Sophomore Year In Civil And Environmental Engineering At Rowan University: Integration Of Communication, Mechanics And Design
- Conference
- Location
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Honolulu, Hawaii
- Publication Date
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June 24, 2007
- Start Date
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June 24, 2007
- End Date
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June 27, 2007
- ISSN
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2153-5965
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Civil Engineering
- Page Count
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15
- Page Numbers
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12.1290.1 - 12.1290.15
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--2151
- Permanent URL
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https://strategy.asee.org/2151
- Download Count
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393
Paper Authors
William Riddell Rowan University
William Riddell is an Assistant Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rowan University. His research interests include design education, fatigue and fracture mechanics, transportation safety, and enegy efficiency. He is currently sophomore clinic coordinator for the college of engineering.
Eric Constans Rowan University
Eric Constans is an Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering at Rowan University. His areas of interest include developing innovative techniques in engineering education and engineering curricular reform. His research areas include vibration and optimization techniques. In 2005 he was the recipient of the Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award from the Society of Automotive Engineers.
Kevin Dahm Rowan University
Kevin Dahm is an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at Rowan University. He has received the 2002 ASEE PIC-III Award, 2003 Joseph J. Martin Award, 2004 Raymond W. Fahien Award and 2005 Corcoran Award for his contributions to engineering education.
Jennifer Courtney Rowan University
Jennifer Courtney is an Assistant Professor in the Writing Arts department at Rowan University, where she teaches first year writing, College Composition II/Sophomore Clinic, and courses on writing assessment. Her research interests include writing in the disciplines (WID), assessment, and information literacy.
Roberta Harvey Rowan University
Roberta Harvey is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Writing Arts at Rowan University. She has been part of the faculty team that teaches Sophomore Clinic I since 1998 and played a key role in the development of the integrated design and communication pedagogy of the course. In addition to engineering communication, her areas of interest and expertise include interdisciplinary learning, collaborative learning and teamwork, meta-cognitive learning, information literacy, and student learning outcomes assessment.
Peter Mark Jansson Rowan University
Peter Mark Jansson is Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rowan University. He is a Senior Member of the Instrumentation and Measurement Society and the Power Engineering Society of IEEE. He is the IEEE Student Branch Counselor at Rowan. His research includes green power engineering and the design of renewable power systems. He received a PhD from the University of Cambridge, MSE from Rowan University and a BSCE from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Paris von Lockette Rowan University
Paris von Locketter is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Rowan University. He recieved his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1999. His interests include the physics or polymers and numerical / computational methods in materials science.
Abstract
NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract
SOPHOMORE YEAR IN CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING AT ROWAN UNIVERSITY: INTEGRATION OF COMMUNICATION, MECHANICS AND DESIGN
Abstract
Engineering clinics are a sequence of project-based learning (PBL) courses taken every semester by all engineering students at Rowan University. The purpose of these courses is to prepare students for aspects of engineering practice, such as solving open-ended problems and contributing to multi-disciplinary teams, which are difficult to teach via traditional blackboard courses. The two four-credit clinics offered during sophomore year (one each semester) have a specific focus on design and communication and are team taught by Engineering and Communication faculty. In these courses, students design teams work on a series of three increasingly complex design projects. This paper describes the sequence of design projects and highlights the integration of communication, and the reinforcement of concepts from traditional mechanics courses (statics, dynamics and solid mechanics) that the students also take during sophomore year. Available assessment data, as well as some ongoing challenges in running multi- disciplinary, PBL-based design courses are discussed.
Introduction
In 2005, Friedman published The World is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century, where he describes the rapidly changing and highly competitive marketplace that exists today1. Friedman makes a strong case for the need to better prepare for this marketplace. However, the engineering and engineering education communities were aware of Friedman’s “Flat World” well before the book was published. In the 1990’s, it had been observed that engineering graduates needed improvement in real-world skills such as design, teamwork, and communication, as well as a better understanding of how engineering projects fit into bigger pictures2,3. These skills are significantly different from the analytical capabilities that had been traditionally emphasized by engineering curriculum4. The dichotomy between the needs of industry and the emphasis of engineering curriculum led to implementation of the ABET 2000 A-K criteria5, which require engineering programs to address many of the real-world needs that have since been identified by Friedman. The new ABET criteria are leading to increased significance of communication and multidisciplinary design in engineering curriculum throughout the United States.
The College of Engineering at Rowan University6, which graduated its first class in 2000, offers Chemical (ChE), Civil and Environmental (CEE), Electrical and Computer (ECE) and Mechanical (ME) Engineering majors. The hallmark of the engineering program at Rowan University is the multi-disciplinary and project-based engineering clinics sequence7 which covers all eight semesters of the student’s undergraduate curriculum. A typical blackboard and textbook course can be very effective as teaching problem solving
Riddell, W., & Constans, E., & Dahm, K., & Courtney, J., & Harvey, R., & Jansson, P. M., & von Lockette, P. (2007, June), Sophomore Year In Civil And Environmental Engineering At Rowan University: Integration Of Communication, Mechanics And Design Paper presented at 2007 Annual Conference & Exposition, Honolulu, Hawaii. 10.18260/1-2--2151
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