Teaching Engineering Students to Communicate

Five class exercises are suggested for inclusion in the syllabus of any course in technical writing or technical communication. The exercises are designed to develop strategic decisions in writing and publishing. They cast the student in the role of decision maker instead of a tyro, whose sole class work is drill in basic principles.     

面向工科院校学生的创业教育对策

"2007中国城市创业环境观察"(CEM)的调查发现:高校创业教育发展滞后是太原地区创业环境相对落后的重要原因。在研究分析创业教育基本特征的基础上,探讨了造成高校创业教育,特别是工科院校的创业教育薄弱的主要原因,即受专业知识体系和传统教育观念的制约。根据高校工科专业学生的特点,设计出一套有工科院校特色的创业教育体系,提出了推进创业教育的观念、策略和手段,其中包括:创业课程的合理定位、创业课程理论体系的恰当设置、实践教学手段的重要性和高效运用、与关联课程的科学契合、注意对创业教育师资的特殊要求等内容。该方案对当前高校的创业教育实践具有重要的借鉴意义。     

安全工程专业学生工程素质与能力的培养对策

安全工程专业学生应接受良好的工程教育和训练,提高学生的工程素质与能力是安全工程专业教学中一项重要而急迫的任务。针对安全工程专业学生工程素质的培养现状,在分析安全工程专业工程素质内涵的基础上,提出增加学生参与工程实践机会等若干措施,加强安全工程专业学生工程素质与能力的培养。     

A Projects Laboratory for Electrical Engineering Students

This paper describes a laboratory course in electric machines and power systems that is under development at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for senior electrical engineering students. The basic premise being followed is that students learn only by doing original work in which they are genuinely interested. Therefore, the assignments consist of original projects, selected by the individual students which require making and testing some novel assembly of machines and circuits. Examples of these projects are making a mercury electric pump, making and testing various forms of reactor with alnico, solid steel, or copper sections inserted in the ac flux path, developing a novel battery charging circuit for automobiles with ac power supply and a static current regulator in place of the usual voltage regulator, and testing a self-excited alternator of novel design with a static voltage regulator.     

Reflections on Women Graduate Students in Engineering

During the last decade, the gap between women and men graduate students in engineering has been closing, although significant differences remain in the research environment. Some of the graduate student perceptions are explored and contrasted with performance indicators of M.I.T. Electrical Engineering and Computer Science graduate students. A major conclusion emerging from the analysis is that the gap in performance between women and men graduate students decreases as the percentage of women students increases.     

Introducing Nonlinear Problems to Undergraduate Engineering Students

It is argued that preparing engineers for the challenging problems of present-day industry should involve the extension of homework problems to include realistic complications of nonlinearity and extensive use of the available computing facilities. This point of view has been illustrated through a simple Faraday's law problem of an electromechanical system that exhibits nonlinear effects if the resistance of the rails is taken into account. The procedure that is employed in this short note to solve the nonlinear equation is simple enough to be introduced at an undergraduate level for the engineering students.     

Minicomputer Aided Education of Electrical Engineering Students

For problem solving in engineering education a human-computer loop is required. By emphasizing two aspects, namely, interactive usage of the computer and optimization of the total man-machine time (rather than the machine operating time only), the total time required for obtaining a mathematical model and a solution is minimized. This allows a high degree of programming ability to be achieved by students in a short time.     

The Electrical Engineering Curriculum and the Education of International Students

There is a growing recognition that less developed countries (LDCs) should be more discriminating in their choices of technologies to meet their needs. To exercise these choices, the LDC engineers are challenged to be innovative in adapting existing modern technologies to their own circumstances. To be able to meet this challenge, their professional training should account for the fact that when technology is transferred between cultures, non-technical considerations play a crucial role in determining whether or not the transfer successfully meets its goals. It is alleged in this position paper that the educational program of our international graduate students in engineering should prepare them for this challenging task. Needed changes are suggested, and existing opportunities at Iowa State University are discussed.     

创新型实验教学体系的改革实践

为了贯彻高校质量工程,突出"强调动手、加强实践、培养兴趣、积极创新"的理念,实施"基础、综合、系统、创新"的教学体系,课题组结合塔里木大学工科实验室建设与发展现状,以实施创新教育为主线,以加强创新人才培养为目标,以推进人才培养模式改革为抓手,通过构建创新型实验教学体系,提高工科专业大学生实践创新能力,为培养创新人才打下了坚实的基础.这种教学改革实践,促进开放式实验教学模式的形成和实验室开放的内涵建设,在培养工科大学生实践创新能力方面进行一系列的改革尝试,取得明显的成效,并对工科不同专业人才的培养方向定位起到指导作用.     

Sex Differences in Experiences and Career Plans of Freshman Engineering Students

Men and women students representing a population of engineering students at 42 schools completed surveys at the end of their freshman year in college. Two samples of freshmen completed the surveys-students who entered in fall 1975, and those who entered in fall 1976. The surveys focused on freshman year activities and on career plans. Consistent differences between men and women were found for both samples of students. The differences which were found indicate a number of factors of special importance in educating women students. These include assistance with peer group formation, as well as increased information about the nature of engineering careers and exposure to engineering practice.     

An Electronic Instrumentation Design Project for Computer Engineering Students

Ongoing technological progress in electronic instrumentation triggered the development of an innovative, hands-on teaching program to help students toward a fuller understanding of recent changes in the field. This paper describes the different stages of a design project to teach electronic instrumentation to computer engineering students at the University of Oviedo, GijÓn, Spain. The project involves designing a weather station to measure the main meteorological variables and then displaying this information on a computer screen. Although this course is intended for nonspecialist students of electronics, it could easily be adapted to other syllabuses with minimum modification of the specifications. The course provides not only enhanced academic training but also increased student motivation, as students participate actively in all course activities and work in a team within which each student has specific responsibilities.     

Introducing the Device Modeling Procedure to Electrical Engineering Students

This paper presents the contents of a lecture for enhancing the interest of electrical engineering students in semiconductor device modeling and providing a deep appreciation of the conflicting requirements for an ideal model, of the sequence and interconnectivity of steps in the modeling procedure, and of the types of models existing in modern times. The lecture can be included in courses on semiconductor devices or device modeling. The lecture uses a resistor with 3-D effects and much simpler physics than a p-n junction for illustration, and coins mnemonics for key aspects. Objective assessment data confirm the need and efficacy of the proposed lecture. The work of this paper shows how proper introduction of a topic with carefully chosen illustrations and mnemonics can improve the teaching/learning process and how such improvements can be assessed     

加强工程应用型本科大学生信息素养的培养

培养工程应用型人才是我国经济和社会发展的必然要求。文章分析了加强工程应用型本科大学生信息素养培养的必要性，并提出了提高工程应用型本科大学生信息素养的对策。     

An Electrical Engineering Summer Academy for Middle School and High School Students

An Electrical Engineering Summer Academy for Pre-College Students was held at the University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK, during the summers of 2007 and 2008. The Academy participants included students having just completed 7th to 11th grade and teachers from middle school through high school. The students and teachers participated in team-building, professional development, and technical activities designed to teach them about the engineering profession and the field of electrical engineering. Activities included laboratories in electrical circuits, designing an electric car, soldering, a field trip, and discussion about ethics. Students worked in two- and four-person teams and made presentations on their experiences. The Academy was evaluated using formal assessment instruments and faculty observations. Both individual activities and the overall program were evaluated. The evaluation of the 2007 Academy revealed ratings of 4.5 or greater out of 5 on most aspects of the Academy, though some areas indicated a need for improvement, such as clarity of written materials and the availability of additional material for advanced students who finished early. Improvement in knowledge was demonstrated on over 50% of the questions on a survey administered at the beginning and again at the end of the Academy. Changes were proposed and implemented for the 2008 Academy in response to the assessment data. The impact of these changes and the lessons learned in the process are also presented.      

Engineering Opportunity Program: A Transition Program for Disadvantaged Students

The paper is based on the authors' experiences since 1967 in planning and operating special programs for educationally and economically disadvantaged minority students at both the secondary school and collegiate level. They describe the special problems faced by the minority student in transition from high school graduation through the first years of an engineering curriculum with particular attention paid to providing the environment in which the minority student can make a successful transition. Some curriculum developments in freshman science and mathematics are also described.     

The Colleges Can Locate Qualified Minority Students for Engineering Education

A greater effort must be made by both industry and the engineering schools if we are to educate more minority engineers in the next ten years. This paper approaches that challenge from the viewpoint of locating qualified minority engineering candidates for the colleges. Recruitment and admissions are recognized as related operations but they are treated independently and pragmatically in this paper.     

Logical Reasoning Ability in Engineering Students: A Case Study

Mathematical logic is one of the scientific foundations of information technology and computer engineering. Therefore, engineering students must be proficient in logical operations. First-year engineering students answered four logical reasoning tasks as part of a larger survey on scientific thinking, producing more incorrect responses than previous studies would have predicted, most notably in international student groups. This paper presents and analyzes these results, and compares and discusses the differences between natural human reasoning and engineering logic. It seeks to explain failures in logical reasoning that occur despite formal training and considers several possible cultural and psychological explanations to this phenomenon. The conclusion highlights the need for stronger emphasis in developing problem-solving and metacognitive skills in engineering education. The importance of fluency in the language of study emerges as a significant factor in learning technical subjects.