CEAS Hosts 2015 ASEE NCS Conference

The UC CEAS

Department of Engineering Education

hosted the

2015 ASEE (American Society for Engineering Education) North Central Section Conference

from April 17-18. The conference is the major ASEE NCS event of the year and included presentations, workshops, and poster competitions for engineering and engineering technology professionals, faculty and students.

Nearly 70 faculty members and 78 students from 37 different universities in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, and Massachusetts gathered at UC to exchange ideas and discuss their shared interest in progressing engineering education. Ensuring the success of the conference were Program Chairs Kathy Ossman, PhD, and associate professor, and Greg Bucks, PhD and assistant professor educator, as well as CEAS Engineering Education Department Head Jim Boerio, PhD, and Magnolia Modaress, MS.

Ossman said, “After a year and a half of planning, Greg, Magnolia and I were delighted to see all of our careful planning come together so nicely. Over half of the paper presentations and all of the poster presentations for this conference were from students. This regional conference provides an excellent venue for undergraduate and graduate students to present their work to faculty from multiple universities. It also provides an opportunity for faculty in the region to network and share ideas for improving teaching and learning. We received a lot of positive feedback from the conference attendees. The conference definitely showcased CEAS as well as our beautiful University of Cincinnati campus.”

The conference kicked off Friday afternoon with several different workshops in Rhodes Hall. The following workshops were featured: “MathWorks Rasberry Pi & Simulink,” “Using Failure Case Studies to teach Engineering and Ethics,” “Process to Draft Program Educational Objectives for Undergraduate Engineering Degree Programs,” “National Instruments MyRIO Workshop,” “Conflict Situations and Engineering Ethics,” “Effectively Attack Open-ended Problems with the ‘Six Hats’ Approach” and “Faculty Mentoring Program.” For more detailed information about the workshops, please visit

http://ceas.uc.edu/dee/asee2015.html

.

Workshops were facilitated by the college’s honored guests, including: Robert Chasnov, PhD, PE and Dean of the

Cedarville University

School of Engineering and Computer Science; Norbert Delatte, PE, PhD, FACI, FASCE and Department Chair of Civil & Environmental Engineering from

Cleveland State University

; Darrell Kleinke, PhD and Mechanical Engineering Chair from the

University of Detroit Mercy

; Carlos O’Farrill of

National Instruments

; Mindy C. Reiser, PhD and Vice President of

Global Peace Services USA

; Ram Sundaram, PhD and professor at

Gannon University

as well as Jon Lobo, PhD; Navaneeth Raman, PhD; and Balaji Sharma, PhD, from

MathWorks

.

Friday evening, CEAS Dean Teik C. Lim, PhD, PE, Fellow (ASME, SAE) sponsored a reception held in the Alumni Learning Center. Dean Lim welcomed everyone and spoke about the great value of engineering education.

Dean Lim says, “We were delighted to host the 2015 ASEE NSC Conference which united educators, professionals, and students alike who all share one common goal: to transform the engineering pedagogy, particularly during the first two years which most significantly impact the retention of both knowledge and the students themselves. The college’s Department of Engineering Education was predicated on the realization that existing approaches to educating engineers might not be adequate for educating the engineers of the future. Our revamped curriculum thrives on our 100+ years of cooperative education—of which we are the founders—and is facilitated by our state-of-the-art Learning Center. We are pleased to have had this opportunity to exchange ideas with our colleagues in an effort to further progress engineering education.”

Several CEAS seniors displayed posters from their capstone projects to showcase the phenomenal work that UC students conduct on a regular basis. Samples of the experiments and projects done in the freshmen courses, Engineering Foundations and Engineering Models I and II were also on display for participants. Additionally, guests were taken on tours of the Learning Center and classrooms throughout the college.

On Saturday, the President-Elect of ASEE, Dr. Joseph Rencis, addressed guests over lunch at the Faculty Club. Afterwards, faculty members presented papers—thirty five in total—focused on innovations in the classroom to improve teaching and learning. Forty four students also presented papers highlighting their capstone design projects and design competitions.

Faculty and student presentations were judged by esteemed committees and an awards banquet was held on Saturday evening at the Kingsgate Marriott to recognize the following winners:

Best Faculty Paper:

First place:

Jeff Kastner* and Anant Kukreti, University of Cincinnati, “Using Challenge Based Learning to Teach the Fundamentals of Energy Transfer to High-School Math Teachers”

Second Place:

Shen Liu, West Kentucky Community and Technical College, “Teaching Engineering Computation Using a Flipped Classroom Model”

Third Place:

Pattabhi Sitaram and Anca Sala, Baker College of Flint, “Developing Student Mastery and Confidence in using FEA Software through its Integration in Many Fundamental Mechanics Courses”

*Kastner’s paper will be entered into the Best Paper Competition for the 2016 ASEE National Conference in New Orleans.

Best Student Paper:

First place:

Remington Wright, Taylor Franzen, James Deacon, Adam Lenk, Michael Prekop, Ishraq Shabib, Central Michigan University, “Portable Assisted Mobility Device”

Second place:

Thomas Bowersock, Victoria Kerr, Yuki Matoba, Andrew Warren and Alexandra Coman, Ohio Northern University, “I AM AI - Interactive Actor Modeling for Introducing Artificial Intelligence: A Computer Science Capstone Project”

Third place:

Logan Shelagowski and Thomas Mahank, Saginaw Valley State University, “CFR Formula SAE Intake Restrictor Design and Performance”

Best Student Poster:

First place:

Taylor Manahan, Mark Messner, Sam Weldon, Ohio Northern University, “Low Cost Sting and Balance for an Open Circuit Wind Tunnel”

Second place:

Megan Derwich and Andre Micou, Western Michigan University, “Personalized Medical Training and Treatment Through Virtual Simulation”

Third place:

Matthew Ackley, Justin Collins, Chris VanOverbeke, Ryan Welsh, Nassif Rayess, University of Detroit Mercy, “Sterilight: A Revolutionary Disinfecting Device”

Bucks reflects, “It was a great honor to host the ASEE NCS conference here at UC for the very first time—I was very pleased with how well the conference went. Having events like this on campus help to showcase the great things going on here at UC and provides name recognition for UC within the engineering education community.

Engineering education is one of the fastest growing areas of research due to the increased need in our nation for qualified engineering graduates and the ever-changing needs of our students, and hosting this conference helps cement UC as a contributor to these efforts.”

About the American Society for Engineering Education

Founded in 1893, the American Society for Engineering Education is a nonprofit organization of individuals and institutions committed to furthering education in engineering and engineering technology. It accomplishes this mission by promoting excellence in instruction, research, public service, and practice; exercising worldwide leadership; fostering the technological education of society; and providing quality products and services to members.

In pursuit of academic excellence, ASEE develops policies and programs that enhance professional opportunities for engineering faculty members, and promotes activities that support increased student enrollments in engineering and engineering technology colleges and universities. Strong communication and collaboration with national and international organizations further advances ASEE's mission.