Engineering

As a follow up to my earlier blog post about creating videos quickly, I thought I would share a few examples of the final product.  When I started creating videos for an entire term online, I decided to add a bit more personalization.  All of the videos started with me on the screen introducing the content before jumping into the annotated PowerPoint content.  I created an animated logo in Adobe After Effects to add some flair and personalization.  Finally, I put some bed music and end credits to make it seem a bit more like what they were used to from other YouTubers.

At the 2017 Frontiers in Education (FIE) Conference, I published the results of a comparison of lab kits using the control systems laboratory framework (CSLF) that I published earlier this year in the IEEE Transactions on Education. The paper also includes a suggested process for using the CSLF in new laboratory development (see photo above).  The full paper can be accessed in the IEEE Xplore Digital Library.

At the 2017 Frontiers in Education (FIE) Conference, I published a paper about teaching assistants (TAs). The observations about the influence of TAs in the laboratory emerged from the laboratory equipment study that I conducted during my dissertation. Based on student comments during the original study, the TAs had an impact on the learning environment in the laboratory.   The full paper can be accessed in the IEEE Xplore Digital Library.

At the 2017 American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) Annual Conference, one of my students published a paper about the success of a unique SWE event at Kettering University, Welding and Machining Day.  The paper explained how the event was organized and summarized the feedback from the participants.  Diane Peters, the faculty advisor, and I also co-authored the paper.  The full paper can be accessed from the ASEE website.

To celebrate e-week 2014, I thought I would share my Top Ten Reasons to Love Engineering, inspired by this DiscoverE post.

While working at Rockwell Collins as a systems engineer, I have come to appreciate the value of the top-down approach to design. We are building very complex systems with large teams and it is impossible for any one person to know how every widget works and fits together. Because of this complex interaction my first boss, Bill Piche, always reminds our team that “we are all systems engineers.” When he said this he wanted to make sure that all of the software engineers, hardware engineers, and control law engineers considered how their changes impacted the rest of the avionics system, the airplane, and the crew. After participating in the development of a system from requirements capture through test, it became more apparent to me why it was so important.

This year I decided to partcipate in the "Letter to my Young Self" project sponsored by the Science Club for Girls in Massachusetts.

Dear Becky (age 10),

You will go to a lot of interesting places that you cannot even imagine right now if you use your strengths and passions.

Instead of a New Year’s Resolution, leadership coach and teacher Ginny Wilson-Peters selects a word to focus on for the year.  It has become an annual tradition for her; this year I’ve decided to do the same.  My word for 2012 is passion.  I chose passion as my word for 2012, because I want refocus my time on my passions: controls and learning.

This year for the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) is sponsoring a contest at WE11 (their annual conference) called the Mosaic of Memories Quilt. Each contestant was asked to submit an essay and a 6" x 6" quilt square illustrating their point of view as an engineer or SWE member. Each submission will be judged at this year's conference and the completed quilt will be on display at WE12. I was inspired to take advantage of the change to combine my crafty side with my engineering side.