Curriculum development in microelectromechanical systems inmechanical engineering

Curriculum development in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) in the Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics (MEAM) Department at the University of Michigan is presented. A course curriculum structure that integrates both mechanical and electrical engineering courses is proposed for mechanical engineering students. The proposed curriculum starts from undergraduate study and finishes at the Ph.D. level. Two new graduate-level MEMS courses are proposed: “Introduction to MEMS” for senior undergraduate students and entry-level graduate students and “Advanced MEMS” for graduate students. The first course has been experimentally taught at the University of Michigan for three years and the class assessments are summarized and analyzed in this paper. It is clear from the student responses that they are interested in taking courses in emerging technologies such as MEMS and more courses in the MEMS area should be offered. Future MEMS curriculum development and a new MEMS course for undergraduate-level students in the college of engineering are discussed     

Curriculum for a Bachelor of Science degree with a major ininformation systems engineering

The authors propose a curriculum for a bachelor's degree in information systems engineering that is coherent and starts from basic sciences as appropriate for an undergraduate engineering program. Besides the basic sciences and mathematics, areas of engineering sciences and design selected from digital electronics, computer science, and electrical engineering are integrated to achieve the desired program coverage and coherence     

Guidelines for writing an undergraduate engineering project

The purpose of a project report is to convey adequate information to the reader about how the tasks were implemented, the results, and what knowledge was gained by a student. It is an important aspect of the final year project since it is the only official document the student submits together with the developed device; it could even be the only document submitted to the department if the student has carried out an analysis work or study. It is imperative that students attach due importance to this aspect of the final year project, as a beautiful idea poorly packaged and presented by a student may not arouse the interest of the reader/supervisor and could lead to lower marks.     

An evaluation of an instructional system for engineering taskestimation

As a result of prior research into the estimating and planning skills of experienced engineers, a number of observable goal-directed expert practices were identified. A computer assisted learning package was developed to teach these to less experienced, practicing engineers. The primary teaching mechanism required the learner to infer how alternative practices differed. This was reinforced both by demonstrating practices in analogous domains, and by showing learners how different practices make different assumptions about the task environment. An evaluation program was conducted with 35 participants in nine organizations, with a number of findings. Individual differences occurred in a variety of ways and proved problematic both for the design of the interface and that of the learning mechanisms. Learners' preconceptions were also problematic in some instances, but seem to be unavoidable in teaching empirical practices to experienced learners. Nonetheless the learning mechanisms worked well, except in isolated instances, particularly the use of analogies. Analogies appeared to be effective both in helping learners transfer practices between everyday tasks and engineering estimation tasks, and in helping them reflect on their current practices     

Electro-forensic engineering: an emerging profession

With the increasing number of legal cases involving the application of electrical equipment, forensic engineering is playing a greater role in providing litigation support. This article discusses the qualifications and role of the electro-forensic engineer. Safety practices, importance of codes and standards and how to minimize accidents and liability are growing concerns with electrical equipment manufacturers, systems designers, contractors and owners. The electro-forensic engineer can make positive contributions beyond litigation support as explained in this article. The need for recommended practices or standards for the electro-forensic engineer to perform in a professional manner is also discussed     

A cost-effective approach for the development of an integratedPC-PLC-robot system for industrial engineering education

Advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) instruction is and is likely to remain an important component of the industrial engineering education curriculum. As new manufacturing technologies become available and as existing manufacturing technologies become more integrated, industrial engineering departments must continuously develop their laboratory resources in order to provide their students with effective instruction. While financially limited departments cannot acquire state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment, they can provide improved hands-on AMT integration instruction without major capital investment. By developing an interface box between existing LabVolt PLC trainers and Microbot TeachMover robots, the industrial engineering department at a major Northeastern US university was able to provide its students with improved AMT integration instruction     

Image systems engineering education in an electronic classroom

Digital imaging technologies have now developed to the point where engineers specializing in image systems engineering are needed in order for imaging to reach its full potential, In 1996, the University of Iowa launched a multiphase project for the development of a well-structured interdisciplinary image systems engineering curriculum with both depth and breadth in its offerings. This project has been supported by equipment grants from the Hewlett Packard Company. The new teaching approach that we are developing is very dissimilar to the blackboard-and-chalk approach we used in previous years. Utilizing a 40-seat electronic classroom, lectures consist of presentation of concepts, immediately followed by examples, and practical exploratory problems. Four image processing classes have been offered in the new collaborative learning environment during the 1996-1997 academic year. This paper outlines the employed educational approach we are taking and summarizes our experience in the first year     

Development of an information engineering and management program

A shortage of executive-level technical talent exists in industry that is not being filled by educational institutions. The University of Alabama, Birmingham (UAB) worked with corporate executives to identify how the talent gap could be closed. This paper gives the results of two years of work in the development of a new Master's degree specialty in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, UAB. The entire process from defining the objectives of an educational program to developing courses and managing a special group of executive students is covered.     

Software engineering practice in an undergraduate compiler course

The combination of a traditional deep domain project course (compiler construction) with the software engineering process is discussed. The course involves a progressive and team programming project for a subset of some real structured programming languages such as ANSI-C. The software engineering practice concentrates on the implementation level, issues on detailed design, coding and documenting, and unit and integration testing. It is argued that these issues are the major problems that most undergraduates will face     

Using an integrated platform for learning/spl trade/ to reinvent engineering education

The most pressing and critical needs for engineering graduates in 2013 and beyond are to be natural innovators who are able to integrate their knowledge to solve complex engineering problems. This paper introduces an integrated platform for learning/spl trade/ as a solution to meet these needs. The platform for learning provides an environment for innovation, while integrating a curriculum into a coherent whole.     

An instrument for assessing the effectiveness of the circuitscurriculum in an electrical engineering program

This paper discusses an instrument developed and used at Kettering University (USA) to assess learning and retention of circuit topics in an undergraduate electrical engineering program. The instrument is composed of two separate skills assessment tests. The first test covers material that should be learned in prerequisite courses. It consists of 30 multiple-choice questions and is administered during the first week of the first circuits course (Circuits I) to provide a benchmark for students beginning their electrical engineering course work. The second test comprises topics taught in Circuits I. It consists of 20 multiple-choice questions and is administered both at the end of Circuits I and at later points in the students' careers at Kettering University. In addition to describing the development and administration of the tests, data for three analyses is presented here. First, students' performance on the Pre-Circuits Skills Assessment Test is compared with class performance in Circuits I (as measured by class grade and score on the Circuits Skills Assessment Test). Second, the effect of the 12-week time lag between the end of Circuits I and the beginning of the second circuits course is investigated. Finally, the effectiveness of the circuits curriculum in facilitating mastery and long-term retention of circuits skills is assessed by examining the test scores over time. Statistical methods including correlation and hypothesis testing are used to support these analyzes     

General Semantics as an Educative Tool in the Electrical Curriculum

Because science and technology are changing more and more rapidly with time, the tempo of university curriculum modernization is increasing and the problem of engineering obsolescence is becoming more acute. This paper, written from the viewpoint of an engineer in the research and development segment of industry, introduces three central concepts from general semantics: 1) levels of abstraction, 2) multiordinality, and 3) semantic reactions. I feel that the student electrical engineer can benefit from considering explicitly the number of times he must remove himself mentally from the physical world in creating a model of reality, from discussing the gray area between Aristotelian yes-no abstractions, and from realizing the emotional content of verbal phrases in the lay as well as technical vocabulary. The body of the paper discusses, in a preliminary way, several areas in the electrical engineering curriculum where these concepts might be used to advantage in preparing the student to enter, with an increased awareness, upon his professional "career of change."     

Restructuring an electrical engineering program in Quito, Ecuador

The Department of Electrical Engineering at the Escuela Politecnica Nacional, in Quito, Ecuador, has undertaken the task that started two years ago, of bringing engineering education into the next century in a very limited environment. The problems to be faced are first described, starting from dealing with a severe shortage of funding and resources due to lack of interest by government and industry, to having to work with students with large amounts of knowledge of physics and mathematics, but with very little creativity due to all their educational background. A new curricula is discussed, where there is a special emphasis on reducing student course load, bringing together classes and lab work, fully integrating a variety of new computational tools to the teaching-learning process, and giving students more freedom to choose from a diversity of specialized fields. The new Department structure is also presented, eliminating the current departmentalized organization based on three major electrical engineering fields, i.e., power systems, control, and communications. The issue of lack of funding is finally addressed, as are some of the creative ways that are being used to solve this problem     

Web-Based Engine for Program Curriculum Designers

Educational institutions pay careful attention to the design of program curricula, which represent a framework to meet institutional goals and missions. Of course, the success of any institution depends highly on the quality of its program curriculum. The development of such a curriculum and, more importantly, the evaluation of its quality are complex and time-consuming processes. This traditional approach requires many cumbersome manual iterations, making it a long and error-prone process. To overcome these problems, this paper proposes a new curriculum support engine as an alternative approach. The proposed curriculum support engine is a Web-based application that helps in designing any program curriculum in real time. The engine incorporates several important features, allowing the verification of the proposed curriculum coherence and the generation of statistics necessary for academic and accreditation purposes. Useful viewing and editing tools are also provided. The proposed curriculum support engine is flexible and allows additional criteria that the curriculum designer can specify to be incorporated. In particular, the engine covers the Accreditation of Canadian Engineering Programs (CEAB), the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), and the Commission of Academic Accreditation of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research of UAE (CAA-UAE).      

Team learning for engineering students

One of the top concerns on any recruiter's list is the amount of experience, if any, the new graduates being hired have had in working as part of a team. Aside from those students who have been involved in athletics, the concept of working as part of a team for a common goal is completely foreign to nearly all of our students. As an attempt to better prepare students for entry into a very team-oriented workplace after graduation and with the belief that cooperative team learning, in itself, has the potential for an enhanced learning experience, the format of a second semester junior electronics course was modified to accommodate pedagogical concepts more in line with team learning. This paper reports on the concepts implemented in this course and the results experienced to date (after three semesters of implementation)     

Dielectric engineering for the nineties

Abstract

Material used to form dielectrics in silicon technology are currently changing. For example intermetal dielectrics need to have a low dielectric constant and therefore a move away from conventional materials is occurring. DRAM's have an opposite requirement and for this reason metal oxide dielectrics are being pursued with a longer term view of using ferroelectric materials. The area of gate oxides is also one of review and we show in this paper that dielectrics formed in a nitric oxide ambient may be appropriate at least to the end of this century.     

Flexibility and adaptability in engineering education: an academicinstitution perspective

To survive in the highly competitive environment, an engineering education institution must offer its students an attractive system of study. Essential features of such a system are flexibility and adaptability. Flexibility means that the system provides a large number of diverse opportunities and allows the students to take advantage of the existing diversity. A flexible system of study should provide for multiple entry and exit points, and for several areas of concentration within one or more fields of study. Student's freedom in design of his/her individual program of study should not be restricted by an excessive number of compulsory courses. The student should also be allowed to adjust the course load in each term to his/her background and speed of learning. Adaptability of a system of study means that adjustments in curricula, reflecting advances in science and technology, trends on the labor market, and evolution of international standards of engineering education, can easily be performed. In this paper, the authors discuss how to restructure a system of study to make it more flexible and adaptable. The general ideas are illustrated with an example of a recently restructured system of engineering education at their institution-the Faculty of Electronics and Information Technology, Warsaw University of Technology, Poland. They demonstrate that flexibility and adaptability of the system of study contribute to the overall quality of education     

Use of an MK-500 microprocessor controller in power engineering

The characteristics of new models of the KONTRAST series MK-500 microprocessor controller are considered and examples of using them in automation systems of thermal power facilities are given.