Engineering Commons^™

Water Lab Draws Wide Media Coverage | College Of Engineering, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

Reporters, photographers and video journalists converged at the Utah Water Research Lab on June 16 for an up-close view of the lab's latest project.

Establishing Doctoral Programs In Electrical Engineering, Materials Science And Engineering, And Computing In An Emerging Research Institution: Lessons Learned And Best Practices, Janet Callahan, Cheryl B. Schrader, Darryl P. Butt, Timothy Anderson, Tammi Vacha-Hasse, Amy J. Moll

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Over the past decade, three doctoral programs have been launched at Boise State University. The first doctoral program established was in Electrical and Computer Engineering, selected because of the need for a trained workforce in the region. The other two doctoral programs, Materials Science and Engineering, and Computing, were from the start designed as interdisciplinary degree programs. That is, they were designed for the participation of not just program faculty within the division, but for the participation of program faculty with related research interests in other departments at the university. This paper presents the steps taken to launch the programs, …

Calculus Reform: Increasing Stem Retention And Post-Requisite Course Success While Closing The Retention Gap For Women And Underrepresented Minority Students, Doug Bullock, Janet Callahan, Jocelyn B. S. Cullers

Mathematics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Boise State University (BSU) implemented an across-the-board reform of calculus instruction during the 2014 calendar year. The details of the reform, described elsewhere (Bullock, 2015), (Bullock 2016), involve both pedagogical and curricular reform. Gains from the project have included a jump in Calculus I pass rate, greater student engagement, greater instructor satisfaction, a shift toward active learning pedagogies, and the emergence of a strong collaborative teaching community. This paper examines the effects of the reform on student retention. Since the curricular reform involved pruning some content and altering course outcomes, which could conceivably have negative downstream impacts, we report on …

Talking About A Revolution: Overview Of Nsf Red Projects, Noah Salzman

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A significant initiative in engineering education in the U.S. began in 2014 when the National Science Foundation (NSF) initiated the IUSE/PFE: REvolutionizing engineering and computer science Departments (IUSE/PFE: RED) program. The goals of IUSE/PFE: RED (hereinafter referred to as RED) are to “enable engineering and computer science departments to lead the nation by successfully achieving significant sustainable changes necessary to overcome longstanding issues in their undergraduate programs and educate inclusive communities of engineering and computer science students prepared to solve 21st-century challenges.” In 2015, six RED projects were funded followed by seven more in 2016. In addition, NSF funded researchers …

Developing An Instrument To Assess The Effects Of Pre-College Engineering Participation On The Experiences Of First-Year Engineering Students, Noah Salzman, Matthew W. Ohland, Monica E. Cardella

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this Complete Research paper, we describe the development of a survey instrument to measure the ways that students experience the transition from pre-college engineering activities to first-year engineering programs. As the number of opportunities to study and do engineering prior to matriculation in an undergraduate engineering program increases, first-year engineering students draw from a diverse range of pre-college engineering experiences that affect their transition to studying engineering at a university.

The instrument utilizes a theoretical framework developed via a phenomenographic interview process that identified five distinct ways students experience the transition from pre-college to university engineering. These range from …

Using Ir Cameras Beyond Outreach: Motivational Projects For Engineering Students, Cameron H. G. Wright, Thad B. Welch

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Affordable infrared (IR) cameras provide a unique opportunity to motivate and enhance the education of engineering students. We used both IR and visible images from a FLIR E60 camera as an instructional vehicle in a digital image processing course, where students came from several engineering majors. These IR and visible images were used as the basis for an open-ended final project in the course. Assessment via both pre- and post-project questionnaires showed the project was a positive experience for the students, and helped motivate them to learn the material. This paper discusses the course, the camera, the project, and how …

Elementary School Use Of The Sidekick Basic Kit For Ti Launchpad™, Tara N. Kimmey, Thad B. Welch, Cameron H. G. Wright

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Despite the fact that the Sidekick basic kit for TI LaunchPad™ is intended for a much more experienced group of students, engineers, and makers, we have successfully introduced it into four classes of 5^th grade elementary school students. This system mapped well onto the existing science standards of learning established by the State of Virginia. Additionally, the assessment of this process clearly demonstrated that effective learning is occurring.

Vertically Integrated Projects (Vip) Programs: Multidisciplinary Projects With Homes In Any Discipline, Jocelyn B. S. Cullers, William L. Hughes, Donna C. Llewellyn

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A survey of papers in the ASEE Multidisciplinary Engineering Division over the last three years shows three main areas of emphasis: individual courses; profiles of specific projects; and capstone design courses. However, propagating multidisciplinary education across the vast majority of disciplines offered at educational institutions with varying missions requires models that are independent of the disciplines, programs, and institutions in which they were originally conceived. Further, models that can propagate must be cost effective, scalable, and engage and benefit participating faculty. Since 2015, a consortium of twenty-four institutions has come together around one such model, the Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) …

Extending The 2015 Capstone Design Survey: Data From Australia And New Zealand, Susannah Howe, Laura Mae Rosenbauer

Engineering: Faculty Publications

Capstone design courses are common in engineering design programs, but they vary substantially across institution and department. The goal of the decennial capstone design survey initiative has been to capture data from capstone design courses every ten years to identify current practices and changes over time. The 1994, 2005, and 2015 surveys have focused almost exclusively on capstone programs within the United States. This paper documents an initial extension of the 2015 survey to Australia and New Zealand to identify how capstone courses are implemented outside the United States and what strategies can be shared across countries. As in their …

Board # 102 : Pecase: Implementing K-12 Engineering Standards Through Stem Integration - An Executive Summary Of The Products And Research, Tamara Moore, Kristina Tank, Aran Glancy, Elizabeth Gajdzik

School of Engineering Education Faculty Publications

This executive summary of the grant, PECASE: Implementing K-12 Engineering Standards through STEM Integration, comes at the conclusion of the project. The purpose of the grant was to develop a definition and explore the practice of engineering in K-12 STEM classrooms. The definition was then used to assess curricula, policy documents, teacher practice, and student learning. Through this work, the definition was then used to help with the framing and development of curricula for K-5 classrooms. The resulting curricula are called the PictureSTEM units. These instructional units for K-5 classrooms utilize engineering design and picture books to teach young students …

Cruise Missile Integrated Air Defense System Penetration: Modeling The S-400 System, Michael Pelosi, Amie K. Honeycutt

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

This research determines improved flight-path routes that make maximum utilization of terrain-masking opportunities, and defending radar and missile system equipment performance and launch timing constraints, in order to avoid radar detection and tracking, and to mitigate subsequent missile shoot-down risks. The problem is formulated as one of constrained optimization in three dimensions. Advantageous solutions are identified using the A* Algorithm in conjunction with detailed equipment performance and constraint calculations and high-resolution digital terrain elevation maps. Topographical features in digital terrain are exploited by the algorithm to avoid radar detection and tracking. The model includes provisions for all-aspect/all-frequency radar cross section …

Approaches To Coaching Students In Design Reviews, Robin Adams, Tiago R. Forin, Cole H. Joslyn

School of Engineering Education Faculty Publications

Design reviews offer a unique window into understanding how design teachers help their students develop as designers. They are a prevalent practice for helping students develop design thinking expertise, although their structure and content may vary across disciplines. Understanding the teaching that occurs during design reviews can illuminate the ways teachers support students in becoming design thinkers. In this paper, we extend prior work to illustrate disciplinary perspectives of how design teachers help their students develop as design thinkers. The guiding framework is design pedagogical knowledge (PCK), the content-specific and practice-based specialized knowledge of teaching design. We analyzed five sets …

Board # 114 : Progress Toward Optimizing Student Team Skill Development Using Evidence-Based Strategies, Matthew W. Ohland, Daniel M. Ferguson, Misty L. Loughry, David Jonathan Woehr

School of Engineering Education Faculty Publications

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 interventions on cognitive development (improvement of team skills) and metacognitive development …

A Systematized Literature Review: Defining And Developing Engineering Competencies, Hossein Ebrahiminejad

School of Engineering Education Graduate Student Series

Essential competencies have been identified for engineers working in industry. These competencies include (but are not limited to) critical thinking, problem-solving, teamwork, and communication. Engineering education research has shown, however, that engineering undergraduate students often fail to develop these crucial competencies. The industry has also noted that recent graduates exhibit competency gaps. To address these gaps, it is important for higher education institutions to seek to understand the competencies identified as necessary in the industry. Moreover, one could argue educational institutions should develop and assess students’ competencies based on these professional demands. This research systematically reviews literature related to this …

Board # 113 : Eegrc Poster: Characterizing Trade-Off Decisions In Student Designers, Molly Goldstein

School of Engineering Education Graduate Student Series

Although design and decision-making are intertwined for practicing engineers, students from elementary school through college and graduate schools are not taught to think through uncertain situations (Howard, 2007) in which information is limited or outcomes are not guaranteed. Trade-offs are a complex element of decision, as the decision-making weighs possible outcomes against their respective costs (Otto &Antonsson, 1991). Although much is understood about how professional designers’ behaviors as compared to novice designers and students (Atmen et al., 2007; Crismond & Adams, 2012; Cross, 2003), there is little research regarding making trade-off decisions from middle school and high school to college. …

Development And Assessment Of A Combined Reu/Ret Program In Materials Science, Noah Salzman, Rick Ubic

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this paper we present an evaluation and lessons learned from a joint Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) and Research Experience for Teachers (RET) program focused on energy and sustainability topics within a Materials Science and Engineering program at a public university. This program brought eleven undergraduate science and engineering students with diverse educational and institutional backgrounds and four local middle and high school teachers on campus for an 8-week research experience working in established lab groups at the university.

Using the Qualtrics online survey software, we conducted pre-experience and post-experience surveys of the participants to assess the effects of …

Ten Years Later: Where Are They Now?, Janet Callahan, Donna C. Llewellyn, Vicki Stieha, Ann E. Delaney

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper explores the educational and career trajectories of the alumnae of an outreach activity for girls. The outreach activity was originally developed using an integrated marketing approach to attract girls into engineering programs.¹ The program, a two day, overnight experience for rising 9^th, 10^th and 11^th grade girls, focuses on showcasing engineering as an exciting, creative activity, including activities developed from that perspective. Started in 2005 and held annually since then, a total of over 500 girls have participated, with approximately 85% of them coming from Boise State University’s immediate metropolitan area. Facilitated by …

Higher Education Capacity Building In Water Resources Engineering And Management To Support Achieving The Sustainable Development Goal For Water In Pakistan, Steven J. Burian, Mercedes Ward, Tariq Banuri, M. Aslam Chaudhry, Sajjad Ahmad, Bakhshal Lashari, Rasool Bux Mahar, Davey Stevenson, Jim Vanderslice, Kamran Ansari, Munir Babar, Abdul Latif Qureshi

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals requires a multi‐pronged approach, with a key element being the development of a trained Community of Practice to sustain the advances in the relevant sectors. The engagement of higher education as a catalyst in the development and capacity building of the next generation of professionals and citizens comprising the Community of Practice is essential to meet the challenges of poverty, climate change, and clean water and to sustain those advances past 2030. This paper describes a capacity building program funded by the United States Agency for International Development to partner the University of Utah, in …

An Assessment Framework For First-Year Introduction To Engineering Courses, Senay Purzer, Kerrie A. Douglas, Jill A. Folkerts, Taylor V. Williams

School of Engineering Education Faculty Publications

In this evidence-based practice paper, we describe an assessment framework that applies to first-year introductory engineering courses. First-year engineering courses cover a variety of learning objectives that address both technical and professional outcomes outlined in ABET. These courses also often involve open-ended design and modeling projects. The assessment of multiple competencies along with open-ended design can be a challenging task for educators. In this paper, we describe a framework that guides instructional processes for effective assessment for student learning. This assessment-centered teaching and learning framework helps connect specific learning objectives to broader learning goals or competencies and on-going formative feedback …

A Content Analysis Of How Engineering Is Assessed In Published Curricula, Kerrie A. Douglas, Tamara J. Moore, Hillary Merzdorf, Tingxuan Lee, Amanda C. Johnston

School of Engineering Education Faculty Publications

A Content Analysis of How Engineering is Assessed in Published Curricula (Fundamental)

The purpose of this proposal is to present research findings concerning how and what about engineering is commonly assessed in well-known engineering or integrated STEM published curriculum. Two of the major shifts brought about by Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are an increased emphasis in students’ capabilities to perform higher-level reasoning skills and integrate content understanding into science practices. At the same time, NGSS has made engineering integration into science education a priority, and it is an exciting time of reform as schools are exploring curriculum resources and …

A Learning Trajectory For Developing Computational Thinking And Programming, Sean B. Brophy, Tony A. Lowe

School of Engineering Education Faculty Publications

A learning trajectory for developing computational thinking and programming This research study identifies the relationship between students’ prior experiences with programming and their development of computational thinking and programming during their first year engineering experience. Many first year programs teach students basic programming constructs using languages like MATLAB or LABView. The reason for this is because the disciplinary schools expect students to transform the constitutive properties that model a system’s behavior into a computer model they can use to analyze a system’s performance. Some undergraduate engineering students are entering college with strong computational backgrounds, while others are not. Peer learning …

A Cross-Sectional Study Of Engineering Identity During Undergraduate Education, Allison Godwin, Walter C. Lee

School of Engineering Education Faculty Publications

This research paper explores students’ engineering, mathematics, and physics identities across the four years of undergraduate engineering education. The focus of this work are subject-related role identities, or how students position themselves and are positioned by others as the kind of people that engage in engineering, mathematics, or physics. An identity as an engineer is a role identity because it embodies a specific character that an individual plays within a social sphere. In this case, the social sphere is in the process of becoming an engineer. Other research has focused on identity development of engineering students, often either early in …

Preliminary Findings Using Growth Mindset And Belonging Interventions In A Freshman Engineering Class, Jinny Rhee, Camille Johnson, Clifton Oyamot

Faculty Publications, Mechanical Engineering

Engineering is typically plagued with lower graduation rates and larger achievement gaps compared to other majors; the projected demand for its future graduates lends to the urgency in reversing these trends. Holding a growth mindset, or a belief that intelligence is mutable, and a feeling of belongingness are keys to persisting in and graduating from college. In prior research, improvements in retention and graduation rates have been found following minor interventions, particularly among some underrepresented populations of students. The current study explored whether similar interventions could be effective in increasing retention and graduation rates among underrepresented populations of engineering and …

Flipping Stem Classrooms Collaboratively Across Campuses In California, Laura Sullivan-Green, Ravisha Mathur, Andrew Feinstein

Office of the Provost Scholarship

San José State University, in partnership with California State University-Los Angeles and Cal Poly Pomona, was awarded a prestigious 2015 First in the World grant, sponsored by the Department of Education. The multi-campus effort is focused on bringing the flipped classroom model to seven STEM gateway courses over three years that have high failure rates through collaborative efforts from faculty on the three partner campuses. SJSU, CSULA, and CPP are all designated Hispanic-Serving Institutions and Minority-Serving Institutions, though their demographics are very different. High impact practices like the flipped classroom approach have been shown to increase URM student success and …

Symmetry Driven Control Of Optical Properties In Wo3 Films, Andreas Herklotz, Stefania Rus, Santosh Kc, Valentino Cooper, Amanda Huon, Er-Jia Guo, Thomas Ward

Faculty Publications

In this work, we demonstrate that the optical bandgap of WO3 films can be continuouslycontrolled through uniaxial strain induced by low-energy helium implantation.The insertion of He into epitaxially grown and coherently strained WO3 films canbe used to induce single axis out-of-plane lattice expansion of up to 2%. Ellipsometricspectroscopy reveals that the optical bandgap is reduced by about 0.18 eVper percent expansion of the out-of-plane unit cell length. Density functional theorycalculations show that this response is a direct result of changes in orbital degeneracydriven by changes in the octahedral rotations and tilts.

Development Of Poisson Optical Trap For Volumetric Display, Jeremy Goodsell, Daniel Smalley

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The purpose of this project was to develop a new type of optical trap based on Poisson’s famous “Poisson Spot” experiment. The two main methods currently for creating a photophoretic trap are to use dark spots created by spherical aberration (see Fig. 1) or to use vortex beams. In the case of a trap caused by spherical aberration which occurs when using spherical lenses to focus a beam, the particle stays in the dark regions due to photophoretic forces [1,2]. Vortex beams are created by doughnut modes of a laser beam. These are modes of the laser which can be …

A Study Of Rf/Microwave Components Using Fused Deposition Modeling And Micro-Dispensing, Joshua A. Stephenson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The design and study of multiple RF direct digital manufactured (DDM) devices are presented in this work. A 2.45 GHz, 180°; hybrid coupler is designed to provide the space required for other system components. The coupler is designed and manufactured on a 32 mil Rogers 4003C substrate and adapted to a 100% in-fill acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) substrate. A size reduction of 66% is accomplished with a bandwidth of 16%. A DDM Ku band connector is modeled and fabricated using varying relative dielectric constants of 50% and 100% in-fill ABS. The connector maintains less than 0.45 dB of insertion loss …

High Performance Digitally Manufactured Microwave And Millimeter-Wave Circuits And Antennas, Eduardo A. Rojas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The potential of Additive Manufacturing (AM) for microwave and mm-wave applications is increasingly being revealed thanks to recent advancements in research. AM empowers engineers with new capabilities to manufacture complex conformal geometries quicker and at lower costs. It allows, for instance, the embedding of RF front ends into functional structures. In this dissertation, two aspects of AM are explored: (a) The development and characterization of techniques that improve the performance of AM microwave circuits and antennas, and (b) study of complex geometries, such as meshed structures, as an alternative to reduce material usage, cost, and weight of the components.

Micro-dispensing …

Collaborative Research: Ehr Core: Exploring The Emotional And Motivational Lives Of Undergraduate Engineering Students, Idalis Villanueva

Funded Research Records

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Antigen Polymorphisms On Serological Antibody Detection Assays Based Upon The, Kristi M. Miley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Onchocerca volvulus is a filarial parasite transmitted to humans by female Simulium spp. black flies. Infection with this parasite can cause blindness and severe skin disease among humans in Africa and the Americas. Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay serological testing of OV-16 antigen is a diagnostic tool for determining effective elimination of the parasite. Programs typically rely on OV–16 ELISA to evaluate the progress towards interruption and/or elimination of disease by mass drug distribution of ivermectin and vector larvicidal control efforts. As elimination grows closer, monoclonal antibody positive controls for OV-16 ELISA become important to develop for Onchocerca testing due to the …