2004 ASME CURRICULUM INNOVATION AWARD

 

(Tampa, FL, November 16, 2004) - Drs. Kaw and Besterfield received the 2004 ASME Curriculum Innovation Award for the ongoing development, assessment and dissemination of the NSF funded (2002-2007) web-based modules available at the Holistic Numerical Methods Website.  The award ceremony was followed by a presentation of the paper.

 

This ASME award program recognizes and encourages innovation in Mechanical Engineering (ME) and Mechanical Engineering Technology (MET) Education and encourages the dissemination of exemplary curricular innovations throughout the engineering education community.

 

Previous winners of the ASME Award include developers at Carnegie Mellon University, Tufts University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, University of Albany, Air Force Academy, University of Texas at Austin, Auburn University, University of Minnesota, University of Maryland, Stanford University, and Lehigh University.
 

Provided free of charge,

  • the developers believe in the philosophy of "having open dissemination of educational materials, philosophy, and modes of thought, that will help lead to fundamental changes in the way colleges and universities utilize the Web as a vehicle for education" - MIT OCW.

  • provide resources that are pedagogically neutral but can be modified to suit an instructor's needs. However, see an example of how we made an interactive E-book by only using the resources at this site.

Currently, Florida A&M and Wright State University are partners on the project.  This partnership among three universities is allowing us to measure the effectiveness of the web-based modules in a diverse student population:

  • underrepresented minorities and women in engineering (FAMU),

  • transfer and over traditional-age adult students (USF),

  • diverse engineering majors – Mechanical, Electrical, Chemical, and Biomedical,

  • class sizes – small (FAMU), medium (WSU), and large (USF),

  • computational systems (Matlab at FAMU and WSU, and Maple at USF).

Other contributors to the project are

  • Graduate students - Nathan Collier, Jai Paul, Shenique Johnson, Troy Biersack, and

  • Undergraduates - Michael Keteltas, Ginger Williams, Paul Sanders, Kevin Martin, Carrie Berkhan, Aaron Cline, Charlie Barker, and Loubna Guennoun.

Dr. James Eison of the Department of Adult, Career and Higher Education of University of South Florida helped develop the assessment instruments used in the project.

 

For more information on the project, please contact Autar Kaw or visit http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu