This is the web-site for engr1112 Intro to Engineering for the Spring 2007 semester.

If you have any questions e-mail elemley@ucok.edu. Grades are posted here. Please let me know as soon as possible if you think there is a mistake.

Final presentations on the raft design project are Thursday May 3 at 11:00 a.m.

NSPE Code of Ethics.

National Institute for Engineering Ethics (NIEE) . Ethics violations cases.

Find two engineering ethics cases from the NIEE web-site. For each of the two cases write two paragraphs. The first paragraph should summarize the case and the resolution. The second paragraph should include an ethics analysis of the case. It is VVI (very very important) that your analysis is done from the perspective of the NSPE Code of Ethics by stating specific Canons, Rules of Practice, or Professional Obligations referencing the exact part of the code from which your reasoning derives. It is also very important not to judge the case only by your personal ethics -- please stick to the Code of Ethics.

Please format these into a Word document and send to Dr. Lemley (e-mail) by class-time on April 10.

Your design team should submit a design memo that documents your progress thus far on the raft project. Note that design projects should generally follow a process as outlined in Ch. 3 of your Engineering Design and Problem Solving text. At this p oint you should be at the stage of generating multiple solutions (step 3). The format of the memo is as follows:

1. Who is the memo from, who is it to, what is the purpose, and what date was it sent.
2. Intro paragraph with project summary.
3. Detailed functions served by each team member. This should include a team leader, technical analysis person, a construction person, a communications person, a budget person, etc...
4. A summary of your notes from all team meetings. Along with the when you have met and who attended. If someone was not present a reason should be included.
5. Documentation of each step of the design process - so far that would be steps 1 and 2. Please document each of these steps in as much detail as possible as to what the problem is as you understand it (including contraints), and evidence of gathering pert inent information concerning the project.
6. Initial ideas (including sketches or computer sketches/drawings) of at least two solution possiblities.
7. What skills (mathematical, engineering, physics) and will you need to complete the analysis of the two solutions?.
8. What materials will you need to construct each of the two solutions and what is the cost?

Please work the following problems from your Ch. 2 of your textbook (Engineering Design and Problem Solving):
2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 14, 15.

Make a spreadsheet that covers a time period of a week (like that shown in your Engineering Success book) that shows how you are utilizing your time. Include class meetings, lab meetings, meals, study time (for specific courses), entertainment, exrecise etc...

Name the spreadsheet uconnectlogin.xls (for example I would call mine elemley.xls).

You can find info on how to use MS Excel here.

Choose an engineering discipline and research it via the Chambers Library. You should have read your Engineering Success book about various disciplines at this point - use that reading and any references as a starting point for the following:

1. The basic areas of study of this discipline.
2. A list of at least five jobs that you might obtain with a Master's degree in this area
3. A list of at least five U.S. companies that engage in work in this area -- you should include the name, location, and basic mission of each.

Use the Chambers Library web-site to find some things:

1. Use one of the engineering or related databases (discussed in library session) to search for articles on a physics or engineering topic that you are interested in. You should find full citations and abstracts for at least four articles on a similar topic .
2. Use the UCO library catalog to find two books on another physics or engineering topic of interest to you. You should make sure the books are available (on shelves) and go to the library to check them out.
3. Use the Academic Search database to find one article of your choosing on any topic. You will require the full text of the article.

Visit (in person) two (2) of the locations on the campus resources list (here) and collect the following information: name, location, purpose, hours of operation. You will need to actually speak with someone w ho works there. When you speak to them collect their name. Also please state when you made your visit.
E-mail Dr. Lemley (here) the results of your work by class time next week. Make sure you include your name, the name of the course (Intro to Engr) and "HW#3" in the subject line of your e-mail.

Please send Dr. Lemley an e-mail with an attachment that documents the results of your first team meeting. Note your team should focus on brainstorming for the design of the raft seat for the disabled project. See link above for your teams and for info about the project. Note: Your e-mail should have the following words in the subject line: Team #?, HW#2, Brainstorming. Please insert your team number.

Please go to the Survey page to complete Homework#1.

Following our discussions I located my book references for the rounding rule we discussed in class on Tuesday:

Bevington, Phillp R. and D. Keith Robinson. Data Reduction and Error Analysis for the Physical Sciences. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1992.

Jong, I.C. and B.C. Rogers. Engineering Mechanics -Statics. Philidelphia: Saunders College Publishing, 1991.

Scarborough, J.B. Numerical Mathematical Analysis. Baltimore: J. Hopkin's Press, 1966.

I also did some web-searching and found the following interesting links about the round-to-even rule (note all as available on 05-September-06):

http://www.pacific.edu/college/psychology/Statistics/Rounding.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rounding
http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/754/
http://hypernews.slac.stanford.edu:5090/HyperNews/slacsite/get/HiPPP/4.html?inline=1
http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/63989.html

The wikipedia reference above states the following:

Although it is customary to round the number 4.5 up to 5, in fact 4.5 is no nearer to 5 than it is to 4 (it is 0.5 away from either). When dealing with large sets of scientific or statistical data, where trends are important, traditional rounding on avera ge biases the data upwards slightly. Over a large set of data, or when many subsequent rounding operations are performed as in digital signal processing, the round-to-even rule tends to reduce the total rounding error, with (on average) an equal portion o f numbers rounding up as rounding down. This generally reduces the upwards skewing of the result.

Round-to-even is used rather than round-to-odd as the latter rule would prevent rounding to a result of zero.

Overall the above reading and links convince me that it is proper to round as I have described in the Engineering Calculations Handout (pdf). One of the links notes that kids in school are taught to round anything ending in a 5 up because it is easier to learn! Other articles discuss that the round everything up as the Accounting rule. I don't have anything against accountants, but the most important thing to me is decreasing round-off error in the many situtations where they are important (see quote from wikipedia above about where these issues may crop up). Also note that the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has established a standard that the default roundi ng of decimals on computers should be performed in the most statistically valid way which is the Round-to-even technique. If it's good enough for IEEE, it's good enough for me (and you).