In keeping with our series highlighting ET faculty and their accolades, this month we bring you a story

highlighting the dedication and perseverance of a faculty member at State College of Florida (SCF). Over the years, Adrienne Gould Choquette, program manager for the engineering technology program at SCF has been working closely with FLATE in positioning the ET degree as a relevant and exciting program for students. Below are some thoughts outlining her efforts to successfully pass the rigorous Professional Engineering (P.E.) Exam.

The P.E. exam had a lot of similarities to the E.I.T. exam, but even more dissimilarities.  It is an open book exam.  The first 4 hours covers the breadth of the chosen engineering field, the second 4 hours covers the depth of the chosen specialization.  The exam is 80 problems which equates to six minutes per problem.  That is six minutes to read the problem, figure out what they are looking for, find the related information in one of the references (hopefully chose the right reference to bring), and finally solve the problem. Hours melt away.  There is no time for contemplation. 

So how did I pass the third time?  I attribute it to a few things:

• I was dedicated to remaining physically strong.  I maintained a rigorous exercise regimen.
• I took a refresher course.  I don’t believe the material in the refresher course helped me; but rather it was the tips from the instructors and also the time commitment dedicated to preparing for the exam.
• I worked through problems until I could solve them as easily as I could solve the problem of 2+2.  Some nights I would focus on a few problems and work them over and over again only to wake up the next day and still not be able to solve them without out referencing the solution. But with persistence, eventually everything clicked.  (The books I used: Six-Minute Solutions for Mechanical PE Exam HVAC and Refrigeration Problems – Keith E. Elder PE and NCEES’s PE Mechanical Questions and Solutions)

The data provided not only opens discussion points about the structure of a Run Chart, it provides opportunities to introduce and peruse the least squares analysis of the summarized data chart data provided in the graph’s plots.  Since simple linear least squares analysis is available in many data analysis software packages, having students explore this technique is easy.   In many cases, as is in this example, an “eye-ball” linear least squares analysis will do.  The driving criteria for such least squares efforts is to try to construct a line that places the sum of all individual data point distances from the line equal to zero.  This exact task is hard for the eye to accomplish but most people can draw a line that meets this general requirement.  For this example, it should be clear that the least squares line for System 638 is increasing in a steady fashion and indicates  that ( if it has not already done so) the system will produce shear pins that exceed the radius tolerance limit for that part.  Thus, the equipment will need maintenance attention as soon as possible.

The technician decided that system # 638 was not operating as expected. YES

                             

     

Similar to FLATE, TERC is a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded Advanced Technological

Education (ATE) project that advances innovative pathways for technical education at the community college level. Its emphasis, however, lies in serving rural communities. Working with Hopkinsville Community College (HCC), which is part of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System, TERC currently serves Christian, Todd, Trigg, and Caldwell counties in southern Kentucky including Ft. Campbell and Montgomery counties in Tennessee. The region is home to over 70 manufacturing entities that consistently face difficulty hiring qualified employees to fill technical positions.

Contingent on securing funding from NSF, TERC is set to begin working on targeted objectives by summer

2014. Access to school for the rural students, poor academic preparation primarily in mathematics, and awareness of STEM fields open to minorities and women are three identified hindrances to higher education. Of the three, access and low mathematics comprehension are two educational barriers that will primarily be addressed by TERC.

Sherry McCormack, assistant professor at HCC says the TERC will develop and implement conduits for rural students and traditionally 

underrepresented groups to enter technical fields. This will be accomplished by utilizing portable, personalized instructional methods to facilitate remedial coursework success with contextualization of materials. Hybridization will incorporate problem based learning scenarios based on industry-centric curriculum relevant to highly technical workplaces. Didactic content will be delivered via the Internet and preloaded on portable media, while lab work will be facilitated through one-on-one instruction in an open lab environment.

To incorporate real-world applications and minimize rote learning, the project is contextualizing mathematics

content with application-related content of technology courses. “We plan to include ‘messy problems’ that assist students to think critically through mathematical problems that do not have one clear method for solving when multiple variables are present” said McCormick. Using this method, students can recognize real-world difficulties that are not easily solved, but can be addressed through ingenuity and creativity.

The morning session included presentations about electric vehicles, algal biofuel and marine renewable

energy, as well as a Florida Department of Education update from Kathryn Frederick Wheeler, supervisor of Energy and Architecture and Construction Career Clusters. Florida Power and Light Company brought a selection of electric cars/truck for participants to explore up-close, during the lunch hour. The afternoon session included a panel discussion on turbines and advanced fuels followed by a power analytics professional development activity held in IEES’, state-of-the art power analytics lab.

Most recently, FLATE sponsored a day trip and opened its doors for students from Marion Technical

Institute (MTI) in Ocala to visit its facilities and learn about the engineering technology program that is currently offered at HCC and 13 other colleges across Florida. “I wanted the students to see what we are doing in the high school is rigorous and relevant to career and college preparedness” said Dale Toney, robotics and automation teacher at MTI. Toney who was the recipient of the 20134 FLATE secondary educator of the year award said the tour provided students with a realistic view of STEM related careers and options available to them once they graduated from high school. Given the integration of robotics in high-tech operations, students also interacted with Brandon—a NAO humanoid robot which served as a highlight of their trip.

In an ongoing bid to encourage minorities and underrepresented students to pursue STEM based careers, FLATE also partnered with Hillsborough Community College, the School District of Hillsborough County’s

Career & Technical Education Department and the Florida High-Tech Corridor (FHTC)—an economic development initiative of the University of Central Florida, University of South Florida and University of Florida—to give 27 students enrolled in the aerospace technology program at Robinson High School (RHS) a tour of the ET lab at HCC. Jeffrey Bindell, Ph.D. who was a speaker and organizer said the tour was made possible via the techCAMP program, a subsidiary of FHTC’s techPATH initiative geared to educate/expose students to technology-related degrees offered at community colleges in Florida. The initiative has been highly successful, in that, more than 3700 students and teachers have toured high tech facilities via this program to date, and learned how an interest in STEM would translate to lucrative opportunities in future.

In addition to hand-on exercises, students also toured the 3D-printing laboratory, scanning laboratory and

the final products & samples station at EMS Technologies in Tampa. At the 3D-station laboratory students saw 3D printers in action, and got a brief explanation of printer set up and how the software works. At the scanning laboratory students saw different types of 3-D scanner, surface scanner for larger object, comet scanner for smaller objects and a metro scanner that could be manually operated. Students also got a demo of how to scan and 3D model an object. “There are no limits to what you can do with technology and if there are any limits those are just relegated to your imagination” said Sean McGlone, a junior at RHS.

Feedback to the tour was highly positive from teachers too. “The most immediate impact will be seeing what they learned about CAD/SolidWORKS is being applied and used in manufacturing settings” said Jeff

Kaloostian, aerospace technology instructor at RHS who also attended FLATE’s STEM workshop for educators in 2011. Kaloostian says most people envision engineering jobs as someone sitting on a desk and designing products, and a technician as someone with a wrench in their hands, but they do not think about the high-skilled, high-paying jobs an individual can make working as an engineering technology specialist. To that end, he hopes the tours will inspire and help students to think outside the box and explore technologies that might stimulate their interest in high-tech manufacturing and/or STEM.

FLATE the National Science Foundation Center of Excellence in Manufacturing at Hillsborough Community

College in Brandon congratulates 160 women who will be receiving the Women in Manufacturing STEP (Science, Technology, Engineering and Production) Awardpresented by the Manufacturing Institute in Washington, DC. Of note are the number of Florida based companies and individuals who have been nominated for the awards this year. Nineteen of the 160 honorees are from Florida several of whom represent FLATE’s statewide industry partners. The awards will be presented in Washington, D.C on Feb. 6, 2014.

The STEP Ahead initiative was conceived to promote and recognize the role women have demonstrated in Science, Technology, Engineering and Production excellence in the manufacturing industry through Recognition, Research, and Education/Leadership. In addition to recognizing women in manufacturing, the STEP Ahead initiative also empowers woman in manufacturing to continue to develop their own leadership and that of the next generation.

For more information on the STEP Ahead for women in manufacturing visit https://tinyurl.com/aq8nod3,or contact Dr. Marilyn Barger, executive director of FLATE at barger@fl-ate.org/813.259.6578.

Faith brings years of manufacturing engineering experience to her classrooms, and knows how important it is

to get students out to see what engineering and manufacturing work environments look like. The large facility is divided into two sections: repair and new productions. The repair facility is a large and busy operation that conducts repairs and regular maintenance of various blades that are part of the turbines which are primarily used in the electrical utility industry. On the production side, MPS is manufacturing new turbines. The tour groups were led by young engineers who had interned at Mitsubishi.  The company has a large and diverse internship program that serves most of its technical career pathways. Mitsubishi Vice President, Bob Provitola, also serves on FLATE’s National Visiting Committee.

A 60-minute drive northwest followed the tour and found us at Lake Sumter State College (LSSC) in Leesburg. The three campus, 7,500 student regional college wanted to learn more about the engineering

technology degree, and how FLATE could help with the process of documenting a need and/or implementing the degree. Dr. Eugene Jones, associate dean of workforce programs, had gathered a dozen college, school district and community stakeholders for the luncheon meeting. I gave a brief overview of FLATE, the NSF ATE program and the A.S. Engineering Technology degree, and then we got into lively discussions about the local industry base, college, community resources and partnerships as well as possible grants. A new “Advanced Manufacturing Center” at Lake Technical Center could help provide momentum and possible articulations into an A.S. Engineering Technology at LSSC as could pre-engineering programs in the school district. We look forward to working with LSSC and their partners to start a new engineering technology degree in the coming year.

The two classrooms and two large open bay labs filled with a large variety of industrial equipment and training stations are home to 20 students currently enrolled full-time in the 1,350 hour program. I first met

Mr. Hensely last summer when visiting the IHMC–FLATE Ocala summer robotics camps. He was visiting the camps at IHMC taught by Dr. Cruz to prepare for teaching a similar camp in Citrus County. Supported by the local workforce board, he was excited about the camp, but also about using the LEGO^® robots to introduce his IMMR students to programming logic before teaching programmable logic controllers and CNC machining. He believed that that icon-driven programming language would help his students, some of whom had limited exposure to computers and/or programming logic. We will be checking back with Mr. Hensley on how his innovative use of LEGO^®  Mindstorms^®worked.  Additionally, Mr. Hensley and WTI will be opening an Automation and Production Technology (APT) program that is aligned to the MSSC (Manufacturing Skill Standards Council) Certified Production Technician credential beginning sometime in 2014.

Last year we brought you a story about FLATE’s partnership with BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science

and Technology) robotics, and kick-off of the program at Hillsborough Community College and the School District of Hillsborough County (SDHC). It’s been almost a year since the program started with several SDHC schools adopting the program, and participating in local and regional BEST competitions. A defining element of BEST robotics has not only been the curriculum, but its accessibility to minorities and students from all economic and ethnic backgrounds.

Strawberry Crest High School (SCHS) known for its academic strength and Plant City High School (PCHS)

which has a largely Hispanic population are some other schools that have hopped into the BEST bandwagon. SCHS currently has 13 students enrolled in the program; while PCHS has 12 in the BEST program. Both schools have made significant headway in winning accolades at local and regional competitions. “It’s a new experience for everyone, but we have learned a lot in the first year” said Brockman. He believes the program is highly beneficial as it integrates a greater degree of manufacturing component, and applauds BEST in offering students “a more authentic learning experience that cannot be replicated in a classroom.”

Given the enthusiasm from students and teachers alike, teams at all schools have won many accolades. In April 2013, McLane Middle School participated in the BEST competition held at HCC in Brandon. They won first place in the robot division, and second place for BEST and sportsmanship at the robotics competition held at Leonard High School. Outside of its involvement with BEST, the Vibots from McLane competed in the 2013 Robofest world championship, and were winners of the VEX Robotics World Championship STEM Educate award in 2011. It also stood third at the world championships two years in a row, and multi-competes with high schools each year. Given several wins, the “all girls” team from McLane Middle School is on its way to building a stronger STEM community in the future.

marketing and in designing engineering notebook. This allowed them to advance to the regional level where they placed third under the video presentation category, and had a variety of top 10 finishes in other categories. They also competed in South’s BEST, and will be competing in Robofest in 2014. “Our most exciting victory was winning the BEST award at our local competition, and having the opportunity to move on to the southern region competition for BEST at Auburn University” said Jessica Alzamora and Brian Do, current team members and seniors at SCHS.

Most recently Dr. Alessandro Anzalone, director of the A.S. degree in engineering technology at

Hillsborough Community College in Brandon and winner of the 2013 FLATE Post-Secondary Educator Award, served as a mentor for a Capstone student design project at the University of South Florida (USF). Capstone courses provide students with an educational experience that integrates multiple areas of knowledge and dimensions. These courses, by definition, lead to a summative product, or culminate into a course, or a field-appropriate experience created by the student and the instructor. (Source: USF General Education Council).

A key element of their design lay in “controlling the temperature inside the greenhouse.” To comply, they

used two sensors: one that controlled the temperature; the other that’d control the humidity with respect to the inside temperature of the greenhouse. For the PLC, they chose a Siemens PLC which was connected to a web server making it easier to interface with web and/or mobile devices.

The answer to sTEm Puzzle #37 suggested that although the data plotted below was acquired from a Run Chart for each system, more information would be provided if the plots were actually Run Charts. However, because of the Certified Process Technician’s knowledge and training, a decision about expected system performance could still be made. Thus, it is clear to the CPT working for the marine engine manufacturer that it is not true that both of these machine systems are operating correctly (see puzzle #36).  However, it is also clear to this Tech that only one of the systems, either System #425 or System # 638, was not performing as expected.

The Tech correctly identified the system that was not operating properly and submitted a request for an unscheduled maintenance shutdown to trouble shoot and repair that system.