that was intended to improve participants' understanding of the societal value of their research projects. Participant satisfaction in the Clarkson REU Program was high, and increased after the addition of the sustainability seminar. Participants' intention to attend graduate or professional school increased after participating in the program, but their intention to pursue a career in science or engineering research declined. Over 60 percent of participants eventually attended graduate or professional school.     

An Alternative Paradigm–Taking A Live Undergraduate Engineering Program Off‐Campus

This paper chronicles the first four years of offering courses in a manufacturing engineering bachelor's degree program and the first group of students graduating from this program. The program was designed to meet the specific needs of manufacturers in the western Michigan area where it is offered. The program—a joint effort of Western Michigan University, Muskegon Community College, and local industry—was offered exclusively at one of the university's regional centers located on a community college campus. Some lessons learned are presented.     

Impact of Undergraduate Research Experience in Engineering

A survey of alumni from the College of Engineering at the University of Delaware was conducted to assess the impact of the undergraduate research experience. Students who had participated in undergraduate research were matched with a comparable group of alumni who had no research experience. Alumni were unaware that their responses would be used to assess the impact of undergraduate research. Respondents who had participated in research indicated that this experience was “very” or “extremely” important, with a greater perceived benefit for students who had participated in research for a longer time. Alumni with research experience were more likely to pursue graduate degrees, and they reported greater enhancement of important cognitive and personal skills. In addition, respondents who had been involved in research were much more likely to have reported that they had a faculty member play an important role in their career choice.     

An Industry-Based Engineering Management Master's Program for the Working Engineer

The Engineering Management Master's Program is an educational partnership between Wayne State University and the Ford Motor Company that targets the working engineer on the path to technical leadership. The paper describes the educational model that drives the goals of the program. It expresses a set of underlying beliefs that guide educational design and implementation, and explains how these philosophies give life to courses and guide program implementation. Finally it presents a set of issues important in transferring the experience to other institutions.     

高等学校工业工程本科专业类课程体系模型框架

本文旨在构建符合中国国民经济发展需要的高等学校工业工程本科专业类课程体系模型,为工业工程本科专业课程体系的建设提供理论指导。使用文献研究的方法,研究了高等学校工业工程本科专业课程体系构建的影响因素。在此基础上,提出了符合工业工程专业课程体系构建框架模型,并以吉林大学工业工程本科专业课程体系的建设为例详细解读了该模型的使用方法,需要考虑的因素。研究指出：课程体系建设是一项系统工程,在建设过程中不应盲目拷贝欧美发达国家的课程体系,而应从中国国民经济发展的需要出发构建适合中国工业化进程与社会形态发展的工业工程本科专业课程体系。     

2001年全国大学生数学建模夏令营数学建模题目(A,B,C)

Ａ题　三峡工程陡高边坡开挖优化设计1　工程介绍永久船闸是三峡工程的重要组成部分 ,是目前世界上最在的通航建筑物之一。它位于三峡工程坝址的左岸山体中 ,总长 64 4 2米 ,其中闸室段长 1 61 7米 ,距现长江河岸约 1 60 0米。在该区域内 ,地面高程由河岸约 60米向左岸逐渐增高至 2 60米 (坛子岭 ) ,过坛子岭后局部较低 ,然后逐渐增高至 3 60米。永久船闸为双向 5级连续船闸 ,轴线方向为 1 1 1 0 ,单级船闸有效尺寸为 2 80米长× 3 4米宽× 5米深 ,5级船闸总长为 1 61 7米。船闸布置在深开挖的花岗岩中 ,两侧采用较陡的边坡 ,边坡的最大深度…     

Faculty Perspectives Regarding the Undergraduate Research Experience in Science and Engineering

This study examined the perceptions of 155 science and engineering faculty at a mid‐size university with a very extensive undergraduate research program. The faculty thought the undergraduate research experience provided important educational benefits to the students, in good agreement with results from a recent alumni survey. The faculty who supervised undergraduates for a longer period of time and who modified their research program to accommodate undergraduates perceived a greater enhancement of important cognitive and personal skills. Undergraduate research was also believed to provide important mentoring and teaching experience for graduate students who worked with undergraduate research assistants.     

Re-Engineering the Undergraduate Building Construction Program for the 21st Century

This paper presents an integrative model developed this past year by the Building Construction (BC) Department at Virginia Tech (VT), designed to help each student master the competencies necessary to succeed in the 21st Century as a building constructor in a changing global market-place. The curriculum described in this paper presents a dynamic, practical, applied academic model; balances the construction education concepts of practical experience based knowledge with academic inquiry; integrates people and communication skills with the pragmatic building construction skills; and provides a construction program that maintains a strong identity positioned between architecture and engineering. Strategically this task was accomplished by weaving vertical and horizontal integration into the BC curriculum at Virginia Tech. Results of this first year are presented, including lessons learned, external evaluations, and recommendations for adaptation.     

Excellence in Engineering Education: Views of Undergraduate Engineering Students

The purpose of this study was to understand the views and perceptions of engineering undergraduate students on engineering education. The method of content analysis was used to analyze the language used by engineering undergraduate students, and to extract the underlying common factors or perceived characteristics of “Excellence in Engineering Education.” These common factors were then used to identify and compare the similarities and differences in views between engineering students and perspectives from three types of stakeholders in the field. Forty‐seven undergraduate engineering students (17 females and 30 males) participated voluntarily in this study to answer four individual questions and ten group questions. The results showed that students strongly emphasized the importance of their own roles in the educational system and the value of instructional technology and real work examples in enhancing the quality of engineering education. The implications of the research results on excellence in engineering education are discussed.     

电力专业课外科技实践活动管理改革初探

通过对目前在课外科技实践活动中存在的一些不足的分析，提出改善课外科技实践活动效果的措施，应从培养学生对专业知识的兴趣出发，通过课程管理方面的改进，培养学生的创新精神，提高学生的动手能力。     

The Role of the Laboratory in Undergraduate Engineering Education

The function of the engineering profession is to manipulate materials, energy, and information, thereby creating benefit for humankind. To do this successfully, engineers must have a knowledge of nature that goes beyond mere theory—knowledge that is traditionally gained in educational laboratories. Over the years, however, the nature of these laboratories has changed. This paper describes the history of some of these changes and explores in some depth a few of the major factors influencing laboratories today. In particular, the paper considers the lack of coherent learning objectives for laboratories and how this lack has limited the effectiveness of laboratories and hampered meaningful research in the area. A list of fundamental objectives is presented along with suggestions for possible future research.     

Advanced Engineering Communication: An Integrated Writing and Communication Program for Materials Engineers

This paper describes the disciplinary program for writing and communications developed by the Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) Department at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, which has been integrated into eight required core courses spread across our student's three years of study. Preliminary quantitative assessment of the program indicates positive acceptance by the students and faculty, significant improvement in the quality of writing over three semesters, and significant differences in both the quality and style of writing between senior engineering students who have not participated in our program and our MSE students. We have found a positive correlation between four different indices designed to measure a student's self-assessment of communication skills and a student's grade point average (GPA). Surprisingly, there is no correlation between either student's grades on papers and projects, or our measure of their improvement in communication skills, and their GPA's. This result has important implications for the design and implementation of writing-within-the-discipline programs such as the one described here.     

An Investigation of the Presence and Development of Social Capital in an Electrical Engineering Laboratory

Social capital consists of resources embedded in social networks that are purposefully mobilized through personal interactions. This project examined the factors that affected the development of social capital in an electrical and computer engineering laboratory. Data were collected through participant observation over the course of a term, interviews with students, and a survey. Interview and observational data were analyzed to determine themes or patterns in behaviors and actions that indicated the presence of social capital and affected the development of social capital in this setting. The open‐ended nature of the laboratory assignments and the complexity of a learning tool called TekBot? required students to access information. The lack of relevant information from the teaching assistants, internet, and laboratory assignment handouts required students to mobilize information from each other to succeed. Multiple methods of data collection validate the result that specific factors encouraged the development of social capital in this laboratory.     

Research on Risk Evaluation Method for International Engineering Projects

Risk evaluation is one of the important elements of international engineering project management. The risk factors of international engineering projects are systematically analyzed from multiple dimension features of the projects. The muhilayer evaluation index system for the international engineering project risk assessment is proposed and constructed, which consists of 8 I-grade indexes and 24 II-grade indexes as policy risk, market risk, resource risk, and technical scheme risk, schedule risk, funding risk, personnel risk and management risk. And then the self-evaluation and benchmarking evaluation methods are applied to evaluate the international engineering project risk, and established the corresponding mathematical models. Finally, a project evaluation example is given to illustrate the applicability and effectiveness of the mathematical models.     

本科教学工作水平评估工程的高校主体性探析

文章认为高校在本科教学工作水平评估过程中既是客体又是主体。提出要充分发挥高校在本科教学工作水平评估过程中的主体性作用，以利于评估功能的发挥和评估效果的获得。     

A Survey of Engineering Education Outside the United States: Implications for the Ideal Engineering Program

Undergraduate engineering programs in fourteen countries are surveyed to determine the status of engineering education outside the United States and to analyze the implications for the ideal engineering program of the future here in the United States. The items surveyed include the number of years required to obtain an engineering degree, title of the engineering degree, high school preparation for engineering programs, cost of education, completion rates for engineering degrees, entrance requirements, mathematical requirements, and support for laboratory work. The most notable aspects of engineering education outside the United States are:

• ? Stronger high school preparation and requirements in mathematics and science
• ? Longer period of time required for an engineering degree
• ? Advanced level of mathematics required in engineering programs
• ? Low cost of education

It appears that in most countries engineering education is more intense and rigorous than in the United States. In formulating the ideal engineering program of the future we must be sensitive to competing programs in the rest of the world.