Engineering Design Graphic Journal (ASEE - American Society for Engineering Education)
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Creativity Development in a Freshman Level Engineering Graphics Course — An Application
Get PDFThe ability to solve problems is a skill that is highly valued and sought after by employers in many areas of industry. Graduates of engineering and engineering technology programs that come into the workforce with the training to provide solutions to problems are, therefore, in high demand. To provide students with this ability to look at issues in novel, inventive, and ingenious, ways, educators must include creativity-enhacning, inventiveness-developing exercises for the students into their curricula on a regular basis. Much research has been done on creativity development and creative problem solving applications, and many solutions have been proposed for educational situations, including directed design projects, junior- and senior-level design groups, team applications, semester projects, and 'open-ended' problem sets. Unfortunately, most of these high-end solutions are focused on upper division or senior-level students. This paper proposes a simple approach for including exercises into the freshman level classroom, to help first and second semester students approach problems and problem solving in novel and inventive ways. By working through these opportunities, the students' creative abilities begin to be developed, providing a stepping stone to more involved creativity developing exercises and projects, and resulting in early, confidence-building success in the problem solving area. Examples of typical exercises will be discussed, as well as student feedback to the exercises
Message from the Chair
No full textMy thanks to our members and readers for letting me serve as chair over the millennium. Reading through past issues of the Journal, listening to EDGD meetings and pondering history, I am struck with one word: "Change". Change is our universal constant and there is yet a constant within change. The constant I note in change is the mind of man. The thinking human being brings about the rapid changes we have seen and will see in our lives; thinking humans have brought us to where we are today. The Engineering Design Graphics Division is about visual communication and it is about technology. Fifty years ago I was a young engineer doing design "on the board" using the tools of the day: triangles, straight edge, dividers and compass to create drawings for the production of manufacturing equipment. Today young engineers use computer programs to design, animate, test and present concepts for manufacture and production. Five hundred years ago Leonardo da Vinci was making sketches (copies of which adorn my office wall) from which inventions could be built, and with technique which I could never hope to equal. Three hundered years ago Venetian artists were creating architectural perspectives which rival the best our architects can produce today. We have new tools but is our visualization, our imagery in the mind, any greater than that of daVinci or Canaletto? The tools for presentation are changing at breakneck speed (for a teacher trying to stay current) but the mind must still envision the final product and know how to use the tool, be it a brush or an animation program or a virtual reality studio. We in the EDGD welcome all who share the love of the exciting graphic media and the love of learning (and teaching). What name we are called: engineering graphics, freshman design or computer graphics are not as significant as what we know, do, learn and teach. Reading letters from past chairs the words vision, fiends, service and change clung to my memory. These are what teaching technology and joining with others with like interest is all about. Those of us active in EDGD have enjoyed all of these — —the vision for the future of graphics presented in our meetings and publications, —the friends we have made from all over the continent who share our passion for graphics, —the service opportunities we find that broaden our perspective and give us a sense of worth, —and the constant change we share which keeps us alert and alive
Message from the Chair
No full textIt seems like only yesterday that I wrote the first of these columns allowed to your Chair. I have enjoyed my year as Chair and am passing the "torch" on to our capable Vice-Chair, Jim Leach. The Engineering Design Graphics Division is a volunteer organization and I appreciate the service and support of all officers, chairs and other members. Thank you! By the time you read this each of the members should be wearing their EDGD recognition pin which was authorized by the Executive Committee and mailed this Spring. I hope you will wear it and feel a kinship with colleagues you see also wearing the pin. Now that I am "emeritus" at Ohio State I find that I can't stay away from the classroom. Autumn quarter there were two classes of Honors graphics with 35 really intelligent and earnest young men and women in each class. Winter quarter we did take a vacation and in Spring I had one class of beginning graphics and another in design for manufacture using Solidworks — fun. Our vacation was a trip to New Zealand and Australia (mostly New Zealand) and I couldn't stay away from graphics: we stopped at the University of Canterbury near Christchurch. We were greeted warmly and invited to sit in on a course planning meeting. Same discipline — same great people: we have a lot in common with graphics professionals everywhere. Last Winter we visited eight other universities to learn about their graphics programs and were welcomed at each one (paper in this edition of the Journal). My goal, since leaving industry and becoming a professor, has been to help people learn about graphic communication so that they can be productive citizens. I believe that all of my colleagues share the same focus: to help people learn to visualize, to communicate, to create. It is good to associate with friends who share this same focus. And like other Chairs before me, I shall not leave the Engineering Design Graphics Division — just work with my friends in a different role
Message from the Editor
No full textDear Members: I'll breathe a big sigh of relief after turning over this last issue of the Journal to the printer. My three-year term as editor has come to an end. It was a lot of work but I always felt I had the support of the membership. I want to thank all the division members who have contributed to the Journal's success. Members of the publication committee—Sue Miller my Technical Editor, who did a great job supervising the review process—Clyde Kearns, Circulation Manager who has served the Journal diligently for many years—and Mark Bannatyne, Advertising Manager, who has spent many hours on the phone on behalf of the Journal. I also want to thank all the members of the review board who served during my term. Through your efforts, the Journal remains a quality publication. Finally, thanks to all the contributing authors, for without you there would be no Journal. I'm glad to report that recently, the number of papers being submitted for publication has increased. We all need to keep publishing to keep the Journal strong. Congratulations and good luck to the new publication team. Sue Miller will assume the duties of Journal Editor. I've agreed to stay on as Sue's Technical Editor. David Kelley, who will join us at Purdue this Fall, will be the new Advertising Manager. Clyde will stay on as Circulation Manager but hopes to start training someone new for the job soon! See you at the Mid-year in San Antonio
Examining Industry Perspectives Related to Legacy Data and Technology Toolset Implementation
Get PDFoai:ojs.edgj.org:article/6In this paper, results from a subset of the Purdue Spatial Visualization Test and a self-efficacy test developed by the authors are presented to determine whether certain object shapes, orientations, and types of rotations in standard spatial ability tests cause more difficulty than others and whether a solid object, which includes shading to distinguish different surfaces on the object, would have an effect on the spatial ability test results. Lower spatial ability scores were observed for more complex object shapes, orientations, and number of rotations on both tests; however, viewing solid images as opposed to line images did not affect the spatial ability scores. The subjects in this study were engineering students from various disciplines
Message from the Chair
No full textI have listened to many exciting presentations at division meetings over the past eight years, but only a fraction of these end up being submitted to the Journal for publication. I urge you to dust off some of your previous conference presentations, start up a new research study that promises exciting results, or write up the results from that work you did but never got around to publishing. Enlighten us. We are interested in what you have to say. Wow! Some of you who may know me will find it hard to believe that I am actually at a loss for words. I know that this is my chance to write something really though-provoking, inspirational, and profound, but I'm not sure where to start. I read through the messages of previous Division chairs and I was humbled. I was also honored to know that I had been elected to serve as chair of a Division such as this. We are a Division "on the move." We have been making steady progress towards all of the goals that we have set for ourselves over the past few years. Our membership has grown; we have instituted several new awards to honor our members; we have seen an increase in the number of members who actively participate in the work of the division. So what is there left to do? All of my predecessors had some agenda item that was the focus for their term - sometimes it was an agenda item of their own choosing, sometimes it was one that the membership championed. I have not heard of any burning issues that were brought up during the annual meeting, so I guess that means I might be able to pick an agenda item, all by my self. What a scary thought! I fell so powerful and in command! Actually, when I realized that I was going to have to come up with a profound topic for discussion on my own, I couldn't think of anything at first, but thought it would be silly to write a Chair's Message that consisted of only five words - "Keep up the good work." I asked our journal editor for guidance on how many words were required, and was informed 10,000 (I think she was joking). But in the process, I discovered that there was no real rush to complete this message because there was only one paper ready for publication at the time. After cogitating for a while on our lack of papers, I decided that this would be the message I would like to focus on for this issue of the journal. Although I have not been around for as long as some (read Larry Goss here), I believe that this division was founded on the premise that engineering graphics educators needed to: 1) be able to meet to share ideas for teaching graphics, and 2) have a forum for publication of topics of interest to a broad spectrum of engineering graphics educators. I believe we are achieving the first of these objectives very well. Our meetings are informative, interesting, and sometimes just plain fun (read Pat Connolly here). However, it seems that we are somewhat lacking in achieving our second objective. I have been told that our Journal is the oldest or one of the oldest in all of ASEE. I would gate to see the Journal die a slow and painful death through lack of submissions from members. I have listened to many exciting presentations at division meetings over the past eight years, but only a fraction of these end up being submitted to the Journal for publication. I strongly believe that professional development is a crucial component for preserving your sanity as a faculty member. We desperately need a creative outlet and some intellectual stimulation that we typically do not get from teaching our courses day in and day out. Nor do we get this sort of intellectual stimulation from sitting in endless committee meetings on our campuses. As a Division, we need to be engaged in scholarly activity. If we are to be respected among our academic peers, we must write and publish papers that are of high quality and that highlight our scholarly work. We need to be asking and answering significant questions through well-planned research and curricular studies. I realize that it is difficult to carve out the time for scholarly work from our already frenetic schedules, but doing so will enable us to move forward in our quest for excellence in graphics education. Many of the papers presented in our midyear and annual meetings would be of interest to our colleagues who cannot attend our meetings. They will likely never hear of our work unless it is published in the Journal. So, if we ever get enough papers to publish this issue of the Journal and you get a chance to read this most inspiring message, I urge you to dust off some of your previous conference presentations, startup a new research study that promises exciting results, or write up the results from that work you did but never got around to publishing. Enlighten us. We are interested in what you have to say
Message from the Chair
No full textAt the EDG MidYear Meeting in Columbus, Ohio, I asked each of those present to give me their ideas in response to the following question. "What is at least one thing we can do as a membership to ensure the viability of the EDG Division into the next century?" Later I put the same question on the EDG Listserve. I stripped all names from the responses and have been trying to compile and make sense out of the wide and varied information I received. While many of the ideas have merit and I will try to make a full report in the next issue of the Journal, I would like to comment on what one member had to say. I would suggest that we consider actively broadening the mission of the Division in promoting graphic communication for engineers through any and every technical means available. Within the broader context, (perhaps a Divisional name change to Graphic Communicate for Engineering - notice I left out the sacred Design word) the role of the Division would be to greatly expand its development into the visual communication realm. This could certainly be used to attract a broader base of professionals into the field. If we're going to be successful at this, we must actively recruit EVERYONE, including DEED and other existing divisions, interested in the implications of graphic communications in engineering education. Gee, I guess that's everybody!! At first I thought this might be considered heresy, and then I began to think about all of the Engineering Design Graphics programs that used to exist and how many of them are now defunct. The decision has already been made at many universities across the country that individual departments devoted to Engineering Graphics are not needed. Although Engineering Graphics is still being taught to engineering students often it is not being taught in and Engineering Graphics Department. This does not diminish the importance of what we do, it just points out how things have and continue to change. When I compare our name and what we have done in the past with what we are now doing I wonder if it is time that WE changed along with the times. As a division we are struggling to find new members, and although we have established a great tradition in the Engineering Design Graphics Journal, we are struggling to fill the pages with papers. This seems to be due in part to our small membership and aging members who no longer need publications for their promotion, but also to the narrow focus of what our reviewers rightly consider to be associated with our mission. Graphics for communication is emerging as an integral part of what we do and we need to be major players in the field. Already, many of our members are involved in using variety of new media for their classroom, books, handouts, and lectures. Multimedia, the Web, and interactive presentations all involve graphics in a huge way. Who is better equipped to add technical engineering graphics advise than the members of the EDG Division? I am not suggesting that we abandon Engineering Design Graphics, but I will continue my theme of suggesting that we expand our horizons and become more inclusive rather than exclusive. We need to be proactive about graphics rather than reactive. We should be so attractive that ASEE members are flocking to our division. By the way, if you are not on the EDG ListServe, contact Eric Wiebe at: [email protected] and he will get you subscribed
Developing 3-D Spatial Visualization Skills
Get PDFThe development or improvement of 3-D spatial visualization skills is often cited as one of the major goals of engineering design graphics education. Historically, improvements in spatial skills were achieved as a by-product of a graphics education that often included several semesters of instruction in manual drafting technique. As the engineering curriculum evolved through time, traditional graphics instruction was "squeezed" from two directions simultaneously. First and foremost, engineering programs were required to reduce the total number of credits to graduation, often resulting in fewer credits available for graphics instruction. Second, pressure was exerted on graphics educators to include additional topics such as CAD, design, and creativity in their introductory courses. Instruction in manual drafting technique was greatly reduced or eliminated altogether in favor of sketching and/or computer applications. Throughout this evolutionary process, the objectives of graphics education have changed accordingly. Increased emphasis has been placed on the development of 3-D spatial skills in these courses, however, many graphics educators, who themselves typically have highly developed skills, have had no formal training in understanding spatial skills or how they are effectively developed. This paper will attempt to answer several questions regarding background information on research in spatial skills and will describe those strategies that graphics educators can adopt to develop these skills in their students
Preparing Images for Distribution
Get PDFIn today's publishing environment where online and CD-ROM based materials are as commonplace as printed materials, authors are faced with more options for presenting materials. Educators need to be aware of the demands of creating documents for their classes, publications and presentations. Today, materials are presented in a variety of ways and must be prepared accordingly. Images such as illustrations, photos and charts are an integral part of most technical papers. For the person compiling the document for print or online venues, images present unique problems. Unlike text documents, which are readily transferable between applications and platforms, images need special attention. in order to create images which are an appropriate quality for distribution, the author must always be mindful of the format of the final output. The final format will affect how the images are created, scanned and submitted. Familiarity with graphic file types, scanning resolution and color bit-depth is a must for today's authors. This paper will focus on a comparison of the issues involved with preparing and submitting images for print and on-screen venues
Message from the Chair
No full text"PUBLISH or PERISH" We in academia have all been subject to the doctrine of "publish or perish". It is a mist for promotion and tenure. If you don't find a research area (preferably funded by grants) and write prolifically you don't survive on the faculties of major universities. The members of the Engineering Design Graphics Division have done their share of research and writing. The quality of our papers and the quality of the presentations (PowerPoint, fly-ins, animations, multi-color) have all been very impressive in this last decade. Excellent research has been done in the teaching and learning technology, curriculum studies, visualization tools, applications in industry and many other areas. And, many of these fine papers appear in our Engineering Design Graphics Journal. It is the professional journal for our expertise. The Spring '99 edition is a wonderful source for the best thinking on the future of engineering graphics. Unfortunately, it is a rare edition — too often our devoted editor has difficulty in finding enough good papers to fill and edition of the Journal. The fact is not that they don't exist; the fact is that authors, having presented and seen their work in a proceedings, don't bother to submit for publication. And thus the members and non-member readers who did not attend the presentation are deprived of the knowledge, information, and perspective contained in many of our good papers. "SUBMIT AND SHARE" So I am reminding and asking each of our authors not only to make great presentations but also to "polish" the paper and submit it to the Journal for review and publication. You have done quality research and presentation, but the audience is limited to those who attended the particular conference where you made your presentation. Share you work with the hundreds of colleagues who ready our Journal but who were not in attendance when you presented. Members of the Engineering Design graphics Devision are not required to pay page charges (another benefit of membership), while members of other ASEE divisions pay only a nominal charge and non-members still pay only a very competitive rate. So, please don't be selfish or fell you're too busy to send in a polished copy for publication — please do share with all the rest of us who could not attend your original presentation. By the time you read this (I hope you do!) my wife and I will be in New Zealand, learning about this lovely country. If it can be arrange I shall attend an engineering class or two while there — I'm not sure about this for it will be lated summer in New Zealand. Last winter we toured 6,100 miles visiting US engineering colleges; on this trip I learned a lot and was treated royally by my friends and colleagues in graphics programs around the country. It's a great life