ASEE-1998 IL-IN Section Conference:
"Forcast for the Future," American Society for Engineering Education, 1998.Integration of New Technologies in Engineering Experimentation Courses
Milivoje KOSTIC
, Ph.D., P.E.
Abstract - Overview
Teaching and learning experiences may be enhanced by integrating new-technologies in the engineering curriculum, particularly in experimental-type courses. For example, by installing data acquisition boards and appropriate software the general-purpose computers may become enormously flexible instruments with data acquisition capability. Then, students may custom-design their own instruments (or simulate traditional electronic instruments) and measurement systems. That way, our students will become skilled with up-to-date hardware and software that are used throughout industry. The author's experience in this area shows that students’ motivation, involvement, and accomplishment have been enhanced. Through the set of typical lab experiments, the basic sensors, transducers, instruments, and the measurements techniques were presented. Then, the students were assigned individual lab projects, with an objective to design and perform rigorous experiments with thorough engineering and uncertainty analysis and synthesis with critical judgment and creative thinking. Finally, the students wrote technical reports, according to the standards and customs in the profession, presented their projects in class, and had small class-groups perform their projects as per their design and under their leadership. The over-all students’ learning experience was unique and invaluable. However, these activities are demanding a lot of students’ and instructor effort and time, sometimes with frustrations and at the expense of other activities. Much more work in further curriculum development is needed to help students learn more in less time, thus minimizing their learning difficulties and frustrations. New-technologies may help in these endeavors.
Introduction: What is the challenge?
The emphasis in modern engineering education is placed on design, and in particular on how to make use of the latest technological developments: sensors, transducers, data acquisition and control integrated boards, computers, Internet, etc; please see the References. The best way to teach students is the hard way by example. Experimental method courses should be aimed in that direction, i.e., to unlock students' imagination and show them how to apply their theoretical knowledge for solving open-ended problems in laboratory and the real-world.
Designing a purposeful and meaningful product or process, which is the main engineering task, requires experimental and computational modeling, which in turn require creativity, quality knowledge, and experience. As a rule, designing and performing lab experiments and analyzing obtained data is not only very hard for inexperienced students, but also for practicing and experienced engineers. There is no substitute for a "good" experiment in applied product development or basic research. Moreover, there is no such thing as an easy experiment, since it requires a thorough understanding of: (a) physical phenomena involved, (b) instrumentation and materials used, and (c) profound engineering judgment, analysis and synthesis. And, we are not talking here about "show-and-tell" demonstrations, but rigorous experiments with thorough, in-depth engineering and uncertainty analyses, and conclusive guidelines for engineering synthesis with critical judgment and creative thinking.
What is a promising solution?
Undergraduate instruction needs fundamental reform and improvement because of new and revolutionary developments of technological and computational resources in industry. The question arises as to whether and how to use these tools in education as teaching and learning aids. As all other powerful tools, these can be of great help if used wisely, or can be harmful ("cut our fingers") if misused. Like in any other real-life endeavor, too little or too much is no good. "Fine tuning," or finding an optimum amount or way is the answer, and our main objective. This is true whether we are mixing the ingredients in a good recipe, searching for a radio station, using versatile learning aids, or engaging in any activity for that matter - the "fine tuning" is essential. This author had used a slide rule and function tables while in high school (and was very proficient in it) and learned programming using the first programmable calculators. Now, he advocates and partially succeeds in requiring his engineering students to learn and use modern instrumentation, like data acquisition, along with mathematical/engineering software, like MathCAD and LabVIEW, for example. Some ague that precious time is wasted if computers are used particularly in basic science/engineering courses. However, new-technology expands our experimental and computational problem-solving ability, just to mention tedious tasks, like data acquisition, what-if analysis, interpolation, graphing, etc. Therefore, the new-technology should extend our capability and help us do more and better in less time, even in basic science courses.
What has been implemented in engineering experimentation courses?
Since this author came to the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Northern Illinois University in Fall, 1988, the Experimental Methods in ME I & II (MEE 390 & MEE 490) courses have been changed to emphasize design and new-technology. A number of new projects have been introduced in the meantime: LDV-Laser Doppler velocimetry, vibration and structural analysis using a B&K Dual-Channel Analyzer, dynamic response of thermocouples, torque and dynamic motor characteristics, viscosity measurements, hot-wire anemometery, wind-tunnel experiments, and computerized data acquisition including LabVIEW virtual instruments. Special attention has been devoted to students' individual lab projects and report writing, usually with several improvements and editing for each project. Work on laboratory posters and video-taping of lab design projects has also been conducted.
Through the set of typical lab experiments, the basic sensors, transducers, instruments and measurements techniques were presented. Then, the students were assigned individual lab projects, with objectives to design and perform rigorous experiments with thorough engineering and uncertainty analysis and synthesis with critical judgment and creative thinking. Finally, the students wrote technical reports, according to the standards and customs in the profession, presented their projects in class, and had small class-groups perform their projects as per their design and under their leadership. The over-all students’ learning experience was unique and invaluable.
This has been a task that is not yet complete and possibly never will be, as the courses are intended to accommodate continuing advances in knowledge and technology. In search for innovative ways to teach students to utilize their formal training in science and engineering courses to solve real-world problems in the laboratory (and later in industry), often times, the multiplicity of possible solutions and inexperience of students have resulted in initial confusion and sometimes frustration.
The author's work on implementing new-technology in experimental courses has been additionally supported by the University, College and Department with summer grants. The outcome of the project goes far beyond the original proposal and expectations. There are several hundreds of files posted on the author's Web site www.kostic.niu.edu or http://www.ceet.niu.edu/faculty/kostic/ as motivational and learning aids for the students and others (see also Partial List of The Posted Items on the Web, and Computerized Data Acquisition with LabVIEW Examples, in the Appendixes). The posted lab handouts, include computerized data acquisition, and also many links to worked-out interactive examples using MathCAD and LabVIEW files, as well as other relevant and valuable external links.
Concluding Remarks: What is new-technology's role in education?
The teaching of engineering is, in good part, abstract, verbal, deductive, and sequential, while the students tend to be passive. On the other hand, the limited experimental courses are mostly self-serving and often of the "show-and-tell" type. The classroom and laboratory instruction tends to be two different worlds. New-technologies have a potential to purposefully integrate these two worlds together by emphasizing their specific advantages and complementing each other, thus improving students' motivation, teaching effectiveness and overall learning experience. This is just becoming feasible now, with even brighter future, since the new-technologies are reaching needed critical mass for wide application and becoming mature and user-friendly. It is now possible to economically produce the so-called "mass customization" in many endeavors, including education. The Internet is becoming an important environment for creating information and effective communication. Development of other new-technologies in industry and other area of human needs is equally astonishing. Still, only a small percentage of the approximately 25,000 engineering professors in the United States, are prepared to use new-technologies now available [13]. Many are not ready for the "classroom of the future," nor willing to embrace the inevitable teaching and learning "revolution." For those who do not like to change, they’ll have to adapt to the changes. Will new-technologies replace/endanger traditional values, humans? - Definitely not, none of the previous technologies did! Should we use new-technologies to our benefits? - Definitely yes! However, the new-technologies should be our Slaves, not our Masters. It should be clearly stated that use of new-technology should not be to promote the new-technology per se, but rather to use it to be more effective and achieve our objectives.
Acknowledgements
The author acknowledges support by the Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, and the Graduate School of Northern Illinois University, and the National Science Foundation support (Grant No. CTS-9523519).
References
Appendix 1:
http://www.ceet.niu.edu/faculty/kostic/Handouts390n490.htm
Appendix 2:
http://www.ceet.niu.edu/faculty/kostic/DAQdemo.html