Norma Veurink

Sustainability in a common first year engineering program

Do the lifestyle and technology of today compromise the ability of future generations to meet their own needs? Since the Fall of 2005, first year engineering students at Michigan Technological University have been considering this question. They began by learning the definition of sustainability and then examined its importance to engineering through: (i) Researching and presenting the sustainability of 20th century engineering achievements. (ii) Investigating the ethical issues involved in sustainable technologies. (iii) Evaluating sustainability case studies using global Sullivan principles. (iv) Calculating their individual electrical energy consumption within their residence hall room and the resultant carbon dioxide produced. From this, they proposed methods to reduce their energy consumption.(v) Analyzing the sustainability of their semester design projects. From these activities, students learned that engineers need to evaluate the economic, environmental and social aspects of their designs in order to produce sustainable solutions. They investigated the differences of sustainable technologies in developing and developed countries. They determined the effect their lifestyle had on the environment by calculating both their carbon and ecological footprints. This paper will describe the incorporation of these sustainability activities into the Michigan Tech first year engineering program and the assessment methodology used.

Longitudinal study of the impact of requiring training for students with initially weak spatial skills

ABSTRACT Three-dimensional spatial skills are a cognitive ability that have been shown to predict success in engineering. Michigan Tech has been offering a course to help students improve their 3-D spatial skills for more than two decades. In previous studies, students who failed a rotations test and enrolled in the course performed better on a number of measures when compared to those who failed the rotations test and did not enrol in the course. A valid criticism of these studies was that the two groups were self-selected. Beginning in 2009, the spatial skills course became a requirement for students who initially failed the rotations test. This paper reports on the results from a longitudinal study conducted to determine the impact of the spatial skills course when no self-selection is involved.

Integrating solid modeling and computer programming through a freshman design experience

Although courses in solid modeling and computer programming are required in many engineering curriculums, students typically study these topics in separate courses. At Michigan Technological University, both of these topics are taught in the same course to meet the first-year engineering program objective of developing proficiency in the use of computers in solving engineering problems. Another objective of the program is for students to understand the design process through a practical, hands-on design experience. Michigan Tech uses these objectives to engage second semester freshmen in engineering design in a unique way. Students are challenged to create an innovative design concept, produce CAD solid models and assemblies to convey their concept, and develop a mathematical model in Matlab to predict the performance of their design. This paper will discuss the design projects used in this first year course to innovatively integrate solid modeling and computer programming throughout the freshman design experience.