NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract Session 1692 AWE: An Outreach Workshop for Middle School Girls Kauser Jahan, P.E., Beena Sukumaran, Linda M. Head and Zenaida O. Keil Rowan University College of Engineering 201 Mullica Hill Road Glassboro, New Jersey 08028-1701 Abstract A two-week, EiF Foundation and Rowan University sponsored workshop designed to introduce middle school girls to engineering careers was held at Rowan University during the summer of 1999. This target audience was selected to expose young girls to the importance of focusing on mathematics and science in their middle school years. Participants from minority populations were strongly encouraged to apply. Innovative hands-on experiments in the various fields of engineering with state of the art technology were used to spark the participants’ interest in engineering. Experiments required collaborative learning through teamwork. The program consisted of a two-week on-campus session at Rowan University wherein students interacted with departmental faculty, undergraduate engineering students and representatives from local industry. The workshop also experiments, field trips, workshops on engineering ethics, professionalism, gender sensitivity and computer training sessions. The impact of the workshop was very encouraging and positive. Such workshops can encourage young girls to consider engineering as a course of study and/or a career in their high school years. Introduction Women constitute approximately half of the population and about 46 percent of the labor force in all occupations, but only 9 percent of engineers [1,8,9]. According to the US Department of Labor predictions, between now and the year 2000, nearly two-thirds of the new entrants into the work force will be women. The current low level participation of women in science, mathematics and engineering will be a major deterrent in precluding them from the future job market. Girls still do not enter the field of engineering or other professions requiring strong backgrounds in science and mathematics in large numbers. There is still considerable “math anxiety” and many girls choose not to continue with mathematics and science beyond the required courses in high school. As a result, they often close themselves out of professions they might wish to enter later. Specifically, engineering and sciences continue to show an underrepresentation of women. Lebuffe [2] in her annual survey of engineering enrollments and degrees for the Engineering Workforce Commission of the American Association of Engineering Societies, found that roughly 16 percent of all bachelor degrees in engineering were awarded to women in 1993. In 1993, women received only 9 percent of the doctoral degrees in engineering. The future does not seem to be brighter either. In January 1994, only 2.9 percent of all women entering college planned to major in engineering and only 1 percent planned to enter technical fields (compared

NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract Main Menu Session 2426 Bugbots! A Multidisciplinary Design Project for Engineering Students Kathryn Hollar1, Fan Lau2 Linda Head1, Kauser Jahan1, Eric Constans1, Paris von Lockette1, and Bernard Pietrucha1 1 College of Engineering, Rowan University 2 Cornell University Abstract Rowan University’s College of Engineering stresses the importance of a well-rounded undergraduate engineering curriculum, incorporating relevant aspects of all engineering fields as well as promoting teamwork through multidisciplinary group projects. This paper describes a semester-long sophomore-level multidisciplinary engineering design course in which student teams design and create a microbial fuel cell (MFC) that powers a Lego® Mindstorms robot. The project combines mechanical, chemical, civil & environmental, and electrical & computer engineering skills. Students determine how changing certain fuel cell parameters and conditions affect voltage and current, then construct a Lego® Mindstorms robot that will derive its energy from a MFC stack. The project reinforces many concepts from courses early in the curriculum, such as chemistry, biology, and physics. Because of the multidisciplinary nature of the project, contribution and cooperation from all students are important factors in the success of their designs. This paper discusses the course structure, experimental and design aspects of the project, and student response to the project. Introduction In 1992, Henry M. Rowan donated $100,000,000 to the then Glassboro State College to establish a unique engineering program in southern New Jersey. What is now Rowan University boasts an innovative College of Engineering comprised of four programs: Chemical, Civil and Environmental, Electrical and Computer, and Mechanical. The College graduated its first class in May 2000 and serves 15 to 35 students per year in each of its four programs for a total of 60 to 125 students per year. The hallmark of the Rowan engineering program is an emphasis on technical communication and integrated, hands-on design and experimentation, which is realized in the multidisciplinary, project-oriented Engineering Clinic sequence. To better prepare students for entry into a rapidly changing and highly competitive marketplace, engineering design and practice as well as communication and teamwork skills are introduced early in the curriculum. Beginning in the freshman year, all students enroll in Clinics and work with students and faculty from all engineering disciplines on laboratory experiments, real-world design projects, and research projects of increasing complexity. The importance of effective written and oral communication skills, teamwork skills, and technical proficiency is reinforced in the Clinic sequence1. In Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright  2002, American Society for Engineering Education Main Menu

The hallmark of the Rowan College of Engineering undergraduate program is to provide effective laboratory based instruction that illustrates important scientific concepts. This paper presents the results of an effort by the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rowan University to configure a novel method of teaching the junior level Communications (COMM), Digital Signal Processing (DSP) and Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) courses under a common laboratory framework. These three courses are taken concurrently during the spring semester of the junior year. The described interdisciplinary experiments cut across individual course boundaries and integrate hands-on experience and software simulation. Software is integrated with the experiments through MATLAB and SIMULINK, C/C++ and Mentor Graphics.

NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract Main Menu Session 2330 Using your Brain to Build Teams that Work: A Study of the Freshman and Sophomore Engineering Clinics at Rowan University Kathleen M. Pearle, Linda M. Head Rowan University Abstract This paper discusses the results of the first semester of a longitudinal study of intentional teambuilding undertaken in the Freshman and Sophomore Engineering Clinics at Rowan University. Students took Johnston & Dainton’s Learning Combination Inventory 1 (LCI), a 28- item self-report instrument that quantitatively and qualitatively captures the degree to which an individual uses each of four learning patterns. Through these patterns the learner represents how he or she sees the world, takes in stimuli, integrates the stimuli and formulates a response to it. An individual can begin his or her learning with a particular pattern or patterns, use patterns as needed, or avoid them. Teams were then created in order to maximize individual and collective use of learning patterns. This paper will report 1. The results of the initial study conducted during the Fall 2001 semester. 2. An overview of the patterns that resulted from the administration of the LCI to all Freshmen and Sophomore Engineering students at Rowan 3. Examples of the patterns of the teams that were assigned (to show how it’s done) 4. Comments from students regarding their team experiences 5. An evaluation of the study to date. Introduction Responding to the demands of industry for graduates skilled in teamwork, many engineering programs have introduced projects that require students to work in teams 2. Positive team experiences also contribute significantly to student academic success and to improved rates of retention3. Creating teams, however, does not always engender effective team behavior 4. Students who report negative team experiences typically cite lack of communication among – and lack of commitment by – some participants as factors critical to unproductive or failed work efforts5. Nationwide there is increasing interest in the subject of forming teams on the basis of qualifications that are more closely associated with individual learning patterns than with specific technical qualifications alone 6. Of course, it is important to take into consideration the actual technical skills that a particular member brings to a project team but if the team members do not adequately function as an effective unit, the technical skills will be wasted. The act of forming effective teams, then, should be emphasized as an important technical skill. “Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright Ó 2002, American Society for Engineering Education” Main Menu

Students entering the Rowan University College of Engineering arrive with a very diverse set of computing skills. Typically, they are familiar with the common packages such as Microsoft’s Office suite and most have used e-mail and played computer games of some type. However, a significant portion (greater than 50%) have not had rigorous programming experience. Since our common first year program has a C++ programming course in the second semester, we are concerned about both our students’ preparation for this course and their level of confidence in mastering the basics of computer programming. To meet the needs of our students we have initiated a Programming Preparation Course. This course is a collaborative effort of faculty in the College of Engineering and the Computer Science Department in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and a dedicated teaching team of six junior level Electrical and Computer Engineering students. Together we have designed a curriculum that will be taught outside of class time and will introduce the students to some fundamental concepts of computer programming. There are three sessions offered to the first year students, each is one hour long and focused on a limited topic set. The topics which we are using to introduce the fundamentals of programming are: (a) variables, output and the “if” statement; (b) loops (while and for) and input; and (c) function calls. The curriculum is based on a “show and do” method. The teaching team prepared a set of simple programs that the first year students ran and then modified in order to gain some skill and insight into how the programming sequence works. This year is the first time that we have attempted this type of class. We offered the course over a four week span during the second half of the Fall, 2000 semester. Thirty-seven students enrolled in the course. We will be tracking the progress of these students and a control group who also have not had prior programming experience to assess the effectiveness of our initial course offering. In this paper we describe the program and report the current progress of our assessment.

NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract Main Menu Session 1351 RESEARCH EXPERIENCES FOR UNDERGRADUATES IN POLLUTION PREVENTION Kauser Jahan, Jess W. Everett, Joseph Orlins, Robert P. Hesketh, Stephanie Farrell, Linda M. Head, Kathryn Hollar, Mariano Savelski, Raúl Ordóñez and Marianne Cinaglia ABSTRACT A three-year site for Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Program at Rowan University has been established through funding from the National Science Foundation and Rowan University. A common theme unifies the Rowan REU Site activities-Pollution Prevention. Site activities focus on fundamental and applied multidisciplinary research in pollution prevention. Pollution prevention is a key element of new EPA initiatives to protect our children's health and to promote environmental justice and urban environmental quality. Selected students from all over the USA work closely with engineering faculty on funded research projects in engineering that encourage pollution prevention and sustainable development. This eight-week program exposes students not only to the values of research experiences but helps them reinforce and build other important skills such as communication, social and leadership. The ultimate objective is to provide the REU participants with an enriching research experience that will encourage them to pursue graduate studies. INTRODUCTION Research experiences expose undergraduate students to the creativity of the research process and enable them to apply their acquired knowledge from formal co ursework. Active research experience is considered one of the most effective ways to attract talented undergraduates to and retain them in careers in science and engineering, including careers in teaching. Involving undergraduates in research also encourages them to pursue graduate education. The National Science Foundation (NSF) 1 has established the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program in its efforts to recruit diverse talented students to engineering and science. A REU site focusing on pollution prevention was established for three years at the College of Engineering at Rowan University starting the summer of 2001. The REU Site at the College of Engineering was established with the following objectives: · Generating excitement among the undergraduate students by providing them with the opportunity to work on engineering issues of national and international significance, · Providing undergraduate students with the opportunity to work on fundamental research projects that have significant impacts on human health and the environment, · Increasing the participation in research of women, underrepresented minorities, and persons with disabilities, Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright Ó 2002, American Society for Engineering Education Main Menu

NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract Attracting Women into Electrical and Computer Engineering Ying Tang, Head M. Linda, Shreekanth Mandayam, and Kauser Jahan Rowan University College of Engineering 201 Mullica Hill Road Glassboro, New Jersey 08028-1701 ABSTRACT Engineering is currently absent in most K-12 schools, which poses a large obstacle to the recruitment of students, particularly underrepresented groups, such as women, into engineering programs. Reaching back into middle schools and/or high school has been identified as one of the effective ways to recruit undergraduates. This paper describes such efforts at Rowan University to introduce young women into engineering and technology through a summer program titled “Attracting Women into Engineering”. Particularly, this paper focuses on two Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) modules that were developed in exposing middle school girls to ECE as a viable, exciting career option. 1. INTRODUCTION Although engineering is gaining popularity at all degree levels, according to the results of ASEE’s recent survey [4], the data continues to show that women remain underrepresented in engineering academia. Only 19.9% of the B.S. degrees and 16.9% of the Ph.D. degrees in engineering were awarded to women in 2001 [4]. Engineering careers are seldom exposed to students in most K-12 schools [3]. Students, especially women, sometimes do not see the necessity of focusing on their science and math courses. This poses a large obstacle to the recruitment of students, particularly underrepresented groups, into engineering programs. Mentoring middle/high school students has been identified as one of the effective ways to encourage and eventually recruit undergraduates. The College of Engineering at Rowan University has been hosting a summer program titled “Attracting Women into Engineering (AWE)” for

System-on-Chip (SoC) is the major revolution taking place in the design of Integrated Circuits (IC). However, progress in this rapidly evolving area hinges critically on the availability of well-educated engineers able to bridge the architectural and physical gaps in SoC design. There is a strong consensus from industry and academic institutions on the importance and urgency of reflecting the impact of the SoC paradigm shift in engineering education, as traditional programs, especially at the undergraduate level, have not kept pace with this evolution. This paper presents progress using SoC as a theme to achieve a seamless transition from a two-year community college (Camden County College) to the junior level of a four-year Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) program at Rowan University. The crux of achieving this seamless transition lies in reconfiguring and developing new courses at Camden County College that not only introduce key concepts taught in the first two years at Rowan but also replicate the innovative lab experiments in SoC introduced at Rowan. To this end, a new course sequence in Electronics and Digital Circuits is being developed at Camden County College. In addition, several concepts from the Freshman Clinic sequence at Rowan have been included at Camden County College in the Introduction to Engineering course. This course introduces key SoC concepts (like the timing circuitry of an electric toothbrush), reverse engineering, measurements and emphasizes oral and written communication skills. The paper presents details of these transition activities as a work in progress.

NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract Main Menu Session 2251 GETTING STUDENTS TO THINK ABOUT ALTERNATE ENERGY SOURCES Kauser Jahan, Kathryn Hollar, Fan Lau, Eric Constans, Paris R. von Lockette and Linda Head Abstract The College of Engineering at Rowan University was initiated as a result of a $100 million donation in 1992 from the Rowan Foundation. The engineering faculty use innovative methods of teaching and learning to better prepare students for entry into a rapidly changing and highly competitive marketplace. To best meet these objectives, the four engineering programs of Chemical, Civil and Environmental, Electrical and Computer, and Mechanical Engineering have common engineering clinic classes throughout their programs of study, in which undergraduates work in teams on hands-on open-ended projects. The primary goal of Rowan University's engineering clinic classes is to involve students in multidisciplinary design/research projects that teach engineering principles in both laboratory and real-world settings. The clinics further encourage students to address environmentally conscious design and issues related to sustainable development. The Sophomore Clinic students work on a semester -long design project every year. Faculty drawn from all engineering disciplines teach the course. The design project for Fall of 2001 was to design, build and test a semi-autonomous robot that uses power provided by batteries charged up with microorganisms. This project allowed students to focus on alternate energy sources such as biofuels. Biofuels are alcohols, ethers, esters, and other chemicals made from cellulosic biomass such as herbaceous and woody plants, agricultural and forestry residues, and a large portion of municipal solid and industrial waste. The term biofuels can refer to fuels for electricity and fuels for transportation. Biofuels are good for the environment because they add fewer emissions to the atmosphere than petroleum fuels and use wastes that currently have no use. Biofuels are renewable and an inexhaustible source of fuel unlike petroleum which is non-renewable. This paper focuses on how this project encouraged engineering students to think about alternate environmentally friendly sources of energy. Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright Ó 2002, American Society for Engineering Education Main Menu

A blind approach for estimating the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of a speech signal corrupted by additive noise is proposed. The method is based on a pattern recognition paradigm using various linear predictive based features, a vector quantizer classifier and estimation combination. Blind SNR estimation is very useful in speaker identification systems in which a confidence metric is determined along with the speaker identity. The confidence metric is partially based on the mismatch between the training and testing conditions of the speaker identification system and SNR estimation is very important in evaluating the degree of this mismatch. The aim is to correctly estimate SNR values from 0 to 30 dB, a range that is both practical and crucial for speaker identification systems. Experiments consider (1) artificially generated additive white Gaussian noise, pink noise and bandpass noise and (2) fifteen noise types from the NOISEX database. Four features are combined to get the best results. The average SNR estimation error depends on the type of noise in that a relatively low error results for pink noise and jet cockpit noise and a high error results for destroyer operations room noise and military vehicle noise. For both artificially generated noise and the NOISEX data, the error is lower than what is achieved by the IMCRA method that uses SNR estimation for speech enhancement. Combining the four features with IMCRA lowers the error for 8 of the 15 noise types from NOISEX.

Project-based and problem-based learning are widespread and proven pedagogical techniques to achieve a variety of learning outcomes. In this paper, several projects in the circuits, systems, VLSI and signal processing areas are described. The projects can be implemented using both project-based and problem-based learning and as part of an Electrical and Computer Engineering curriculum without the need for additional expensive resources. Learning outcomes in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) are emphasized such that students achieve analytical, design, software and communication skills. The VLSI design project also has an entrepreneurship component. Assessment results are provided.

Rowan University has recently been awarded Research Institution status. With this new designation there is an increasing emphasis on graduate education and on recruiting talented graduate students from both our undergraduate programs and from schools in our region. In order to promote recruitment and enhance retention, the university has developed a Teaching Fellows Program that provides our graduate students with funding for four semesters as they work toward a Master's Degree in their chosen major. With this opportunity in mind, the College of Engineering Dean's Office and the four department Chairpersons formed a committee to develop a summer training program that prepares the Teaching Fellows for the classroom experience. The program has four stages: 1) Orientation, 2) Instruction, 3) Classroom Immersion, and 4) Individual Practice. In this paper each stage is described in detail. This intensive training program with its novel use of classroom experience in summer programs has provided the Teaching Fellows the opportunity to gain the confidence and skills to succeed in their Fellowship requirements. A full description of the program and assessment data and analysis are presented.

One of the primary missions of any engineering program is to provide a well-rounded education that combines all fundamental concepts of the given area with an adequate exposure to relevant contemporary areas. However, the exponentially growing body of knowledge – particularly in emerging areas of engineering sciences – makes this mission an increasingly challenging proposition. More novel content from emerging areas need to be integrated into the curriculum to ensure that our students can be successful in today’s competitive job market. On the other hand, the economic and political realities of today’s academic environment restrict the number of credits a program can require for degree completion. The challenge, then, is to be able to provide as much meaningful and cohesive exposure to emerging / contemporary areas without sacrificing the fundamental background while keeping the credit count minimally effected, or preferably, unchanged. We have previously reported the preliminary assessment of our proposed approach, which consists of reconfiguring a time-honored teaching tool to integrate novel content into existing curriculum. We developed laboratory exercises distributed over the entire four year curriculum, which were integrated into existing core and elective courses. The exercises were designed to provide multidisciplinary novel content in emerging areas that relate to focus areas of existing courses. In our implementation, we use bioengineering/biotechnology (BME) as the multidisciplinary emerging topic area, and electrical/computer engineering (ECE) as the core curriculum. Since our initial report two years ago, which was based on a couple of experiments, we have developed several new laboratory exercises, and more importantly followed students who went through the four years of integrated BME content. In this paper, we present our implementation and assessment details, and some surprising outcomes we have observed since our previous preliminary assessment. We discuss many advantages, but also some potential pitfalls of this approach, along with lessons learned along the way.

Signals, Systems and Music: General Education for an Integrated CurriculumOur university’s Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and Music programs arecollaborating on an electronic music composition course titled Signals, Systems and Music. Thiscourse is the first step in our efforts to develop a new concept for providing a general-educationexperience that transcends traditional disciplines. The concept that we work from changes thefocus of courses “outside” of engineering from "exposure" to novel points of view to"immersion" in interdependent knowledge. We are gathering music students and first-yearengineering students for this novel educational experience: Music composition from anengineering systems point of view, exposing all students to concepts fundamental to both musicand engineering. We emphasize the interconnectedness of the disciplines, and (hopefully)awaken the students' desire to explore, innovate and create. This course is presented as a generaleducation experience that does not presume a background in music, mathematics or electronics.Our presentation will address initial and second year offerings of this new, first-year course. Wewill present examples of the following aspects of the course: • Lectures and exercises on music theory • Lectures and exercises on principles of signals and systems developed to be relevant for electronic music composition • Laboratory experiences using both hardware and software • Assessment instruments for objective and subjective (student centered) evaluation of the creative experience. • Assessment instruments for evaluating impact of the course on the academic engineering experience beyond the first year.The course is co-taught by a professor from Music, a professor from Electrical and ComputerEngineering and a musician/technician with experience in electronic music composition. We willpresent examples of all aspects of this course along with student final compositions. In addition,we will address future projects in our efforts to renew and revise the general educationexperience across the entire university curriculum.

Vertical integration is significant in achieving better student comprehension of the connections among topics and concepts covered in various courses taught during the same or different semesters of the curriculum. Students realize that the courses are part of a flow that contributes to a knowledge base without artificial boundaries rather than being separate bodies of knowledge. In this paper, vertical integration is achieved by a series of laboratory exercises in two areas (System-on-Chip and Green Engineering) that start as well-structured experiments at the lower levels and proceed as increasingly complex open-ended design projects at upper levels of the curriculum. Quantitative assessment results clearly show that students understand that concepts carry over from one course to another as a result of the laboratory projects. Clinic assessment results are also very encouraging.

This paper presents the development of a wireless, near-infrared (NIR) imaging system. The goal of the system is to provide flexibility and functionality to clinicians and researchers who require monitoring of blood profusion to tissue, muscles, or the brain. The prototype uses a single stimulus/detection unit composed of an Epitex NIR LED with three wavelength options: 730, 805, and 850 nm, and an OPT101 photodiode detector. The stimulus/detection unit is used to detect changes in the levels of oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin in the body by detecting the amounts of absorbed and backscattered light at the appropriate wavelength. The backscattered light collected by the optical sensor is converted to a digital, serial bit stream for wireless transmission to a base station computer. The usefulness of this design may significantly change the way in which researchers and clinicians study the human body. Without the need to attach a subject to bulky equipment and confine them to a laboratory setting, the investigator can gather data unrestricted by the experimental setting. This advantage permits a vital metabolic indicator to be studied in many different and perhaps difficult situations.

The rapid evolution of System-on-Chip (SoC) challenges academic curricula to keep pace with multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary system thinking. This paper presents a curricular prototype that cuts across artificial course boundaries and provides a meaningful exploration of diverse facets of SoC design. Specifically, experimental contents of a digital flow SoC product design-a simplified Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)/Internet Protocol (IP) stack-are systematically developed and implemented in the series of courses that comprise the Digital Design track of the Rowan Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) curriculum. The System-on-Chip project and its progressively more complex laboratory modules are described and discussed. Its implementation in the existing ECE curriculum is also presented along with the assessment results.

A blind approach for estimating the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of a speech signal corrupted by additive noise is proposed. The method is based on a pattern recognition paradigm using various linear predictive based features, a neural network classifier and estimation combination. Blind SNR estimation is very useful in speaker identification systems in which a confidence metric is determined along with the speaker identity. The confidence metric is partially based on the mismatch between the training and testing conditions of the speaker identification system and SNR estimation is very important in evaluating the degree of this mismatch. The aim is to correctly estimate SNR values from 0 to 30 dB, a range that is both practical and crucial for speaker identification systems. Speech corrupted by additive white Gaussian noise, pink noise and two types of bandpass channel noise are investigated. The best individual feature is the vector of line spectral frequencies. Combination of the estimates of 3 features lowers the estimation error to an average of 3.69 dB for the four types of noise.

Various methods for the efficient computation of line spectral frequencies (LSFs) have been proposed to address the computationally intensive task of isolating the roots of high-order polynomials in linear predictive (LP) systems. An ASIC implementation of one such algorithm to compute LSFs has been developed, simulated and synthesized. The design, expressed entirely in VHDL, is intended for implementation into larger speech processing systems. The design developed is suitable for speech coding applications requiring a 10th order LP analysis and for speaker recognition applications which need a 12th order analysis. The resulting efficient design is of low complexity, modular, optimized for speed and area and can be used in larger speech processing systems to offload main application processors and DSPs. When the designed ASIC is part of a speaker identification system, the same accuracy as a software implementation is obtained.

Abstract: