EngineeringYour Future

A Project-BasedIntroduction to Engineering

Third Edition

Alan G. Gomez, PhD

University of Wisconsin & formerly Sun Prairie Schools

William C. Oakes, PhD

Purdue University

Les L. Leone, PhD

Michigan State University

Contributors

Marybeth Lima, PhD

Louisiana State University

Heidi A. Diefes, PhD

Purdue University

Merle C. Potter, PhD

Michigan State University

Craig J. Gunn, MS

Michigan State University

Ralph Flori, PhD

Missouri S&T University

Frank Croft, PhD

Ohio State University

Editor

John L. Gruender

Great Lakes Press, Inc.St. Louis

(800) 837-0201

custserv@glpbooks.com

www.glpbooks.com

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Engineering Your Future

A Project-Based Introduction to Engineering

Third Edition

International Standard Book Number:

978-1-881018-87-2 (1-881018-87-3)

Copyright © 2012 by Great Lakes Press, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or

by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any

means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, without prior

written permission of the publisher, Great Lakes Press, Inc.

Brand names, company names, and illustrations for products and services included in this pub-

lication are provided for educational purposes only and do not represent or imply an endorse-

ment or recommendation by the authors or the publisher.

Publisher does not warrant or guarantee any of the products described herein. Publisher does

not assume, and expressly disclaims, any obligation to obtain and include information other

than that provided to it. The reader is expressly warned to consider and adopt all safety precau-

tions that might be indicated by the activities described herein and to avoid all potential haz-

ards. The reader assumes all risks in connection with all instructions.

The publisher makes no representations or warranties of any kind, including but not limited to,

the warranties of fitness for particular purpose or merchantability, nor are any such representa-

tions implied with respect to the material set forth herein, and the publisher takes no responsi-

bilities with respect to such material. The publisher shall not be liable for any special, conse-

quential or exemplary damages resulting, in whole or in part, from the reader’s use of, or

reliance upon, this material.

All comments and inquiries should be addressed to:

Great Lakes Press, Inc.

c/o John Gruender, Editor

PO Box 374

Cottleville, MO 63338

jg@glpbooks.com

phone (800) 837-0201

fax (636) 273-6086

www.glpbooks.com

Library of Congress Control Number: 2006928759

Printed in the USA

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This book belongs to:

phone:

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Contents

From the Editor .........................................................................vii

Preface ..........................................................................................ix

1. What Is Engineering? (Job Classifications) ...........................1

The Engineer and the Scientist

The Engineer and the Engineering Technologist

What Do Engineers Do? (Engineering Job

Classifications)

2. Developmental Timeline for Engineering ..........................23

Definition of Engineering

Prehistoric Culture

Engineering’s Beginnings

Timeline of Engineering History

3. The History of the Early Engineering Disciplines ...........41

Civil Engineering

Industrial Engineering

Mechanical Engineering

4. Profiles of Historical Engineers ............................................65

5. The Engineering Disciplines ..................................................85

The Disciplines

Salary Information

The Engineering Technical Societies

6. Profiles of Engineers and Engineering Students............157

Profiles of NASA Engineers

Profiles of Practicing Engineers

Profiles of Engineering Students

7. Technical Communication ...................................................245

Oral Communication Skills

Written Communication Skills

Formats of Written Communication

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Contents8. Succeeding in the Classroom ..............................................287

Keys to Effectiveness

Well-rounded Approach

Time Management

9. What Do Employers Look For?............................................321

Working with Others

Experience

Myers Briggs Personality Types

10. Systems and Optimization ..................................................343

Systems

Processes

Optimization

11. Materials...................................................................................361

History of Use

New Materials

Classifying Materials

Periodic Table & Properties

Properties of Materials

12. Technology, Society, and Ethics ........................................385

General Ethics

Engineering Ethics

Engineer’s Obligation to Society, Employer, Clients

Legal Issues

13. Concurrent Engineering and Teamwork .........................433

Why the Focus?

Project Management

What Makes a Successful Team?

Leadership Structures and Attributes

14. Problem Solving .....................................................................471

Analytic Problem Solving

Estimation

Creative Problem Solving

Problem Solving Styles

Brainstorming

Critical Thinking

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Contents15. Design and Modeling............................................................533

The Design Process

Design Stages

Design Stage Case Study

16. An Interview with a Practicing Engineer ........................595

17. Computer Tools .....................................................................621

The Internet

Spreadsheets

Mathematics Software

Presentation Software (PowerPoint)

Operating Systems and Programming Languages

18. Engineering Fundamentals and Resources ....................663

Physical Principles

Mechanisms and Simple Machines

Kinematics Basics

Planar Linkages

Cams

Gears

Other Mechanisms (Ratchets, Clutches, U-Joints, etc.)

Momentum, Work, Energy, and Dynamics

Fluid Mechanics, and Pneumatic and Hydraulic Systems

Thermodynamics

Electrical Circuits

Engineering Economics

19. Engineering Work Experience............................................765

Summer Jobs and Part-Time Employment

Volunteer and Community Service

Internships

Co-op Programs

Glossary ....................................................................................779

Project Index............................................................................789

Index ..........................................................................................791

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From the Editor

Few students have any real notion of what engineering truly

is all about. Engineering, in one form or another, touches

most every aspect of our lives. Engineers work in countless

ways to make our lives better, safer, cleaner, more produc-

tive, less taxing, more convenient, more enjoyable, less

volatile.

Think about all the things you rely on and all the things you

enjoy every day. Engineers played a part in making them pos-

sible. Think about cell phones, video games, the Web, mi-

crowaves, iPods, movies, computers, TV, your alarm clock,

medical care, the food you eat, the car that gets you to the

mall, the cool shoes you’re wearing.

Engineers are also very involved in helping people. They

help needy people around the globe by providing safer water,

more abundant food, less pollution, and better medical care.

Engineers are also involved in medical advances that allow

people to live longer, healthier, more productive, more inde-

pendent lives. Artificial limbs and organs, the latest medical

procedures, and revolutionary new medicines all owe their

existence, to some degree, to engineers. Engineers also help

us make better use of renewable resources, recycle what we

have used, and minimize waste and pollution.

This is all in addition to some of the more traditional roles

engineers have played for decades: automobile design and

manufacturing; the construction of bridges, roads, and build-

ings; the development of electrical components and ma-

chines; etc.

Think about how you might like to help people or change

the world. Read this book and consider how you might help

others as an engineer one day.

John Gruender

Editor

P.S. Instructors, please help us make future editions even bet-

ter. Please email your comments and suggestions to me at

jg@glpbooks.com. Also, if you have any case studies you

might like to send us for inclusion and attribution, please

send them to cases@glpbooks.com. Thanks so much!

vii

From the Editor

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ix

PrefacePreface

One of the most significant labor shortages confronting

the United States pertains to technologically literate peo-

ple. Every year the United States government accepts more

and more people from foreign countries on work visas to

place them in technology-related fields. The continued use

of the H-1B visa program during one of the tech industry’s

most severe downturns has heightened renewed criticism

of the program. It is a hot-button issue with many U.S. en-

gineers who fear the country is giving away its tech jobs

(Bjorhus, 2003).

Although we are doing more than we have in the past to

give our students opportunities to become technologically

literate, too often educators place students in front of

computers and assume that technological literacy follows.

When colleges use surveys to find out what kind of skills

incoming freshman have, their skills, including computer

skills, are much lower than expected. Baylor University re-

ported that 24% of engineering students have some expe-

rience using CAD software, but that the expertise level, on

a scale of one to five, was at one. Only 63% of students

were familiar with PowerPoint, and then only at an expert-

ise level of one out of five (DeJong, VanTreuren, Faris &

Fry, 2001). While teachers need to teach content with com-

puters, it can also be stated that educators can’t teach with

just computers. Students need to be given exposure to the

creative nature of engineering through design projects,

hands-on laboratories, and open ended problem solving

(Sheppard & Jenison, 1996).

As budgets and, subsequently, programs are cut, par-

ents, teachers, administrators, legislators, and taxpayers

want to know that students are getting the best possible

educational experience for their dollar. These “sharehold-

ers” are an integral part of education and their roles

should not be slighted. “It’s bound to hit K–12 education,”

says Jane Hannaway of the Washington-based Urban Insti-

tute, who is researching the ailing economy’s impact on

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x

Preface schools. “We’re really beginning a significant, serious pe-

riod of resource trouble” (Richard & Sack, 2003). Is it en-

tirely subjective to determine what is a good course versus

a bad one?

Parents are interested in an education for their children

that focuses on more than just graduation requirements.

They want to see their children enlightened to the variety

of employment options available to them. Across the

country, parents are pouring back into schools, question-

ing what goes on in their children’s classrooms and pitch-

ing in to fill vacuums created by decreased funding (Wal-

ters, 1995). Teachers are also interested in offering

academically viable courses and programs that provide

highly valuable experiences for students, and not simply

courses that “keep students busy for an hour.”

Administrators are interested in effective curriculum

and in involving their teachers in proactively educating

students for the 21st century. During the course of a day

a principal may engage in more than twenty-five meetings

with parents, students, and teachers. Scheduled meetings

coexist with the responsibility to deal with urgent prob-

lems that spring up at a moment’s notice. While adminis-

trators are responsible for curriculum and programs, the

great variety of demands on their schedule often prevents

them from focusing on these matters until the deadline

for determining allocation and scheduling.

Legislators are interested in the results of testing. Some

of the courses and programs offered in schools fail to ad-

equately cover the entirety of the content of the tests. One

of the most significant questions in the minds of educa-

tors is whether courses are designed improperly (they do

not directly contribute to better test scores, or fail to teach

the precise material covered on the tests) or if the tests are

designed improperly (whether they should include more

reasoning, problem solving, or open ended creative ques-

tions).

Taxpayers are looking to get the best education for their

tax money without wasting it on bureaucracy and pro-

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xi

Prefacegrams. Presently, only about 25 percent of households

have school-aged children—a historic low. Increasingly,

therefore, taxpayers are looking at education as a financial

investment that benefits other people’s children (Labaree

1997, 62).

This book and its standards-based learning activities are

organized around a set of concepts, skills, and attitudes

which will help students become successful problem

solvers in life, whether they pursue a career in engineering

or not. Unfortunately, students in many schools can still

matriculate having had no practical involvement with en-

gineering-type problem solving concepts or case studies.

Many students find the variety of choices in engineering

schools daunting because they enter college with no real

understanding of what engineering is. A major problem of

secondary education is that schools teach science, tech-

nology, and mathematics only in the context of the spe-

cific disciplines.

This textbook addresses and solves that problem. It

presents students with the major engineering concepts,

and engages them in real-world case studies that resemble

the problems that they would actually encounter in the

field of engineering. The need for courses that stimulate

interest in careers in engineering and technology has been

apparent since the mid 1980’s. The results of the Grinter

Report of 1955 led to a change in the focus of curriculum

from practical engineering-based to scientific-based, with

more emphasis on theoretical approaches and less em-

phasis on the “machinery” of engineering (Sheppard &

Jenison, 1996).

In engineering study, the transition from high school to

college should become more seamless to significantly in-

crease the likelihood of success and the retention of stu-

dents in engineering. Many engineering schools are still

dissatisfied with their ability to attract and retain engi-

neering students. Many students continue to become dis-

couraged during the first few semesters in engineering

school due to a failure to adequately exposure them to ac-

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tual engineering principles and design concepts. As a re-

sult, many transfer out of engineering.

Working with college students in the ME99 course at

Stanford, a mechanical dissection course sponsored by

the National Science foundation, it was realized that early

exposure to engineering should ideally start well before

the freshman year in college, if possible (Sheppard & Tsai,

NDA). Criticisms leveled at US engineering schools include

the offering of too few “practical” and “hands-on” courses

(Sheppard & Jenison, 1996). These hands-on courses

should be created and implemented with student success

in mind. It is not logical to create large sections of courses

in order to satisfy allocation issues in schools. This type of

approach is taken at the expense of students. Laboratories

employ active learning and a smaller class size to achieve

two objectives: (1) to better inform students about the na-

ture of engineering and its specific disciplines and (2) to

improve these students retention in engineering (Hoyt &

Oland, NDA). The first engineering schools in the United

States used the laboratory as the primary mode of in-

struction (Durfee, 94).

Learning to navigate the road to the solution is just as

important, if not more important, than finding the solu-

tion itself. Education needs to teach the learning process

that students need to navigate that road. Typical class-

rooms have students sitting in rows, five across and six

deep discouraging their talking with each other. Yet edu-

cators expect them to communicate and interact with peo-

ple as a result. When the students graduate from high

school, whether they go into the workforce, the military,

two-year colleges or four-year institutions, they have to be

able to work with others, in small groups and in teams. In

a time of budget crisis or not, courses offered to high

school students should not only be a contributing factor

to their graduation, but to their lifelong success. There is

an increasing need for students to not only to be success-

ful in grade point averages, but to be creative thinkers and

problem solvers.

xii

Preface

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REFERENCES

Barker, Robert (8/19/2002–8/26/2002) The Art of Brain-

storming. Business Week, Issue 3796, p168

Bjorhus, Jennifer (Sun, Jun 23, 2002) Layoffs at Sun

prompt inquiry over work visas, Mercury News

DeJong, PhD., Nicole C., VanTreuren, PhD. Kenneth W.,

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sign To Teach Freshman Engineering Proceedings of the

2001 American Society for Engineering Education An-

nual Conference and Exposition

Daniel, Michelle (Jul/Aug 1995) When Creativity Counts.

Women in Business, Vol. 47 Issue 4, p48

Durfee, W. K., (Feb/Mar 1994) “Design Education Gets

Real,” Technology Review, pp. 42–51

Gomez, Alan G. (Mar 2000) Engineering, but how? The

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(Mar 2003) Foundations of Technology International

Technology Education Association and The Center to

Advance The Teaching of Technology and Science

(CATTS)

Grinter, L.E. (chair), 1955 Report on Evaluation of Engi-

neering Education, ASEE, Washington, DC

Hedrick, J., The Freshman Engineering Course Balancing

Act. Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engi-

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Hoyt, Marc, Department of Civil Engineering, and Oland,

Matthew, Department of Chemical Engineering, Univer-

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Labaree, D. F., (1997) Public goods, private goods: The

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xiii

Preface

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Lewis, Bob, Brainstorm no-brainer (Sep 30, 2002) In-

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Moreno, Roxana, Mayer, Richard E., (1999) Gender Differ-

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Richard, Alan, Sack, Joettal, (Jan 8, 2003) States Brace For

Tough New Year Education Week, 02774232, Vol. 22,

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Engineering Design Experiences: an Organizational

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Department of Public Instruction.

http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/standards/index.html

Wisconsin’s Governor’s Work-Based Learning Board WBL-

10234 (R. 10/2000) Skills standard checklist

Instructors, help us make the next edition even better. E-

mail your case studies to Great Lakes Press at cases@glp-

books.com.

xiv

Preface

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