P. Ruby Mawasha

Increasing Diversity in Engineering Academics (IDEAs): Development of a Program for Improving African American Representation.

Ethnic minorities, especially African Americans, remain underrepresented in a number of occupations, including those which might be identified as high-technology areas. Engineering is one such area where African Americans and other minorities (defined here as Hispanics and Native Americans) have been traditionally underrepresented. In the United States, approximately 3.5% of all engineers are African American, while African Americans account for about 6.4% of the college degrees, 11% of the workforce, and 12% of the total population (National Science Foundation, 1992; U.S. Department of Commerce, 1993). In 1989, the year corresponding to the decision to initiate the program described in this paper, the minority rate had increased to 9.2%, although African Americans accounted for only about 4.5% of the Bachelors degrees in engineering (Carter & Wilson, 1992; National Science Foundation, 1992). A similar pattern emerges when analyzing the fields in which dagrees were obtained, approximately 6% of the bachelors degrees attained by African Americans were in engineering, compared to 9% for Whites and 20% for Asian Americans (National Center for Education Statistics, 1989). Thus, despite some recent progress, African Americans remain underrepresented in the engineering field. While a substantial body of literature now exists concerning the

PROJECT MANAGEMENT IN AN INTERDISCIPLINARY SENIOR DESIGN TEAM

Innovation in the changing undergraduate engineering curriculum mandates efficient management of interdisciplinary capstone senior design projects. This effort requires collaboration and management by students and faculty from multiple disciplines, and provides students an opportunity to learn from other engineering systems. In addition, this approach will i) emphasize problem solving and creative thinking; ii) provide first-hand experience in generating a management plan; iii) expose students to multiple engineering and management disciplines, and to work in diverse, multi-cultural teams; and iv) prepare students with a keen understanding of the interdisciplinary environment necessary for success. The senior design project (SDP) presented is based on the interdisciplinary collaboration of electrical, computer, and mechanical engineering students and faculty to design an integrated high altitude balloon system that would reach an altitude of 100,000 feet and return safely to earth. This paper presents the modes by which all the above issues in SDP are addressed, results obtained and improvements planned for the next interdisciplinary projects.

Lung-Diaphragm Behavior of the Respiratory System During Input From Excitation

A numerical behavior of a lung-diaphragm model of a respiratory system during input from mouth pressure and diaphragm excitation is being investigated. A lung-diaphragm is subject to constant inlet air-flow conditions into the respiratory system. The mouth pressure (Macia et. al., 1997) and diaphragm excitation (Ricci et. al., 2002) are described by a constitutive relations containing nonlinearities from rib cage muscles forces and inlet air-flow conditions. Within certain operating regimes, the model exhibits self-excited pulsatile periodic motion and the qualitative features of the response can be understood in terms of the underlying model. Further, the mathematical model is a more general approach and can be used to conduct parametric studies and determine the instability mechanisms involved in the modeling of lung-diaphragm behavior of the respiratory system during input from excitation.Copyright

Understanding the Nonlinear Dynamics of Liquid Flow with Surge Tanks

The problem considered here is that of a pressurized surge tank with a constant inlet mass flow rate and an outlet mass flow rate through a circular channel. The dynamic behaviour of this system can be influenced by the liquid height inside the surge tank, the inlet and outlet mass flow rates, the gas pressure in the surge tank, and the liquid kinetic energy that is often neglected in textbooks and fluid dynamics literature. The model considers a constant density liquid in laminar flow and investigates the nonlinear effects of liquid height in the pressurized surge tank, mass flow rates, gas pressure, and kinetic energy on the system behaviour. Also, the model is investigated for scenarios that manifest in oscillatory behaviour.