The Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Alabama offers its Bachelors of Science degree through a distance education program to non-traditional students located in an industrial region in southeast Alabama. The degree... more
The Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Alabama offers its Bachelors of Science degree through a distance education program to non-traditional students located in an industrial region in southeast Alabama. The degree program includes the challenge of delivering Capstone Design, a team-based engineering project, to these off-campus students. In fall 2004 three distance education students, one in Montgomery and two in Dothan, Alabama, were combined with four on-campus students into a design team. For their design-build experience, the instructor provided this team with a larger budget (approximately $1000) and more access to machine shop time than other teams consisting solely of on-campus students. The local group set up a webpage, bulletin board, and group email account to foster communication amongst all group members. The paper discusses the way that the group dealt with the extra challenges it faced and also describes the resulting design project.
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Criteria 3 of ABET 2000 includes professional skills that have not traditionally been explicitly taught in undergraduate engineering programs. In addition the criterion related to "modern engineering tools necessary for engineering... more
Criteria 3 of ABET 2000 includes professional skills that have not traditionally been explicitly taught in undergraduate engineering programs. In addition the criterion related to "modern engineering tools necessary for engineering practice" provides for the instruction of a wide range of topics that are useful for the young engineer. Engineering faculty have limited experience and resources on teaching professional skills. Most engineering programs do not have the luxury of adding a professional skills course to their already overcrowded curriculum. Therefore, a suite of modules has been developed for the professional skills of lifelong learning, project management, teaming, and time management. Each module has been designed to fit within three 50-minute class periods in a standard course and includes bridge material to transition back to the original course. Each module was beta-tested by another instructor with a multi-disciplinary group of student evaluators. The beta-...
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The international service learning experience for engineers at The University of Alabama engages students in leadership and teaming roles on service projects for academic credit in remote Peruvian Amazon villages. During this experience... more
The international service learning experience for engineers at The University of Alabama engages students in leadership and teaming roles on service projects for academic credit in remote Peruvian Amazon villages. During this experience students practice some of the skills necessary for the challenges of engineering in a globalizing profession and demonstrate accreditation learning outcomes not easily taught in traditional classrooms. The service part of the course has involved the planning and installation of a range of projects in five remote Amazonian villages. Students live and work with villagers on installations in accordance with the Engineers Without Borders TM model. Students on the trips also participate in a formal post-trip assessment. They score elements of the experience using the five-level Likert scale to evaluate 12 course elements that include ABET outcomes. In addition, the students are asked four open-ended questions that allow for both qualitative assessments an...
The University of Alabama (UA) Engineers Without Borders™ student chapter has been working for four years with several remote villages in the Amazon Basin in Peru. During the 2006 evaluation project students interviewed villagers and... more
The University of Alabama (UA) Engineers Without Borders™ student chapter has been working for four years with several remote villages in the Amazon Basin in Peru. During the 2006 evaluation project students interviewed villagers and conducted testing to determine the most pressing infrastructure needs: safe water, septic systems, lighting, and communications. In the third year, 2008, a student team began to address the lighting problem by working with the villagers to install photovoltaic solar panels in Amazonian villages. These test installations have been monitored by in-country NGO project collaborators and will continue to be field-evaluated. Meanwhile identical solar units were evaluated in a controlled study at UA during the months of July through September of 2009. The photovoltaic panels were assessed for voltage and current variation with surface and ambient temperature, varying cloud cover and precipitation events. System light outputs were evaluated for luminance. As a ...
The Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Alabama offers its BSME degree through distance education to students in Dothan, Alabama, located approximately 240 miles from the campus in Tuscaloosa. These off-site students... more
The Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Alabama offers its BSME degree through distance education to students in Dothan, Alabama, located approximately 240 miles from the campus in Tuscaloosa. These off-site students are full-time employees, ...
The development of highly advanced computer simulation software packages has enabled design engineers to more effectively integrate safety features into their designs. Designs can be tested long before any physical construction ever... more
The development of highly advanced computer simulation software packages has enabled design engineers to more effectively integrate safety features into their designs. Designs can be tested long before any physical construction ever begins. This saves money, allowing ...
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EC 2000 requires that engineering students learn and demonstrate an ability to communicate effectively, which in an engineering environment implies oral, written, and graphical communication skills. The already overcrowded curriculum and... more
EC 2000 requires that engineering students learn and demonstrate an ability to communicate effectively, which in an engineering environment implies oral, written, and graphical communication skills. The already overcrowded curriculum and pedagogical considerations makes adding communications courses unacceptable. We prepared three short instructional modules suitable for teaching these skills in any engineering course as a part of a more extensive program to develop instructional modules in several EC 2000 skill areas. Each module uses three 50-minute classes and relies on active-cooperative learning strategies and Internet-based resources. Instructional material includes PowerPoint slides, in-class team activities, homework assignments, and an instructor guide. We have tested each module in an evaluation program where a faculty member who did not develop the module taught it to approximately ten students. These data showed improvement in the students' confidence in their abili...
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Research Interests: Engineering, Fuel Cell, Internal Combustion Engine, Power, Experimental Study, and 11 moreEnergy Storage, CHEMICAL SCIENCES, Fuel Cell Vehicle, Dynamic Response, Dc-Dc Boost Converter, Transient Response, Frequency Response, Proportional Integral Controllers, Duty Cycle, Power Sources, and Power Output
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Criteria 3 of ABET 2000 includes professional skills that have not traditionally been explicitly taught in undergraduate engineering programs. In addition the criterion related to modern engineering tools necessary for engineering... more
Criteria 3 of ABET 2000 includes professional skills that have not traditionally been explicitly taught in undergraduate engineering programs. In addition the criterion related to modern engineering tools necessary for engineering practice provides for the instruction of a wide range of ...
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Abstract Life goals include values and lifestyle choices related to work, marriage, family, and making a positive impact on society. Recent research suggests that men and women differ in the importance they place on these goals, and this... more
Abstract Life goals include values and lifestyle choices related to work, marriage, family, and making a positive impact on society. Recent research suggests that men and women differ in the importance they place on these goals, and this might partially explain why capable women fall away from science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers at rates relatively higher than men. This paper presents an empirical study that examines gender differences in life goals for first year college students in STEM courses.