Connections - A Newsletter for Engineering Education

January 2007

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

Spotlight On Our Sponsors:

NI LabVIEW Toolkit for LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT Now Available

LabVIEW users now can create and download VIs to operate and control the NXT robotics system using the LabVIEW Toolkit for LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT.
Learn more and download the toolkit today.



Baker Hughes

For nearly 100 years, Baker Hughes has been a technology leader in providing products and services for the oil and natural gas industry. Our success has been driven by technology innovation, and our company is a great place to advance your career.  Visit here.

NAE 2007 Bernard M. Gordon Prize Winners

For their joint efforts in developing the Master of Science in Engineering Management (MSEM) Program, a multidisciplinary graduate program, now at Tufts University School of Engineering, Mr. Harold S. Goldberg, Mr. Jerome E. Levy and Dr. Arthur W. Winston have been awarded the National Academy of Engineering 2007 Bernard M. Gordon Prize, given to the educators whose work in higher education encourages the development of engineering leaders.

Learn more




 Free Agilent Tips for USB, LAN and GPIB

Free Agilent Tips and Tricks for Using USB, LAN and GPIB
This 12-page application note provides a variety of tips and tricks that will help you create flexible test systems that can easily incorporate USB, LAN, GPIB and RS-232C. Click here to learn more.

 

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/jee/ to read it online.

It's Time Again to Go For It!

Sponsorships are now available for the 3rd edition of Engineering, Go For It!, to be published in Fall 2007.  From now through May 2, 2007, institutions can sponsor ASEE’s guidebook to engineering for high school students by pre-ordering discounted copies in customized or standard versions.  Sponsors of 5,000 copies or more can customize a version of Engineering, Go For It! by placing artwork promoting their institution on the back cover. Customizing Engineering, Go For It! is a great way to provide effective outreach material to high school students while introducing your institution to them at the same time. Sponsors of 1,000 copies or more will receive a standard edition with an ASEE-produced back cover promoting engineering as an academic and career pathway for high school students.

 

Learn how to sponsor your copies of the 3rd edition at www.engineering-goforit.com. 

 

For more information, contact Kristen Farole, k.farole@asee.org, (202) 350-5752.
 

 

In this Issue:

I. Databytes

  • Biomedical Engineering Degrees Awarded by School, 2005
  • Chemical Engineering Degrees Awarded by School, 2005
  • Industrial/Manufacturing Engineering Degrees Awarded by School, 2005

II. Congressional Hotline

  • Long Term Joint Funding Resolution Likely
  • Federal Research Funding in Decline as Appropriations Stall

III. Teaching Toolbox

  • Let Go of My Legos - Kids are Learning the Fun and Excitement of Engineering From a Familiar Toy

IV. Fellowship Programs

  • Science, Mathematics and Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholarship for Service Program

  • The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Postdoctoral Fellowship Program

  • The Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program (SEAP)

V. Professional Opportunities

  • University of Maryland Department of Mechanical Engineering Risk - Based Design Faculty Position

 

I. Databytes

Biomedical Engineering Degrees Awarded by School
   
1. University of California, San Diego 141
2. Johns Hopkins University 137
3. Duke University  122
4. University of California, Berkeley 117
5. Vanderbilt University 82
6. University of Pennsylvania 78
7. Washington University 73
8. Northwestern University 71
9. Boston University 65
10. Arizona State University 64
11. University of Iowa 63
12. Columbia University 56
13. Rutgers University  55
14. Texas A&M University 50
15. Case Western Reserve University 49
15. Marquette University 49
17. University of Michigan 48
18. Georgia Institute of Technology 45
19. University of Minnesota, Twin Cities 42
20. Drexel University 41
20. University of Miami 41
69 total schools reported  

 

Chemical Engineering Degrees Awarded by School
   
1. Pennsylvania State University 112
2. Georgia Institute of Technology 106
3. University of Texas, Austin 104
4. University of Minnesota, Twin Cities 98
5. North Carolina State University 93
6. Texas A&M University 86
7. University of California, Berkeley 82
7. Purdue University 82
9. Univ. of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez 80
9. University of Wisconsin, Madison 80
11. University of Florida 76
12. University of Michigan 68
13. Michigan Technological University 59
14. Brigham Young University 58
14. Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 58
16. Rose-Hulman Inst. of Technology 55
17. Auburn University 52
17. Ohio State University 52
19. Colorado School of Mines 51
19. SUNY, Buffalo 51
21. University of Colorado, Boulder 50
21. Iowa State University 50
21. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology 50
24. Drexel University 49
24. Louisiana State University 49
26. University of Cincinnati 45
27. Univ. of California, Los Angeles 44
27. Michigan State University 44
29. Virginia Tech 43
30. Cornell University 42
31. Mississippi State University 40
32. University of Delaware 39
32. University of Houston 39
34. University of Kansas 38
34. University of Oklahoma 38
34. University of South Florida 38
34. University of Toledo 38
38. New Mexico State University 37
39. University of Alabama 35
39. University of Arizona 35
39. Lehigh University 35
39. University of Pittsburgh 35
43. University of Missouri, Rolla 34
43. University of Virginia 34
45. Carnegie Mellon University 33
45. Rutgers University  33
45. University of South Carolina 33
48. University of Arkansas 32
48. Univ. of California, Santa Barbara 32
48. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 32
157 total schools reported  

 

Industrial/Manufacturing Engineering Degrees Awarded by School
   
1. Georgia Institute of Technology 272
2. Purdue University 163
3. University of Michigan 162
4. Ohio State University 131
5. Virginia Tech.  104
6. Cornell University 101
7. Pennsylvania State University 99
8. Univ. of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez 77
9. University of Florida 76
10. Northwestern University 74
11. Stanford University 71
12. Columbia University 65
12. North Carolina State University 65
14. University of Wisconsin, Madison 63
15. FAMU-FSU College of Eng. 59
16. Texas A&M University 58
17. Arizona State University 54
18. Lehigh University 53
19. University of California, Berkeley 51
20. California Polytechnic State Univ. 50
21. Oregon State University 49
22. Clemson University 44
22. University of Iowa 44
22. Iowa State University 44
25. University of Washington 43
26. University of Arkansas 42
27. Kansas State University 41
28. Oklahoma State University 36
28. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 36
28. San Jose State University 36
31. University of Houston 35
31. North Carolina A & T State Univ. 35
31. Polytechnic Univ. of Puerto Rico 35
34. Mississippi State University 34
34. University of Pittsburgh 34
36. Lamar University 33
36. University of Texas, El Paso 33
38. University of Central Florida 32
39. Kettering University  31
39. Rochester Institute of Technology 31
41. California State Polytech., Pomona 29
41. University of Southern California 29
41. University of Tennessee, Knoxville 29
44. Rutgers University  28
45. Florida International University 27
45. Miami University 27
47. Louisiana State University 26
47. SUNY, Buffalo 26
49. University of Arizona 25
49. Auburn University 25
49. Texas Tech University 25
113 total schools reported  

 Back to the index.

II. Congressional Hotline

Long Term Joint Funding Resolution Likely

On Monday, December 11, Representative David Obey (D­WI) and Senator Robert Byrd (D­WV), the incoming chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, released a statement announcing their support for legislation that would reduce, eliminate, or keep funding flat for nearly every federal department or agency through September 30, 2007. The Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security, for which the FY 2007 appropriations bills have already been passed and signed into law, are the only departments that will be exempted from this budget crunch.

The announcement by the incoming appropriations chairmen, who will be responsible for drafting the continuing resolution (CR) when the new Congress convenes in January, follows the decision by the 109th Congress to adjourn without passing any appropriations bills besides Defense and Homeland Security. The entire U.S. government, excepting the Defense and Homeland Security Departments, are currently being funded by a continuing resolution which expires February 15.

“After discussions with our colleagues, we have decided to dispose of the Republican budget leftovers by passing a year­long joint resolution. We will do our best to make whatever limited adjustments are possible within the confines of the Republican budget to address the nation’s most important policy concerns,” said the announcement. “There will be no congressional earmarks in the joint funding resolution that we will pass. We will place a moratorium on all earmarks until a reformed process is put in place.”

When asked about the $910 million dollars in funding increases that President Bush requested to fund the American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI) in NSF, the Department of Energy Office of Science, and NIST, Byrd and Obey replied that they “will do [their] best to make whatever limited adjustments are possible within the confines of the Republican budget to address the nation’s most important policy concerns.”

Federal Research Funding in Decline as Appropriations Stall

On December 14, Kei Koizumi of the AAAS put out the December FY 2007 Appropriations update: “Federal Research Funding in Decline as Appropriations Stall. ” Koizumi reports that, according to the current continuing resolution that expires February 15, the federal invest mint in research funding would total $55.2 billion, approaching a 5 percent cut in real dollars, after the 2.0 percent expected allowance for inflation. As a result, the federal investment in basic and applied research will almost certainly fall for the first time in the last three decades.

  Back to the index.

III. Teaching Toolbox

Let Go of my Legos

By Alice Daniel

The eighth-grade Physics by Design class at the Shady Hill School in Cambridge, Mass., has a reputation for being downright fun. But most students don’t refer to it by its conventional title, they just call it Lego. That’s right. Lego. You won’t find students here nodding off to sterile terms in a textbook; instead, they’re elbow-deep in bins of colorful plastic bricks building cars and movable robotic arms. And because they’re learning to program whatever they build with the help of Robolab software and a microcomputer embedded in a Lego brick, they really understand the meaning of torque, velocity and momentum. 

Teacher Barbara Bratzel started offering the Lego class at Shady Hill eight years ago as a way to teach students engineering in addition to science. “It really grabs kids and you can do a lot of serious projects with it,” she says. “Students gain so much confidence in themselves as problem solvers,” and many, who might not have viewed themselves as gifted in math or science, soon discover they have a keen spatial sense or strong building skills. Bratzel, who is one of the country’s Robolab pioneers, loved developing the curriculum for her class so much that she wrote a book called “Physics by Design: Classroom Tested Activities Using Robolab and Lego” (published by College House Books, Nashville, Tenn.).

“Robolab is all icon-based, and the data structures they’re learning are the ones they use if they go on and take programming,” Bratzel says. Students first learn to program simple cars using the microcomputer brick. Because the microcomputer has motors and sensors, a student can learn to make a car spin, follow a curve, go as slow as possible or even navigate an obstacle course. As the year progresses, the class gets more complicated. The final project last spring was to make a sensory-triggered contraption that would take a raw egg out of a nest on a table, carry it safely down to a plate on the floor and then reset itself. If the egg broke, students went back to the drawing board, or in this case, the computer, to figure out what went wrong.

Amelia Piazza, who took the class last year, said she liked the process of learning physics theories and then sifting through bins of Legos to find the right bricks, pulleys or levers for that week’s project. For the egg contraption, she and her lab partner used a pulley, an inclined plane and a touch sensor. “We spent class after class on it, building and looking for errors in the program. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t. One time the entire thing fell off the table and smashed.”

Piazza relates the class to the trials and errors of engineering in this way: “If you think about someone who’s an engineer, they build a machine that will do something. The two of us built this machine that takes an egg from a table to a floor. Say you do that 6,000 times an hour; by speeding it up and making it smaller, that’s a machine that can be used in a factory.”

That degree of comprehension and enthusiasm for engineering among elementary and middle school students is one goal of the Center for Engineering Education Outreach (CEEO) at Tufts University. But inherent in that goal is getting teachers interested in engineering education. “Most elementary teachers don’t have an engineering background,” says CEEO Director Chris Rogers. “It’s easy to show engineering’s a powerful way to teach math and science—it’s harder to convince someone to actually change the way they teach.” With that in mind, Rogers worked with the Lego company and other engineers to create a tool set that would inspire teachers and students. Rogers designed the Robolab software, while engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology created the microprocessor. The tool set is marketed as Lego Mindstorms, but most students just refer to it as Robolab. “It’s great because Lego is so well known. Kids love it and the robotic side makes it come alive,” Rogers says.

Robolab has been translated into 16 languages and is in about 35,000 schools worldwide, more than half of which are in the United States. But Rogers would like to see a systemic change similar to the one in Massachusetts, which requires engineering to be taught in elementary schools. One way of galvanizing teachers to take Lego robotics back to the classroom, he says, is by building a support network: CEEO offers Lego Engineering Conferences for teachers in the summer and a Web site that provides a slew of grade-sensitive curricula. Diverse activities teach first and second graders fractions and decimals, fifth graders fluid mechanics and college kids advanced control theory. “The tool set has virtually no ceiling,” Rogers says.

There’s no doubt that Robolab is a sophisticated product. Rogers created it with the help of a National Instruments programming tool called LabVIEW, which has great relevance in the scientific world. Scientists and engineers use LabVIEW to measure and automate everything from automobiles to the Mars Pathfinder. In 2004, Lego asked National Instruments to develop the next generation of Mindstorms, incorporating even more of LabVIEW’s advanced technology. The new product, called Mindstorms NXT software, is being integrated into schools this year and is compatible with Robolab. The difference is a software interface that is much simpler to program, says Ray Almgren, vice president of National Instruments’ product marketing and academic relations. The result is a younger target age of 8. “We’ve added about two more years to the target age,” Almgren says, and younger kids can easily learn the icon-based drag and drop software. With the new product, Lego gets an industrial-strength product and a tool it can promote as being even more relevant to engineering, he says.

Lego Learning

Certainly, promotion of the product’s relevance to teaching science and engineering is a big part of getting teachers to participate. CEEO has a Student Teacher Outreach Mentorship Program (STOMP) that places undergraduate and graduate engineering students in classrooms to facilitate engineering education. Bill Church, a teacher in Littleton, N.H., was inspired by STOMP and decided to train his high school students in the same capacity. Church had been using Robolab for years in his classes and realized that his students, who could program robots to play soccer, solve mazes or do image analysis with a web camera, could also learn from teaching the program to elementary school teachers. Plus, it was another way to instigate service learning in his small community.

Trying to change the way schools operate is like changing the tire on a car going 65 mph, Church says. In other words, the system is moving. “If teachers are always on the move, there’s no time to pull them out and train them with new ideas,” he says. That’s why it works if mentors come on board and train teachers in the classroom. Teachers are more willing to take a risk and teach Robolab if there’s some continual classroom support, Church says.

Teaching with Lego robotics demands a certain curiosity and enthusiasm for learning. “It’s more than sitting around doing worksheets,” Rogers says. “It is definitely teaching through chaos.” Retired first-grade teacher Sue Ann Kearns agrees. Ten years ago, she took a teacher-training class on Lego engineering at Tufts and initially equated the experience to reading Greek. Even when she began to grasp terms like pressure and torque, they somehow didn’t seem applicable to her first-grade class at Lincoln Elementary School in Lincoln, Mass. “Within two hours of the class, I was lost!” she says. “I couldn’t figure out how I was ever going to integrate this information, much less understand it myself.” But that was before she heeded the advice of Rogers, who told her that first graders were natural engineers and to just let them build.

Despite her early trepidation, Kearns is a strong proponent of Lego in the schools and says she was amazed at what first graders could do. “They would often figure out gear ratios before they were even introduced!” she says. The hands-on activities were ideal for all abilities in the classroom and gave students a chance to work together. “Many of my academically challenged students would shine,” she says. “They could envision what their project was going to look like and could hardly wait to get to work.”

Such a sentiment is not uncommon. Phil Reitz, a technology education teacher at Fuller Middle School in Framingham, Mass., runs a weekly Lego Robotics club for an after-school remediation program. Robolab is user-friendly, he says, allowing students who are at a lower reading level to work with kids who aren’t. Even if a student doesn’t always understand the engineering design process, he can still do some amazing, creative things, Reitz says. One student, for instance, built a Lego arm that could pick up an object. But the arm was big and bulky so Reitz gave the student a newsprint tube and asked him to build an arm that would fit in it. “He got so excited. He had solved this other problem and now he was excited about trying to solve this one,” Reitz says. “And he did it!” Students begin to understand that everything they touch has been engineered. “If a kid’s interested in animals, it doesn’t mean he has to be a vet. He can design the next prosthetic device that will hold up a horse in rehab.” Or, in the case of Reitz’s student, the next prosthetic arm.

It is that notion of succeeding by trial and error, of creating something within certain parameters, that seems to enthrall students. “The great thing about the Lego class,” says former Shady Hill student Amelia Piazza, “is it’s the most hands-on I’ve ever had and hands-on is the best kind of learning in my opinion. It’s the most fun.”

Back to the index.

IV. Fellowship Programs

Graduate and Undergraduate

Science, Mathematics and Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholarship for Service Program. 

This scholarship for service program provides students with a stipend (starting between $22,500 and $38,000), full tuition, health coverage, book allowance of $1000, and other normal educational expenses. The purpose is to promote the education, recruitment and retention of undergraduate and graduate students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) studies. The SMART Scholarship for Service Program is open only to U.S. citizens, and students must be at least 18 years of age to be eligible. There is an employment opportunity with the DoD with this program.  Application deadline is February, 2007. For more information and to apply, go to: http://www.asee.org/smart.

Postdoctoral

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.  The 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.  The program has a rolling admission.  Go to: http://www.asee.org/resources/nrl/ .

High School

The Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program (SEAP). The American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) is now administering SEAP, sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR). SEAP is an eight week summer research opportunity at participating ONR laboratories for high school student who have completed at least grade 9, must be 16 years of age for most Laboratories, and a U.S. citizen. A graduating Senior is eligible to apply. The stipend for the summer program is $1,500 for new students; $1,550 for returning students. The application is currently open and must be completed by January 26, 2007, references are due by February 2, 2007. Go to http://www.asee.org/seap.

 Back to the index.

V. Professional Opportunities

University of Maryland Department of Mechanical Engineering Risk - Based Design Faculty Position

Seeking applications for a tenure-track faculty position at Assistant/Associate Professor in the area of risk-based design of complex systems. Submit your dossier: resume, research and teaching statement, list of four references, and a copy of three publications to: Risk-Based Design Search Committee, Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742-3035. Also sent an electronic copy of dossier in a single PDF file to: rbdsearch@umd.edu. Apply by February 15, 2007 but the position will remain open until filled. Position starts in August, 2007. EEO/AA employer. Women and minorities are encouraged to apply. http://www.enme.umd.edu/

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