June 2005

Welcome to the June issue of Connections, the American Society for Engineering Education's free e-newsletter.

Spotlight On Our Sponsors:

Autodesk logo

Autodesk - Higher Education Programs

As the world's leading supplier of PC design software and digital content-creation tools, Autodesk wants to be your partner in preparing your students for future careers. Together we can expand the range of teaching and learning opportunities for you and your students and help build a bridge to their future. To learn more about Autodesk's programs for higher education, visit www.autodesk.com/education.

National Instruments

Get Your National Instruments Academic Site License

Designed to fit the needs of academic institutions worldwide, site licenses are National Instruments most cost-effective software choice for colleges and universities.  All licenses have unlimited installations in the department, college, or campus for which it is licensed.  Find out what’s included and learn more now.

Visit http://digital.ni.com. 

Professional Publications, Inc. Logo

Helping You Build Professional Engineers

Professional Publications, Inc. understands that building a successful career takes years of education, experience and growth.

Licensure is the cornerstone of an engineer's career. For over 25 years, PPI has been dedicated to helping you help your students pass the FE and PE exams. We have the resources you need:

  • The #1 FE and PE review products.
  • The most-visited web site, with exam info, FAQs, Instructor's Corner, and more.
  • Exam Cafe (www.ppiexamcafe.com), for online exam practice and assessment tools that are fast, easy, and affordable.
  • And now your support for the FE and PE exams can be especially rewarding! Join the new PPI Sales Partner Program (www.ppipartner.com) to earn commissions or discounts just for referring students to PPI books.

Visit www.ppi2pass.com today!

Synplicity logo

Structured/Platform ASIC Products Available through Synplicity’s University Program! 

Structured/platform ASICs are delivering designs with close to ASIC performance, cost and power results in months instead of years. The structured/platform ASIC silicon architecture combined with the custom and unique algorithms of Synplicity’s Amplify® Family of Structured/Platform ASIC software have been fine tuned to deliver quick and deterministic results. The solution includes integrated physical synthesis, architecture-aware floorplanning and design analysis, allowing quick assemble and create an optimized and legally placed gates design, ready for hand-off to the silicon vendor

Synplicity a leading supplier of software provides FPGA, DSP, structured/platform

ASIC and ASIC designers with best-in-class, easy-to-use, and reliable solutions that deliver extremely high quality of results. For more information on Structured/Platform ASIC and all of the other products available through the University Program, contact university@synplicity.com or visit www.synplicity.com.

SPECIAL PRICING OFFER

R4 Systems is pleased to announce a Special Pricing offer on the Proteus Advanced Simulation Function.  When you purchase any Proteus product that is valued at $850.00 US or more we will include the Advanced Simulation Function Free.

Proteus combines mixed mode SPICE circuit simulation, animated components and microprocessor models to facilitate co-simulation of complete micro-controller based designs. For the first time ever, it is possible to develop and test such designs before a physical prototype is constructed.

Proteus Advanced Simulation Function provides a full range of graph-based analyses.   

Proteus is used in many educational institutions to teach Basic and Advanced Electronics, as well as Microprocessor design and code development.   

Visit us at www.r4systems.com or call us Toll Free at 1-866-499-8184

ONLINE Master’s Degree for Higher Education Professionals

Offered by Drexel University, ranked One of America’s Best Graduate School 2006, the ONLINE Master’s in Higher Education is designed to prepare students with the practical skills, knowledge, and experience to become professionals and leaders in higher education. The unique, career-oriented curriculum is designed to fit your busy lifestyle.  Classes are offered in both executive and completely online formats allowing you to choose your educational path.

Additional Master’s degrees available ONLINE include MBA, MBA in Technology Management, MS in Engineering Management, and MS in Electrical Engineering.

Now accepting applications for September 2005.  www.drexel.com/asee2

Welcome to the world of K–12 engineering!

Introducing engineering into the K–12 classroom connects science and math concepts to the everyday engineering that surrounds us. TeachEngineering.com helps teachers enhance learning, excite students and stimulate interest in science and math through the use of hands–on engineering. With a fully searchable, digital library of standards–based lesson plans, and a myriad of “Living Laboratories” that bring real–world engineering principles into the classroom, TeachEngineering's comprehensive curricula are hands–on, inexpensive, and relevant to children's daily lives.

TeachEngineering.com is a joint effort of the University of Colorado, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Colorado School of Mines, Duke University, Oregon State University, and the American Society for Engineering Education, and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation.

Bring the world of engineering into the K–12 classroom with TeachEngineering.com. You don’t need knowledge of engineering to use these curricula!

Search TeachEngineering.com’s digital library at
www.teachengineering.com.

New and Improved Journal of Engineering Education!

The Journal of Engineering Education is a peer-reviewed international journal published quarterly by the American Society for Engineering Education. It serves as an archival record of the leading scholarly research in engineering education. Visit www.asee.org/publications/jee/ to read it online.

In this Issue:

I. Science and Technology Briefs

  • G.I. Joe Goes Robo- University of California-Berkeley researchers have created a promising exoskeleton that could lighten soldiers' loads.
  • Biometrics Boom- Fingerprint authentication and other devices are moving the biometrics industry toward a multi-billion dollar market.

II. Congressional Hotline

  • National Conference Will Address U.S. Slide in Science and Innovation. 
  • Astronaut's Testimony Makes Congressional History

III. Teaching Toolbox

  • Japan-trepreneur- In an effort to increase real-world learning, a Japanese university has launched the first class of engineering entrepreneurs. 
  • Branching Out- Many engineering schools are launching programs that prepare students to teach engineering at both the K-12 and college levels.

IV. Feature Articles

  • East Side Story- The digital divide in Europe is pretty wide, and the former Eastern bloc countries are information technology "have-nots."
  • True Grit- University of Colorado professor Jackie Sullivan has climbed the corporate ladder and turned youngsters on to engineering. 

V. Fellowship Programs

  • 2006 Air Force Summer Faculty Fellowship Program
  • Office of Naval Research Summer Faculty Research Program
  • National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship Program (NDSEG)
  • The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Postdoctoral Fellowship Program


I. Science and Technology Briefs

G.I. Joe Goes Robo
The art of miniaturization and the advent of increasingly lightweight materials notwithstanding, soldiers in the field are still required to lug heavy loads on their backs. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has long been interested in exoskeletons that could help soldiers carry more weight without extra effort. Now researchers at the University of California-Berkeley’s Robotics and Human Engineering Laboratory have devised prototypes of a self-powered exoskeleton that show great promise. The BLEEX (Berkeley Lower Extremity Exoskeleton) allows a wearer to carry a 70-pound backpack with ease. BLEEX consists of two leg braces that strap onto combat boots; the backpack connects to the braces at hip level. A small engine (one version uses gasoline as fuel) provides power to the computer and hydraulic system. A local area network processes data from 40 sensors and operates hydraulic actuators to keep the device in step with the wearer. Latest versions allow a BLEEX pilot to walk, squat, bend, and climb stairs. Eventually, says Homayoon Kazerooni, the mechanical engineering professor who oversees the lab, running and jumping will be possible. Though Kazerooni says a gasoline-run exoskeleton is no more dangerous than a jeep, he’s not satisfied that gasoline should be the fuel of choice. “We’re experimenting with all kinds of power supplies.” Except, of course, the human kind.

Biometrics Boom
Biometric security technologies—electronic devices that scan physiological or behavior traits, such as faces, voices, fingerprints, handprints, and signatures—should become a $1.2 billion market this year, the International Biometric Group (IBG) says. That’s up from $719 million last year, a 40-percent leap. The main buyers now are government agencies, with growth building in the corporate sector. But the market will really take off when products for consumers become more available. IBG expects the market to surge from $1.85 billion in 2005 to $3.7 billion in 2007, hitting $4.64 billion the following year. Fingerprint authentication will be the prime mover in the field; the market for that technology should streak from $198 million last year to $1.5 billion in 2008. The market for face-scanning devices should grow from $50 million to $802 million. So, be prepared for your close up.

Back to the index.


II. Congressional Hotline

National Conference Will Address U.S. Slide in Science and Innovation
Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) announced plans last month for a National Conference on Science, Innovation, and Manufacturing to tackle the issue of America’s declining dominance in these fields.

“Many Americans are unaware of this trend,” Wolf said. “I know people in the scientific field and academia are aware – and have been voicing concern – but the average citizen has no idea. They also have no idea what this could mean to our economy and our national security. The time has come to sound the alarm.”

Funding for the conference, which is slated for this fall, has already been appropriated via the FY 2005 emergency supplemental appropriations law.

Wolf said House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.) and Science Committee Environment, Technology, and Standards Subcommittee Chairman Vernon Ehlers (R-Mich.) will select conference participants.

“Our hope is that the conference will bring together the nation’s best and brightest to help develop a blue print for the future of American science and innovation,” Wolf said. “It also will look at where there has been slippage and why and what needs to be done to reverse the trend.”

To read more about the conference, visit: http://www.house.gov/wolf/news/2005/05-12innovation.html.

Astronaut’s Testimony Makes Congressional History
NASA has helped bring congressional testimony to a whole new level – 220 statute miles above the earth, to be exact.

Astronaut John Phillips testified to the House subcommittee on space and aeronautics via satellite from space this month, a first in congressional history. Phillips, a flight engineer and NASA space officer onboard the International Space Station (ISS), spoke to Congress about life in space, safety issues, and day-to-day operations onboard the station.

Phillips also praised the international cooperation on the ISS, saying experiences there “will allow us to establish a long-term station on the moon and go to Mars.”

Subcommittee chairman Ken Calvert (R-Calif.) echoed the importance of the station. “It is vital to understand the impacts of space travel on humans and to consider the potential promises and challenges human space flight may hold,” he said.  “The testimony from Dr. Phillips was very instructive because it gave us a feel for the daily challenges that astronauts face.  I believe strongly that humans – not just robots – must continue to explore space.  Today’s hearing gave me and my colleagues an opportunity to understand the ways we can improve the lives and mission of our astronauts.”

Two other astronauts, Peggy Whitson, who served on the ISS from June 7 to Nov. 25, 2002, and Mike Fincke, who served from April 21 to Oct. 23, 2004, testified in person before the subcommittee.

To read more about the history-making testimony, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/vision/space/features/exp_11_testimony.html.

Back to the index.


III. Teaching Toolbox

Japan-trepreneur
OSAKA, JAPAN—Eighteen students, ages 22 to 71, have become Japan's first class of "engineering entrepreneur” majors, at an unusual program launched last spring at Osaka Sangyo University (OSU). Japanese engineering schools have been adopting more real-world and engaging elements such as project-based learning and internships. The two-year OSU entrepreneur program marks perhaps the most radical renunciation of conventional classroom learning in this country. Students are divided into teams of three, assigned specialist instructors, and shepherded as they try to convert paper ideas into profitable products. Classrooms are kept open holidays, weekends, and late nights.

The program manifesto reads like a page from Dale Carnegie, calling for strong self-reliance, grasping customer needs and translating these accurately into designs, teamwork, mastering the basics of patents, protecting intellectual property, and obtaining venture funding.

The new program is not meant only for turning out entrepreneurs. It is meant also to bolster the fortunes of the surrounding Osaka industrial region, famed for its history of craftsmanship but lately fallen on hard times. The focus will be on low-tech, high-value-added products, says OSU program faculty member Osamu Yamada. “IT, nanotech, and biotech require too much startup capital. When it’s make-or-break on thin capitalization, low-tech is the way to go. Companies in eastern Osaka have unique know-how. It’s vital that we partner with them. We need to sell products that others can’t make. I want our entrepreneur students to firmly grasp this.”

In 2000, OSU became the first university in Japan to set up its own venture business, after Yamada’s lab developed and began marketing a new porous ceramic material with potential uses ranging from medicine to space technology. Plenty of other ideas are waiting to be hatched in the university lab, OSU proclaims.

Branching Out
Every year, 30 to 40 students transfer from Purdue University’s schools of engineering to its school of science. Although interested in engineering, many of these students want to teach, and there are no programs in the engineering schools to prepare them for teaching. The school of science, however, trains students to teach in elementary and high school.

And it isn’t just at Purdue that engineering students are switching to disciplines better suited to their needs. Engineering programs have very little room in their curriculums for students to explore, a fact that discourages some students who would make good engineers from even considering it as a career.

To read the full article, visit: www.prism-magazine.org/oct04/tt_branching_out.htm.

Back to the index.


IV. Feature Articles

East Side Story
By Thomas K. Grose

When Carmen Boje was earning her master’s in electronics and telecommunications engineering in the mid-80s at the Polytechnic University of Bucharest in Romania, her thesis was a study of the efficiency of data transmission, using the Mathematical Queues Theory and computer simulation. Trouble was, there was only one outdated, slow mainframe computer available for her to use, and—speaking of queues—she had to line up for hours to use it. Of course, that was well before the PC revolution was fully underway. But fast forward to 1992. Boje was an assistant lecturer at her alma mater, teaching a course in Microcomputer Hardware, Software, and Troubleshooting. Not the easiest thing to do, given the circumstances. “There was only one PC—in the dean’s office—for the use of the entire faculty,” she laments. No wonder Boje soon fled to Italy and, eventually, to the United States.

Today, she’s an assistant professor in the computer technology department at Indiana University/Purdue University Indianapolis. Back at the Bucharest Polytechnic, however, things have not greatly improved in the dozen years since Boje made her exit. One of her former professors, Nicolae-George Dragulanescu, reports that while there are now more PCs available to academics, they are woefully out of date. “At Romanian state-funded universities . . . the best existing computing platforms are still based on Pentium I (processors).”

To read the rest of this story, visit www.prism-magazine.org/oct04/feature_east_side_story.htm.

                                                                                                                       True Grit
By Mary Lord

It’s a blistering summer morning. But climate control remains far from the minds of the young Denver-area teens, minorities, girls, and low-income youngsters. They happily huddle in a cramped classroom, brainstorming cool features for the remote-controlled model “green” houses they must then construct. One group dismisses doorbells (“too boring!”) in favor of an automatic doggy door. Others envision escalators, hot tubs, even a disco ball. Rock music wafts from a corner. This is engineering education?

The intense woman with piercing blue eyes surveying this creative cacophony clearly thinks so. Distinguished only by a nametag, “Jackie” moves from bench to bench, prodding imaginations toward solar panels and energy conservation. “What uses a lot of power in a house—365 days a year?” she asks three boys designing a Hawaiian mansion. “Bingo! Hot water.”

The students, ninth graders in the Denver School of Science and Technology’s inaugural class, don’t know this unassuming University of Colorado-Boulder professor helped launch their new charter school or pushed to ensure enrollment of underserved populations. They don’t realize this weeklong “Creative Engineering” workshop is just one of many such outreach initiatives she coordinates to get kids jazzed about engineering. Nor do they have a clue about her business and academic accomplishments, which include nine years as the top woman on the technical side of EDS.

To read the rest of this story, visit www.prism-magazine.org/oct04/feature_true_grit.htm.

Back to the index.

V. Fellowship Programs

2006 Air Force Summer Faculty Fellowship Program

The application to the 2006 Air Force Summer Faculty Fellowship Program is now open!

The closing deadline is November 1, 2005, and the reference letter deadline is November 8, 2005.

The Air Force Office of Scientific Research Summer Faculty Fellowship Program (SFFP) promotes communication between research faculty and Air Force research scientists and engineers.  The SFFP provides an opportunity for hands-on exposure to Air Force research challenges through eight to twelve week research residencies at participating facilities for full-time science and engineering faculty at U.S. colleges and universities.

The Air Force SFFP offers a competitive stipend, relocation allowance, and a daily expense allowance for those who qualify.

Potential fellows are strongly encouraged to contact an advisor at one of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Directorates, the U.S. Air Force Academy, or the Air Force Institute of Technology to discuss their proposed research topic prior to applying to the program.  A list of advisors can be found at http://www.asee.org/sffp/mentor.cfm.

To apply today, go to http://asee.org/applysffp/.

If you have questions regarding this program, please contact us at sffp@asee.org.

Office of Naval Research Summer Faculty Research Program

The Application for the Office of Naval Research Summer Faculty Research Program will be open from September 1 – December 1, 2005.

The Office of Naval Research sponsors the Summer Faculty Research Program for U.S. citizens who hold teaching or research appointments at U.S. colleges and universities. These programs provide an opportunity for science and engineering faculty members to participate in research of mutual interest to the faculty member and professional peers at U.S. Navy laboratories.

The Summer Faculty Research Program is a 10‑week program, beginning in May 2006. Stipends range from $1400 to $1900 per week for the summer program. Each fellow will be reimbursed for his/her personal travel for an optional pre‑program visit to the sponsoring laboratory. Relocation assistance is provided to qualifying fellows.

The program is residential and all work must be completed on‑site at the sponsoring U.S. Navy laboratory. Faculty members from Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Minority Institutions, American Indian Tribal Colleges and Universities, and Hispanic Serving Institutions (HBCU/MI/TCU/HIS), as designated by the U.S. Department of Education, are especially encouraged to apply.

The Application deadline for the 2006 Summer Faculty Research Program is December 1, 2005.

To apply online, go to http://www.asee.org/summer

The National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship Program (NDSEG)

The fellowship program is sponsored by the Army Research Office, Office of Naval Research, Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the DoD High Performance Computing Modernization Program This program is intended for U.S. citizens at or near the beginning of their graduate studies in science and/or engineering programs. The fellowships are for three year tenures. The stipends begin at $30,500 for first year fellows, $31,000 for second year fellows, and $31,500 for third year fellows. Full tuition and fees and a health insurance allowance are included as part of the program. The application deadline is January 6, 2006.  Go to: http://www.asee.org/ndseg for applications and detailed program information.

The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Postdoctoral Fellowship Program

This program is open to U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents and offers a competitive stipend as well as insurance, relocation, and travel allowances.  This program offers one to three year postdoctoral fellowships designed to increase the involvement of scientists and engineers from academia and industry to scientific and technical areas of interest and relevance to the Navy.  This program has a rolling admission.  Go to: http://www.asee.org/nrl to learn more about the program.


Back to the index.

4th ASEE/AaeE Global Colloquium

ASEE, partnering with the Australasian Association for Engineering Education (AaeE), will hold the 4th Global Colloquium on Engineering Education in Sydney, Australia, from September 26-30, 2005. The colloquium will have the following themes: globalization of engineering education, the K-12 pipeline, and the transformations of the disciplines. It will provide an excellent opportunity for international leaders and policy makers from industry, academe, and government to gather and discuss the major challenges in preparation for the next generation of engineering innovators. For more information, visit www.gcee2005.com.

Connections is brought to you by the American Society for Engineering Education.

Over 12,000 engineering and engineering technology faculty members and administrators enjoy the many benefits and services that ASEE offers. The Society's award-winning magazine ASEE Prism and academic publications (Journal of Engineering Education and Profiles of Engineering Colleges) keep members up to date with the best and latest in engineering education, engineering research trends, and academic issues, while 47 professional interest groups and a varied selection of meetings provide professional development and networking opportunities that no other society can offer within the engineering education community. Members also receive reduced rates at local and national conferences, discounts on ASEE products, money-saving members-only discounts on financial, insurance, and travel programs, plus an ever growing variety of online services. Our goal is to focus on issues that matter the most to you in our publications, meetings, and on-line services, and to enable you to interact with others who share your specific engineering and educational interests. To join online, just go to www.asee.org/members, or contact our member services department at 202-331-3520 for further information.

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