Elisabeth M. Alford

Designing effective writing and presentation assignments for Freshman engineering students

When the University of South Carolina College of Engineering (USA) created its new freshman year experience course in 1997, it established a Freshman Writing Program to integrate communications and writing skills into the curriculum. This paper describes how one component of the Freshman Writing Program, staffed by consultants in the Colleges communications and writing centers, is assistance to engineering faculty in structuring appropriate writing and oral presentation assignments for the course.

Dynamic Pipe Stresses During Water Hammer: I — A Finite Element Approach

Water hammer is defined as a sudden increase in pipe pressure, which results in pressure waves that travel along the pipe at sonic velocities. In the wake of the pressure wave, dynamic stresses are created in the pipe wall, which contribute to pipe failures. A finite element analysis, computer program was used to determine the three dimensional dynamic stresses which result from pipe wall vibration at a distance from the end of a pipe, during a water hammer event. The analysis was used to model a moving shock wave in a pipe, using a step pressure wave. Both aluminum and steel were modeled for an 8 NPS pipe, using Abaqus® . For either material, the maximum stress was seen to be equal when damping was neglected. At the time the maximum stress occurred, the hoop stress was equivalent to twice the stress that would be expected if an equivalent static stress was applied to the inner wall of the pipe. At the same time, the radial stress was limited to the magnitude of the applied pressure, and the axial stress was equal to zero.Copyright

Writing center programs for engineering

Writing center programs encompass a variety of instructional and consultative services and provide effective approaches for integrating writing instruction into the engineering curriculum. A writing center program at the University of South Carolinas Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) integrates both informal writing (writing-to-learn) and technical report writing instruction into the sequence of lab courses and senior level seminar courses. The ECE writing center program offers a structured program of individual consultations, group discussions, and team sessions to engage students in exploring discourse conventions of the field. These consultation processes encourage students to reflect on their experiences and guide engineering students in developing appropriate linguistic structures to communicate their findings in both written reports and in oral presentations. This presentation outlines steps for developing writing center programs in engineering, describing the collaboration necessary for successful operation and the research and assessment necessary for program effectiveness.