Freehand Sketching for Engineers: A Pilot Study

This paper describes a pilot study to evaluate Freehand Sketching for Engineers, a one credit, five week course taught to undergraduate engineering students. The short-term goal of this course was to improve engineering students’ freehand sketching ability and to assess their progress with metrics. The long-term objective (desired learning outcome) of this course is to improve the creativity and innovation of student design projects by enhancing students’ ability to visualize their ideas with freehand sketches. The class met two days a week for 75 min per day. Students were taught to draw simple objects such as electrical boxes, with orthographic, isometric, and oblique views on 8 ½ x 11 in. sheets of blank paper (no grid lines) and wooden #2 pencils. No instruments, such as rulers and compasses, were allowed. The course required students to apply what they learned in the classroom and included many examples of hands-on, active and student-centered learning activities. Two assessments were performed to measure whether students improved their ability to freehand sketch. The first involved two outside reviewers (industrial designers) who evaluated each student’s sketch of a pipe fitting that was drawn in the first class (pre-test) and a sketch of the same pipe fitting in the eighth class (after 7 hours of instruction - post-test). Sketches were evaluated using a 1 (poor) to 7 (excellent) Likert scale. The second assessment consisted of an evaluation of the final projects, which were a collection of five sketches with different views of an engineered product. Evaluations of the pre- and post-test drawings and the final projects by outside reviewers and positive observations by engineering faculty suggest that this course has the potential to improve students’ ability to sketch objects. This paper discusses details of the course, provides examples of student sketches, and presents results of outside reviewer assessments. It includes suggestions for a more rigorous assessment of the course to determine its potential to improve students’ ability to sketch objects

The economic value of food labels: A lab experiment on safer infant milk formula

Enterobacter sakazakii, a pathogen that can be found in powdered infant milk formula, can cause adverse health effects on infants. Using Vickrey auction, this study examines parents' willingness to pay (WTP) for a quality assurance label on powdered infant milk formula. The influence of ambiguity with the incidence rate information and provision of safe-handling information on WTP are also evaluated using three experiments/treatments. The mean price premium parents are willing to pay for the safer and quality assurance labelled powdered infant milk formula ranges from 61 to 133 Eurocents per 100 grams depending on the treatment. While no ambiguity effects are generally found, provision of safe-handling information has a significant influence on WTP. When the safe-handling information was given, WTP for the quality assurance label was significantly reduced and ranged from 39 to 69 Eurocents per 100 grams depending on the treatment. The results suggest that parents significantly value a quality assurance label with or without clear incidence rate information. Parents' valuation of the label, however, is reduced with the provision of safe-handling information.Ambiguity, Food Safety, Health Risk Information, Lab Experiment, Powdered Infant Milk Formula, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Parental Response to Health Risk Information: A Lab Experiment on Evaluating Willingness-to-Pay for Safer Infant Milk Formula

Enterobacter sakazakii, a pathogen that can be found in powdered infant milk formula, can cause adverse health effects on infants. Using Vickrey auction, this study examines parents' willingness to pay (WTP) for a quality assurance label on powdered infant milk formula. The influence of ambiguity with the incidence rate information and provision of safe-handling information on WTP are also evaluated using three experiments/treatments. Results generally suggest that parents are willing to pay for quality assurance label. The mean price premium parents are willing to pay for the safer and quality assurance labelled powdered infant milk formula ranges from 61 to 133 Eurocents per 100 grams depending on the treatment. While no ambiguity effects are generally found, provision of safe-handling information has a significant influence on WTP. When the safe-handling information was given, WTP for the quality assurance label was significantly reduced and ranged from 39 to 69 Eurocents per 100 grams depending on the treatment.Ambiguity, Food Safety, Health Risk Information, Lab Experiment, Powdered Infant Milk Formula, Willingness-to-Pay, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Health Economics and Policy, D18, D80, I12, Q18,

CENTER-LINE PRESSURE DISTRIBUTIONS ON TWO-DIMENSIONAL BODIES WITH LEADING-EDGE ANGLES GREATER THAN THAT FOR SHOCK DETACHMENT AT MACH NUMBER 6 AND ANGLES OF ATTACK UP TO 25 DEG

Center-line pressure distribution on two- dimensional bodie

Iron in marine waters

The soluble and particulate iron in marine waters of the North Pacific were determined spectrophotometrically by utilizing the iron complexes of alpha, alphabipyridyl and bathophenanthroline…

The Universal Piggy Bank: Designing and Implementing a System of Savings Accounts for Children

The Universal Piggy Bank: Designing and Implementing a System of Savings Accounts for Childre