Engineering Commons^™

Freeze-Drying Silica Based Aerogels Using Cryoprotectants And Eutectic Solvent Mixtures, Alyssa R. Bass, Shane Peng, Jeffrey Youngblood

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Silica based aerogels have unique properties, including good thermal insulation and convective inhibition. A sol-gel process can be used to produce semi-opaque, monolithic gels, which can then be dried to produce aerogels. Multiple drying methods are available industrially, however, these methods require high temperatures and pressures, specialized equipment, and are time consuming. This project aims to experimentally study the possibility of a new method for drying wet gels through a freeze-drying process, with the use of cryoprotectants, eutectics, and polymers to inhibit and control ice formation and growth during drying. Silica wet gels were produced using tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS), ethanol, water, …

Entropy Minimization Design Approach Of Supersonic Internal Passages, Jorge Sousa, Guillermo Paniagua

School of Aeronautics and Astronautics Faculty Publications

Fluid machinery operating in the supersonic regime unveil avenues towards more compact technology. However, internal supersonic flows are associated with high aerodynamic and thermal penalties, which usually prevent their practical implementation. Indeed, both shock losses and the limited operational range represent particular challenges to aerodynamic designers that should be taken into account at the initial phase of the design process. This paper presents a design methodology for supersonic passages based on direct evaluations of the velocity field using the method of characteristics and computation of entropy generation across shock waves. This meshless function evaluation tool is then coupled to an …

Lignopolymers As Viscosity-Reducing Additives In Magnesium Oxide Suspensions, Lisa R. Murray, Chetali Gupta, Newell R. Washburn, Kendra Erk

School of Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Lignopolymers are a new class of polymer additives with the capability to be used as dispersants in cementitious pastes. Made with kraft lignin cores and grafted polymer side- chains, the custom-synthesized lignopolymers were examined in terms of the molecular architecture for viscosity reducing potential in inert model suspensions. Lignin-poly(acrylic acid) (LPAA) and lignin-polyacrylamide (LPAm) have been found to vary the rheology of magnesium oxide (MgO) suspensions based on differences in chain architecture and particle- polymer interactions. A commercial comb-polymer polycarboxylate ester was compared to LPAA and LPAm at 2.7 mg/mL, a typical dosage for cement admixtures, as well as 0.25 …

Platinum-Bismuth Bimetallic Catalysts: Synthesis, Characterization And Applications, Jose A. Saucedo Jr, Yang Xiao, Arvind Varma

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Bimetallic catalysts have been explored and shown to exhibit unique characteristics which are not present in monometallic catalysts. Platinum is well known as an effective catalyst for oxidation and reduction reactions, and it can be made more effective when bismuth is introduced as a promotor. Thus, the effectiveness of the Pt-Bi catalyst was demonstrated in prior work. What is not clear, however, is the mechanism behind the catalyst function; why addition of bismuth to platinum decreases deactivation and increases selectivity, and how effective would the Pt-Bi catalyst be in deoxygenation reactions? In this work, the effectiveness of different variations of …

A Developmental Model Of Research Mentoring, Renata A. Revelo, Michael Loui

School of Engineering Education Faculty Publications

We studied mentoring relationships between undergraduate and graduate students in a summer undergraduate research program, over three years. Using a grounded theory approach, we created a model of research mentoring that describes how the roles of the mentor and the student can change. Whereas previous models of research mentoring ignored student roles and treated mentor roles as static, our model focuses on the development of the mentoring relationship over time. Our model explains how conflicts can occur if the mentor role does not match the maturity level of the student.

Identifying Sources Of Information That Students Use In Deciding Which Engineering Major To Pursue, Héctor E. Rodríguez-Simmonds, Juan D. Ortega-Alvarez, S. Zahra Atiq, Stephen R. Hoffmann

School of Engineering Education Graduate Student Series

This study explores the sources of information that first year engineering students use to decide which engineering major to pursue for their undergraduate studies. The purposes of this study are twofold: (1) to understand how students make an informed decision of which engineering major to pursue and (2) to help the First Year Engineering (FYE) program administration improve the informational resources they provide the students. This study was framed within the FYE population of a large Midwestern university and was commissioned by the FYE program.

FYE administration conducts regular student surveys for feedback and improvement purposes. We analyzed different survey …

Mathematics As A Gatekeeper To Engineering: Preliminary Findings From The Interview Data, Delean Tolbert, Monica Cardella

School of Engineering Education Graduate Student Series

Mathematics as a Gatekeeper to Engineering: Preliminary Findings from the Interview DataResearch suggests that students’ pre-college experience may support or hinder future success inengineering. The experiences that students have had with engineering may shape their perceptionof engineering curriculum at the college level. It may also cause cognitive and learningdissonance, when the ways that a student engaged with engineering activities at the pre-collegelevel do not align with the student’s experiences in the engineering classroom. At a largeMidwestern University with a unique first-year engineering program, first-year engineering andsenior mathematics, engineering, and design students were invited to participate in an openended design task. …

Academic Outcomes Of Cooperative Education Participation, Nichole Ramirez, Joyce Main, Matthew Ohland

School of Engineering Education Graduate Student Series

Academic Outcomes of Cooperative Education ParticipationOutcomes and benefits of cooperative education (co-op) participation have been welldocumented; however, they have focused primarily on grade point averages (GPA) and careeroutcomes. Previous work on predictors of participation shows no significant differences bygender in the aggregate, but there are significant differences by ethnicity and major. Women inMechanical Engineering and Aerospace Engineering (especially Hispanic women) persist athigher rates than men, possibly indicating that gender becomes significant in academicoutcomes. One reason students may not participate in co-op is the perception of increased time tograduation; however, other benefits may outweigh that. This research furthers the literature byexamining …

Optimizing Student Team Skill Development Using Evidence-Based Strategies—Nsf Award 1431694, Matthew Ohland, Misty Loughry, David J. Woehr, Richard Layton, Daniel Ferguson

School of Engineering Education Faculty Publications

Optimizing Student Team Skill Development using Evidence‐Based Strategies NSF Award 1431694 The broad goal of this work is to study the effectiveness of various teamwork training interventions. This research requires the use of a common model of teamwork and a system for training, collecting ratings data, and providing feedback. We will leverage the NSF’s prior investment in the CATME system, which meets the research criteria and automates some of the data collection and feedback, which will aid in executing the research protocol consistently. Seven empirical studies will determine the effect sizes of training, practice in teams, practice rating, and feedback …

Tensions Of Integration In Professional Formation: Investigating Development Of Engineering Students' Social And Technical Perceptions, James L. Huff, Brent Jesiek, W. C. Oakes, Carla B. Zoltowski, Kavitha D. Ramane, William Graziano

School of Engineering Education Faculty Publications

Tensions of Integration in Professional Formation: Investigating Development of Engineering Students' Social and Technical PerceptionsTwenty-first century engineers face incredible challenges and opportunities, many of which aresocially complex, transcending the traditional “technical” boundaries of engineering. Thetechnology produced by engineers must not only function as predicted by mathematical andtheoretical models but must also operate beneficially and seamlessly in complex social contexts.In this sense, engineers must embody an integrated social and technical – or sociotechnical –identity rather than a dualistic social/technical one.A growing body of scholarship has discussed how dominant cultures of engineering shapestudents’ and professionals’ understandings of social and technical dimensions of …

Identifying Key Factors Of Engineering Innovativeness, Kathryn Jabloklow, Senay Purzer, Daniel Ferguson, Matthew Ohland, Jessica Menold

School of Engineering Education Faculty Publications

Identifying key factors of engineering innovativenessSignificant resources are spent nationally and locally to foster innovation, yet limited research exists onthe personal characteristics of innovators, especially those found in engineering. This three-yearcollaborative research project, currently in its second year, has led to the identification of specificattributes associated with engineering innovators, with the potential to inform a broad range of people,from engineering students to engineering educators to practicing engineers and their managers. Throughthis project, we have developed a socially constructed set of key engineering innovativenesscharacteristics based on the views of a diverse group of engineering innovation experts. We have alsodetermined which characteristics …

Large-Scale Research On Engineering Design In Secondary Classrooms: Big Learner Data Using Energy3d Computer-Aided Design, Senay Purzer, Robin Adams, Molly Goldstein, K. Anna Douglas

School of Engineering Education Faculty Publications

Large-scale Research on Engineering Design in Secondary Classrooms: Big Learner Data Using Energy3D Computer-Aided Design Through a five-year collaborative project, the Concord Consortium and PurdueUniversity are applying a data-intensive approach to study one of the most fundamental researchtopics in learning sciences: “How do secondary students learn and apply science concepts inengineering design processes?” We have collected more 2GB of structured data from secondaryschool students in Indiana and Massachusetts through automatic, unobtrusive logging of studentdesign processes enabled by a unique CAD tool that supports the design of energy-efficientbuildings using Earth science and physical science concepts. Data includes fine-grainedinformation of student actions, …

Exploring Military Veteran Students’ Pathways In Engineering Education, Joyce Main, Catherine Brawner, Susan M. Lord, Catherine Mobley, Michelle Camacho

School of Engineering Education Faculty Publications

Military Veteran Students’ Pathways in Engineering Education (Year 1: Award# 1428646)Military veterans hold tremendous promise for expanding and diversifying the engineeringworkforce. Given the diverse backgrounds of veterans, their increasing numbers, and thegrowing national demand for engineering professionals, the timing is ideal to study theconditions under which student veterans pursue engineering education and the factors that offerthem the greatest support for success. Increasing the participation of veterans in engineeringoffers the possibility of enhancing engineering’s diversity in many needed dimensions since,compared to civilian students, veterans are more likely to be older, first-generation collegestudents, disabled, African American, or Latino. Yet, little is known …

Factors Associated With Student Participation In Cooperative Education Programs (Co-Ops), Joyce Main, Matthew Ohland, Nichole Ramirez, Trina L. Fletcher, Jake Davis

School of Engineering Education Faculty Publications

Factors that Influence Student Participation in Co-OpsA cooperative education program (co-op) in engineering is a partnership between an academicinstitution and an employer designed to engage students in practical engineering experiencethrough rotations of full-time employment and course study. Co-op employment providesstudents with discipline-relevant professional experience, financial support, and early entry intothe engineering labor force while serving as a recruitment tool for co-op companies. Using asequential mixed-methods approach, this research aims to identify factors that influence studentaccess to and participation in cooperative education programs.The quantitative analysis of co-op participation uses comprehensive, longitudinal academicstudent records from six partner institutions that comprise the Multiple-Institution …

Developing And Advancing A Cyberinfrastructure To Gain Insights Into Research Investments: An Organizing Research Framework, Ann Mckenna, Jeremi London, Aditya Johri, Mihaela Vorvoreanu, [email protected] Krishna Madhavan

School of Engineering Education Faculty Publications

Developing and Advancing a Cyberinfrastructure to Gain Insights into Research Investments: An Organizing Research Framework Although the National Science Foundation (NSF) funds approximately 24% of basic research conducted in America’s colleges and universities (NSF), there is little we know about how NSF-­‐funding decisions have resulted in the current research landscape. This gap was the impetus for a project –Deep Insights Anytime, Anywhere (DIA2)— that begins to address this problem by focusing on NSF investments in undergraduate STEM education research, and how education innovations make an impact and diffuse throughout the STEM education community. The project team has designed an information …

Evidence Of Students’ Engineering Learning In An Elementary Classroom, Kristina Tank, Tamara Moore, Bunmi Babajide, Anastasia M Rynearson

School of Engineering Education Faculty Publications

Evidence of Students’ Engineering Learning in an Elementary Classroom Over the past decade there has been an increased emphasis on improving the teaching andlearning of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines.With the publication of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in 2013, whichcall for the integration of science and engineering concepts and practices in K-12classrooms, there has also been an increased emphasis on engineering education at the K-12 level. However, given that engineering integration at the elementary level is stillrelatively recent, there is a need for research in the area of engineering education toexamine how these national documents and …

Informal Pathways To Engineering: Interim Findings From A Longitudinal Study, Christine Paulsen, Monica Cardella, Tamecia Jones, Marisa Wolsky

School of Engineering Education Faculty Publications

Informal Pathways to Engineering: Interim Findings This study, based on social cognitive career theory, seeks to investigate the effect of informal, out­of­school activities, as well as other factors (self­efficacy, outcome expectations, and personal interests, and intrapersonal factors) on students’ interest in engineering and decisions to engage in engineering­related activities. The study uses a longitudinal design in which children, parents, and educators (classroom teachers, school principals, and informal educators) are interviewed and surveyed over a period of three years (corresponding with the middle school years). Thirty families from Massachusetts and 30 families from Indiana were enrolled in the study in Year …

The Rapid Adoption Of Smarter Teamwork Tools: The System For Management, Assessment, Research, Training, Education, And Remediation For Teamwork, Matthew Ohland, Misty Loughry, Richard Layton, David Jonathan Woehr, Daniel Ferguson

School of Engineering Education Faculty Publications

The Rapid Adoption of SMARTER Teamwork Tools: the System for Management, Assessment, Research, Training, Education, and Remediation for TeamworkThe rapid adoption of Team-Maker and the Comprehensive Assessment of Team MemberEffectiveness (CATME) tools for team formation and peer evaluation make it possible to extendtheir success to have a significant impact on the development of team skills in higher education.As of October 19, 2014, the web-based systems have been used by more than 300,000 studentsof more than 6000 faculty at more than 1100 institutions in 59 countries—the figure belowshows the growth of the user base at the end of September.This paper and …

Experiential Learning: Student Participation And Future Engagement, Twila Ortiz, Beth M. Holloway, Michael Harris, Andrea Pluckebaum, Leah H. Jamieson

School of Engineering Education Faculty Publications

Experiential Learning: Understanding our Students’ PerspectivesIn 2014, the Gallup-Purdue Index Report examined the relationship between certain collegiateexperiences and workplace engagement. It found that experiences or experiential learningopportunities such as participating in a co-op program, internship or working on projects thatdeveloped over one semester more deeply affect the level of a graduate’s workplace engagementand therefore productivity and overall well-being. While it is apparent how importantexperiential learning can be to the future success and well-being of students, it is more difficultto measure all of the activities that can be labeled as experiential learning and to define whatconstitutes a meaningful experiential learning opportunity.This …

Understanding Diverse Pathways: Disciplinary Trajectories Of Engineering Students: Year 3- Nsf Ree Grant 1129383, Susan M. Lord, Matthew Ohland, Richard Layton

School of Engineering Education Faculty Publications

Engineering as a whole continues to suffer from a low participation of women of all races andBlack, Hispanic, and Native American men. To diversify pathways for students to and throughengineering and to improve student success, we must first know how to measure success andprovide baseline data describing the current situation for all students. Our previous work hasshown that persistence or success varies by race and gender, and how we measure persistencematters in understanding this variation. Once women matriculate in engineering, they graduate insix-years at the same or better rates than their male counterparts of all races. This finding,however, shows considerable …

Characterizing And Modeling The Experience Of Transfer Students In Engineering—Progress On Nsf Award 0969474, Matthew Ohland, Clemencia M. Cosentino, Catherine E. Brawner, Catherine Mobley, Russell A. Long

School of Engineering Education Faculty Publications

Characterizing and Modeling the Experience of Transfer Students in Engineering— Progress on NSF Award 0969474Quantitative analysis of MIDFIELD databaseOur analysis used records for 94,732 undergraduate students from the Multiple-InstitutionDatabase for Investigating Engineering Longitudinal Development (MIDFIELD). MIDFIELDcomprises a census of undergraduate students who attended 11 public institutions between 1988and 2008. MIDFIELD institutions represent public universities that educate large numbers ofengineering students.From the 977,950 records available, we restricted our sample to those who (1) were domesticstudents (927,350), (2) were in the data set early enough for us to observe the possibility ofgraduation within six years (677,691), and (3) declared a major in …

Engineering Pathways Of Nontraditional Students—An Update On Nsf Award 1361058, Jaqi Mcneil, Matthew Ohland, Russell Long

School of Engineering Education Faculty Publications

Engineering Pathways of Nontraditional Students—an Update on NSF Award 1361058 A large‐scale longitudinal study of nontraditional engineering students has provided descriptive information about the access, pathways, and success of nontraditional engineering students. Nontraditional students hold the potential to increase not only the number of engineering students, but also the diversity of the engineering student body. This descriptive study laid the groundwork for a larger study of nontraditional student pathways. The study of nontraditional student pathways will reveal patterns in how nontraditional students choose majors, how they migrate, and where they succeed. This study uses the Multiple‐Institution Database for Investigating Engineering …

Measuring The Effects Of Pre-College Engineering Experiences, Year 2, Noah Salzman, Matthew Ohland, Monica Cardella

School of Engineering Education Faculty Publications

Measuring the Effects of Pre-College Engineering ExperiencesThe implementation of co-curricular and extracurricular pre-college engineering programs hasexpanded dramatically in recent years. Many states now include engineering as part of theireducation standards for both students and teachers, reflecting the increasing acceptance ofengineering at the K-12 level and its potential value to students. In addition to promotingoutcomes that benefit all students regardless of career aspirations such as increased math andscience achievement and greater technological literacy, K-12 engineering programs have beenidentified as a means of recruiting and retaining potential students in engineering.The growth of pre-college engineering programs means that increasing numbers of incomingengineering students …

Understanding The Communicative And Social Processes Of Engineering Ethics In Diverse Design Teams, Carla B Zoltowski, Patrice Buzzanell, William Charles Oakes, Megan Feister, David Torres

School of Engineering Education Faculty Publications

Understanding the Communicative and Social Processes of Engineering Ethics in Diverse Design Teams As engineering, and specifically engineering design, is increasingly understood to be asocial activity, engineering education’s understanding of ethics needs to reflect this developingawareness. Within engineering and design teams, engineering educators are concerned not onlywith how individual students develop ethically, but also how everyday ethical decision-makingemerges during team interactions and becomes integrated in design solutions. The everydayethics approach calls on engineering educators and students to pay closer attention to the natureof design, how values are embedded in design through micro decision-making processes, andhow these values are reintegrated into …

The Effects Of Aircraft Certification Rules On General Aviation Accidents, Carolina L. Anderson

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

The purpose of this study was to analyze the frequency of general aviation (GA) airplane accidents and accident rates on the basis of aircraft certification to determine whether or not differences in aircraft certification rules had an influence on accidents. In addition, the narrative cause descriptions contained within the accident reports were analyzed to determine whether there were differences in the qualitative data for the different certification categories. The certification categories examined were: Federal Aviation Regulations Part 23 (Part 23), Civil Air Regulations 3 (CAR 3), Light Sport Aircraft (LSA), and Experimental-Amateur Built (E-AB). The accident causes examined were those …

Critical Thinking: Is That Going To Be On Test, E Shirl Donaldson, Anne M. Lucietto

School of Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

The current generation of college students is a result of the “No Child Left Behind Act”. Educators at the university level are seeing the unintended result of high stakes testing in student attitudes towards learning and study. The K– 12 educational system in the US focuses on mastering tests and accruing points in a course, most often “teaching to the test.” These tests are standardized and critical to promotion and later acceptance into college. It is this activity that provides a basis for student perception of how learning and assessment take place. When these students are challenged with higher order …

Writing Proficiency In Engineering Technology Students And Skill Development In The Classroom, Anne M. Lucietto, Nichiole Ramirez

School of Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

Little work has been done to understand the engineering technology student. The work that has been done often incorporates engineering technology students into the larger number of engineering students. This masks information that would be helpful in guiding and working with engineering technology students. While this is important, work to further understand these students, we chose to begin by exploring the writing skills of the engineering technology student, developing on other work done in this area. The work place demands the ability to convey thoughts and concepts; however the academic environment is not consistent in the development of writing proficiency. …

How Professional Society Membership Is Affected By Returning Student Status, Anne M. Lucietto, Diane L. Peters

School of Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

In recent years, several research efforts have aimed to understand the issues surrounding engineering professionals returning to the academic environment for graduate degrees in engineering. This research focuses on a variety of issues: why they return, what they hope to do afterwards, and what their experiences are in the academic environment. While those are important issues, interaction with professional societies while in the workplace and pursuing graduate work are also of concern. Many engineering professionals, both in industry and in academia, value activities with these organizations while advancing in membership levels as they advance through their careers. Advancement may be …

Image Segmentation Using Fuzzy-Spatial Taxon Cut, Lauren Barghout

MODVIS Workshop

Images convey multiple meanings that depend on the context in which the viewer perceptually organizes the scene. This presents a problem for automated image segmentation, because it adds uncertainty to the process of selecting which objects to include or not include within a segment. I’ll discuss the implementation of a fuzzy-logic-natural-vision-processing engine that solves this problem by assuming the scene architecture prior to processing. The scene architecture, a standardized natural-scene-perception-taxonomy comprised of a hierarchy of nested spatial-taxons. Spatial-taxons are regions (pixel-sets) that are figure-like, in that they are perceived as having a contour, are either `thing-like', or a `group of …

Two Correspondence Problems Easier Than One, Aaron Michaux, Zygmunt Pizlo

MODVIS Workshop

Computer vision research rarely makes use of symmetry in stereo reconstruction despite its established importance in perceptual psychology. Such stereo reconstructions produce visually satisfying figures with precisely located points and lines, even when input images have low or moderate resolution. However, because few invariants exist, there are no known general approaches to solving symmetry correspondence on real images. The problem is significantly easier when combined with the binocular correspondence problem, because each correspondence problem provides strong non-overlapping constraints on the solution space. We demonstrate a system that leverages these constraints to produce accurate stereo models from pairs of binocular images …