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Contact: Leigh Flynn (flynnl@alpha.nsula.edu)
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466
7/13/2000
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NATCHITOCHES - Students who have always done their laboratory work in a hands-on setting are a bit more reluctant to use simulation software than students who started out using the software, according to research done by an associate professor of industrial and engineering technology ant Northwestern State University. But both sets of students accomplished their tasks.
Dr. Thomas M. Hall Jr., coordinator of the Department of Industrial and Engineering Technology at Northwestern, presented his research on "Using Simulation Software for Electronics Engineering Technology Laboratory Instruction" during the American Society of Engineering Education conference, which was held in June in St. Louis.
To determine the effectiveness of offering electronics engineering technology laboratory courses on-line, computer simulations were compared with hands-on laboratories. In his presentation, Hall also made recommendations for improving the computer simulation experience.
Hall and Jeff Risinger, human resources director at Alliance Compressors, co-presented a paper describing "NSU @ Alliance," Northwestern's partnership with the scroll compressor facility in Natchitoches. Dr. William Dennis, a professor of industrial and engineering technology at NSU, was a co-author of the paper, which discussed the innovative design of the industry/university relationship.
NSU offers programs for Alliance employees in four general areas, and Alliance in turn offers a series of promotions and pay raises that are tied to the employees' completion of specific blocks of courses or programs.
Both papers were published in the 2000 ASEE Annual Conference Proceedings.
While at the conference, Hall also moderated a technical session on "Computer Based Measurements."
Some 5,000 representatives of the engineering technology and engineering fields attended the conference.