The IIHR Fluids Workshop, A Community of Scholars

The IIHR Fluids Workshop is a laboratory designed for undergraduate research and open-­‐ ended course projects. This nascent laboratory – established in the fall of 2012 – is unique in that it is based on a model in which students have access to dedicated state-­‐of-­‐the art research facilities, and are supported by a growing community of students who interact directly to provide tutorials, assistance, and a supportive environment in which students can engage in their work. We strive to bring students to a high level of productivity within the span of a typical undergraduate project. This interaction is facilitated through a non-­‐competitive project application which requires students to consider the objectives and anticipated outcomes of their project, expected needs from the lab and community and, finally, a contribution that they can make back to the lab. Such contributions are typically in the form of a tutorial or reference document, or hands-­‐on training of another member of the community. The physical facilities within the laboratory include a low-­‐turbulence water channel, which is designed and built in-­‐house to provide high flow quality and is optimized for optical access to the flow, since flow visualization is a particularly intuitive means by which to interrogate the flow. Therefore experiments in this facility can provide students with immediate feedback on the dynamics of the flow being investigated. The flow field can be interrogated qualitatively using dye injection using a custom-­‐built apparatus for control of multiple dye streams; or quantitatively, using particle image velocimetry (PIV). To facilitate both of these methods, a high-­‐speed camera, continuous-­‐wave laser, and timing electronics are available to students. Other instrumentation consists of National Instruments LabVIEW-­‐based data acquisition systems, and a student-­‐built force balance for aerodynamic load measurements in the water channel. Motion of experimental models can also be incorporated using a three-­‐axis motion control system. The laboratory has impacted courses and undergraduate research, in some way, within all engineering departments at the University of Iowa, and has supported federally-­‐ and internally-­‐funded research projects in which undergraduates have participated. The laboratory has also provided a platform for outreach to K-­‐12 students. The full paper will discuss challenges faced in achieving sufficient student collaboration and strategies to enhance this important aspect of the laboratory, as well as the results of early attempts to assess the impact of the laboratory on academic programs and student learning. The long-­‐term plan for the laboratory will also be explained in further detail, including efforts currently underway to introduce intuitive and powerful computational tools into the laboratory to augment and complement the experimental facilities

The Effects on Instructor Workload of Implementing Active Teaching Methods to Improve Student Enthusiasm and Performance

There is an abundance of data that suggest that implementing active teaching methods in the classroom produces a deeper, longer lasting understanding and increased enjoyment of course material. However, most engineering educators do not employ these techniques. This paper addresses three of the most common concerns these educators have: 1. “I don’t have enough time,” 2. “It is difficult to employ active teaching techniques with my course material,” and 3. “I won’t be able to cover all my material if I allow time for the activities in class.” . Active teaching was employed in two courses in order to improve student enthusiasm for course material and increase understanding of that material. In each course, specific topics were taught using active teaching methods, while others were taught using traditional teaching methods. The active teaching methods employed were simple methods that were uncomplicated to prepare, often requiring less than five minutes of preparation per lecture. The effectiveness of these teaching methods was compared in three ways. First, students’ non-verbal responses to the teaching methods were observed by an independent researcher trained in direct nonparticipation data collection. Both active and traditional lectures were observed using a modified rubric based on Ekman and Friesen’s facial measurement system, which systematized and validated the observations. Second, students’ test scores on topics taught by active teaching methods were compared to scores on topics taught by traditional methods. Third, students were surveyed on their perspective of the effectiveness of the active teaching methods. This data was compared to the time required to prepare these lectures and the amount of material covered. Results show that, without fail, students were more engaged and scored higher on topics covered using simple active teaching methods as opposed to traditional lectures. Students’ participation levels significantly increased during all aspects of lectures that included active teaching methods, including short periods of traditional lecture that followed the activity. Student surveys suggest that, although students’ perception of active teaching methods was mixed to start the semester, the acceptance of these methods by the end of the semester had increased to 100% and many students desired more active opportunities. The amount of material covered in both classes increased from the previous course offering

Incorporating Engineering in High School FACS and Chemistry Class

This paper presents the preliminary development of engineering units for a year-long high school Food Science and Chemistry course. While the course is not intended as an engineering course, we explored ways that students could be introduced to the engineering design process, and other engineering concepts, as a way to motivate interdisciplinary thinking and inspire future exploration. As this project is in its early stages, we will present three potential units that incorporate engineering while meeting Next Generation Science Standards and Minnesota State Science Standards related to this course

An Innovation Management Class in a Polytechnic Environment

Innovation is a central driver of our country’s economic prosperity. Industry sees innovation as the key to sustainable growth. Building on these ideas, a motto of the University of Wisconsin-Stout is “Inspiring Innovation.” To support innovation on campus at UW-Stout, a one credit, on-line, self-paced course has been developed to teach innovation management basics to a wide variety of students. The only prerequisite is that the student comes to the course with a product idea, either from a class project or from extra-curricular ideas. In the course, students will learn intellectual property, market assessment, prototype development, and basic business plans. The class assignments relate these four topics to their product idea. As part of the polytechnic focus of the university, students come from a wide variety of majors, including Engineering, Technology, Business, and Art and Design. Faculty and lab support from all of these areas are also available in all these disciplines. One end result of the course is for students to decide to stop their product because in some way it is not commercially viable. This is not seen as a failure, but as a first-time learning experience. If a student wishes to pursue commercialization, one route is continued development at Stout through a variety of other class projects. Another route is direct commercialization to a manufacturer. Finally, continued development of larger and more innovative products could be supported through Manufacturing Extension Partners, the state of Wisconsin or other new business support organizations. Future work is to expand and refine the routes forward by piloting the linkages with other classes and outside agencies. Successful products will be promoted to help grow the course enrollment

Incorporating Freehand Sketches and Mockups into Senior Design Capstone Course: Case Study with a Hand Cycle Vehicle Rack

From the students’ perspective, the project objective of this 2-semester senior design course was to design and build a storage device for a hand powered upright hand cycle that can be installed on the exterior of a wheelchair accessible Dodge-Chrysler minivan so that a person with paraplegia or quadriplegia can drive the vehicle independently (without a human aide) when the hand cycle is loaded on the vehicle. The novelty of this paper is the pedagogy of blending traditional methods of engineering design (hand sketches, low resolution mockups, and prototypes) along with CAD design and modern computational analytics, including FEA, in a 2-semester design course. Students drew sketches of multiple ideas and made a full-size three dimensional mockup of the rear of a Chrysler minivan out of plywood and structural wood. They also made two mockups and two metal prototypes and analyzed the design with FEA. Course evaluations from students revealed their appreciation for having the opportunity to hand sketch ideas and make low resolution mockups in the first semester to arrive at a general design. (The second semester was devoted to detailed design and making functional prototypes.) The students felt that they had a rich design experience that they could use for future design projects in their careers

Peace and Conflict: Engineering Responsibilities and Opportunities

In many conflicts, the consequences of engineering projects are among the problems at issue, and engineers are unavoidably parties to the problems. Engineers need to raise their awareness of the potential effects of their projects, especially in situations of serious social and political contention, and to explore alternative designs or engineering solutions, and methods of implementation, that may ameliorate rather than exacerbate tensions. Engineers will also need to dialogue effectively with the many stakeholders affected if these projects are to be politically viable and achieve their technical purposes. The paper draws on several case studies of engineering projects in conflict situations, especially in developing countries. The article offers a check list of factors to take into account when designing and locating power, irrigation, mining, transport, and other types of engineering projects, in areas of conflict or potential conflict. The focus of the paper is primarily, but not entirely, on social conflict

The Use of BeagleBone Black Board in Engineering Design and Development

The BeagleBone Black (BBB) board is a low cost, powerful expandable computer launched by a community of developers sponsored by Texas Instruments in the early 2013. It is the newest product in the Beagle family. This board features a powerful TI Sitara™ ARM Cortex™-A8 processor which runs at 1 GHz. And a 2 GB on-board flash memory acts as the “hard drive” for the board to host a Linux operating system and other software development tools. The size of the board is small enough to fit in a mint tin box. It can be used for a variety of projects from high school fair projects to prototypes of very complex embedded systems. With a user-friendly, browser-based Bonescript programming environment called Cloud9, a learner can easily program the BBB board to rapidly prototype electronic systems that interface with real-world applications. Afterwards, as the knowledge of users develops, the board provides more complicated interfaces including C/C++ functions to access digital and analog pins aboard the ARM Cortex A8 microprocessor. The full power and capability of the BBB board may be programmed in the underlying onboard Linux operating system, such as Angstrom or Ubuntu. Moreover, the Beagle community provides a useful repository of example projects, forums and hardware/software documentation. This paper presents our work of employing the BBB board in designing engineering senior projects, and uses a case study of robot car with voice recognition senior project to compares it with Raspberry Pi and Arduino in educating engineering students to construct embedded systems. Our primary experiences demonstrate that the BBB board is an easy-to-use and cost-effective development kit which can be employed by college-level engineering students for their capstone design projects

Evaluation of Hybrid Course Implementation in Construction Engineering

Engineering educators call for a widespread implementation of hybrid instruction to respond to rapidly changing demands of 21st Century1. In response to this call, a junior-level course in the Construction Engineering department entitled Construction Equipment and Heavy Construction Methods was converted into a hybrid instruction model. The overarching goal in the hybrid course development was to take the content that can be engaged outside the class to an online platform so that class time can be used more efficiently for authentic, realistic, open-ended problems and homework assignments. This study reports the design, development and evaluation of this hybrid course and provides practical implications for hybrid course development

Development, Assessment and Evaluation of Remote Thermo-Fluids Laboratory Experiments: Results from a Pilot Study

An integral part of a mechanical engineering and other engineering programs are laboratory experiences. While the benefits of hands-on laboratories are in providing environments for students to apply theoretical knowledge, the changing landscape of engineering education today is spurring consideration of alternate means of offering laboratory-based education. One approach is that of developing remote or online laboratory experiences, which is particularly attractive for our mechanical engineering program at Iowa State University in the following ways: 1) They can help address capacity issues caused by increasing enrollments; 2) They can facilitate online learning opportunities for off-campus students, including the increasing number of students pursuing internship and co-op opportunities, thus enabling offering to new students and potentially minimizing time to degree for in-program students. Offering lab activities online demands modification of current laboratory systems or the creation of new systems. In addition any laboratory experience that is thus delivered must be assessed for its impact on student learning in comparison with the traditional experience. Consequently we have endeavored to pilot selected laboratory experiences in our undergraduate engineering: two laboratory exercises in the Fluids course covering pumps and linear momentum concepts and one exercise in the Heat Transfer course covering steady state conduction and extended surfaces. In each case, a computer-based remote access was established to view and control the experimental apparatuses, thus providing students with a mechanism to conduct the experiments in a remote (online) environment. For each laboratory, part of the class conducted the lab in the traditional in-class format while the remainder conducted the exercises in the ‘remote’ mode. Assessment of student learning included student self-assessment of understanding of concepts (through surveys), feedback on the actual experience itself and direct assessment of their understanding through lab report scores as measured by teaching assistants. The results for the fluids and heat transfer laboratories showed that there was no significant difference in the learning of the students. Student perception of the remote lab experiences depended on the smooth running of the experiments. The pilot study suggests that some laboratory experiences can be successfully ported to a remote or online mode without sacrificing the student learning experience