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National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)/American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Summer Faculty Fellowship Program, 1992, volume 1

The 1992 Johnson Space Center (JSC) National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)/American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Summer Faculty Fellowship Program was conducted by the University of Houston and JSC. The program at JSC, as well as the programs at other NASA Centers, was funded by the Office of University Affairs, Washington, DC. The objectives of the program, which began nationally in 1964 and at JSC in 1965, are (1) to further the professional knowledge of qualified engineering and science faculty members; (2) to stimulate an exchange of ideas between participants and NASA; (3) to enrich and refresh the research and teaching activities of participants' institutions; and (4) to contribute to the research objective of the NASA Centers. This document is a compilation of the final reports 1 through 12.

Bannerot, Richard B.↗

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)/American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Summer Faculty Fellowship Program, 1992, volume 2

The 1992 Johnson Space Center (JSC) National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)/American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Summer Faculty Fellowship Program was conducted by the University of Houston and JSC. The program at JSC, as well as the programs at other NASA Centers, was funded by the Office of University Affairs, NASA Headquarters Washington, DC. The objectives of the program, which began nationally in 1964 and at JSC in 1965, are (1) to further the professional knowledge of qualified engineering and science faculty members; (2) to stimulate an exchange of ideas between participants and NASA; (3) to enrich and refresh the research and teaching activities of participants' institutions; and (4) to contribute to the research objective of the NASA Centers. This document contains reports 13 through 24.

Bannerot, Richard B.↗

Planetary Biology and Microbial Ecology: Molecular Ecology and the Global Nitrogen cycle

This report summarizes the results of the Planetary Biology and Molecular Ecology's summer 1991 program, which was held at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The purpose of the interdisciplinary PBME program is to integrate, via lectures and laboratory work, the contributions of university and NASA scientists and student interns. The goals of the 1991 program were to examine several aspects of the biogeochemistry of the nitrogen cycle and to teach the application of modern methods of molecular genetics to field studies of organisms. Descriptions of the laboratory projects and protocols and abstracts and references of the lectures are presented.

Nealson, Molly Stone↗

Neural networks application to divergence-based passive ranging

The purpose of this report is to summarize the state of knowledge and outline the planned work in divergence-based/neural networks approach to the problem of passive ranging derived from optical flow. Work in this and closely related areas is reviewed in order to provide the necessary background for further developments. New ideas about devising a monocular passive-ranging system are then introduced. It is shown that image-plan divergence is independent of image-plan location with respect to the focus of expansion and of camera maneuvers because it directly measures the object's expansion which, in turn, is related to the time-to-collision. Thus, a divergence-based method has the potential of providing a reliable range complementing other monocular passive-ranging methods which encounter difficulties in image areas close to the focus of expansion. Image-plan divergence can be thought of as some spatial/temporal pattern. A neural network realization was chosen for this task because neural networks have generally performed well in various other pattern recognition applications. The main goal of this work is to teach a neural network to derive the divergence from the imagery.

Barniv, Yair↗

Micropipet manipulation of lipid membranes: Direct measurement of the material properties of a cohesive structure that is only two molecules thick

The objectives are to demonstrate how we can make direct measurements of the mechanical properties of a special structure in biology, namely the lipid bilayer membrane, using a micromanipulation technique, and how these properties compare and contrast with 'more traditional' technological/engineering materials. Given that the investment in equipment and expertise to carry out these experiments is probably beyond the scope of most teaching labs, the described experiment is not intended as one that can actually be demonstrated in a student laboratory class. The intention behind presenting this work is to begin to raise awareness in the Material Science community about the material properties of biological material that form a new (to us) category of soft engineering materials that have dimensions on the nanoscale.

Needham, David↗

Materials education activities

Last year, at NEW: Update '91, a panel discussion was held to address the unique difficulties of attracting and retaining minorities and women in technical studies. Unfortunately, retention in technical majors is a problem of varying proportions for the entire student population, and must be improved in order to maintain the strength of the nation's industrial base. To investigate the cause of student attrition in technical majors, in-depth interviews of both current and former (non-graduating) engineering students at four colleges and universities in Colorado were conducted by Hewitt and Seymour. They found that there was no significant difference in the level of high school preparation and undergraduate academic performance in these two groups, despite the prevailing faculty perception that most students who switch from technical to nontechnical majors were underprepared. The majority of engineering students who changed majors reported that they were turned off by science, while one-third complained of poor teaching.

Ries, Heidi R.↗

Tribology: Friction, lubrication, and wear technology

The topics are presented in viewgraph form and include the following: introduction and definitions of terms; friction concepts; lubrication technology concepts; wear technology concepts; and tribological transitions. This document is designed for educators who seek to teach these concepts to their students.

Blau, Peter J.↗

Rationale and constituencies for the Space Exploration Initiative

In order to maximize the benefits from prospective space-exploration endeavors, and to enlist the support of as many constituencies as possible, NASA is either conducting or developing programs which emphasize different aspects of the Space Exploration Initiative. Attention is presently given to the cases of education using space exploration themes as teaching tools and technology transfer from government to private industry. Only on the basis of the establishment of such constituencies, will it be possible to sustain funding over the three decades foreseen as required for a Mars exploration effort.

Johnson, Kristine A.↗

Mission design software development at the University of Texas at Austin

This paper describes the development process, the contents, the update process, and the various uses of a space mission planning FORTRAN subroutine library. This document is written by graduate (and undergraduate) students at the University of Texas at Austin and is used by students in several courses, primarily design courses. The library has been made available to faculty and students at several schools and was provided to students at the 1991 International Space University in Toulouse, France. This paper describes the mission library, its creation, its checking, its update procedure, and the teaching philosophy and procedures involved in its use.

Fowler, Wallace T.↗

Cognitive competencies - Products of genes, experience, and technology

The paper examines methods used in studying cognitive competency in primates. Citing experiments on teaching language skills to chimpanzees, it is shown that some methods used for inquiry might lead to the cultivation and generation of new competencies, and specifically to the development of observational and relational learning skills. It is noted that methods can also limit the generality of conclusions; erroneous conclusions may be made based on certain generally accepted methods, whereby the research might be treatments that profoundly determine the assessment of dependent variables. Particular attention is given to the role of age in learning, showing that young primates can be taught the meaning of lexigrams and many specific tasks in much shorter time than adults; on the basis of these experiments, it was concluded that cultural gains did evolve primarily as a consequence of context within which infants were growing.

Rumbaugh, Duane M.↗

Learning about primates' learning, language, and cognition

Results are presented of many years of research on the methods of teaching primates the language and cognitive skills which were long considered to be unteachable to particular species of primates. It was found that chimpanzee subjects could not only learn a number of 'stock sentences' but to use them in variations and several combinations for the purpose of solving various problems. Apes placed in different rooms could be taught to communicate via computer, and collaborate with each other on doing specific tasks. Contrary to expectations, young rhesus monkeys proved to be able to learn as much as the chimpanzee species.

Rumbaugh, Duane M.↗

Robust recognition of handwritten numerals based on dual cooperative network

An approach to robust recognition of handwritten numerals using two operating parallel networks is presented. The first network uses inputs in Cartesian coordinates, and the second network uses the same inputs transformed into polar coordinates. How the proposed approach realizes the robustness to local and global variations of input numerals by handling inputs both in Cartesian coordinates and in its transformed Polar coordinates is described. The required network structures and its learning scheme are discussed. Experimental results show that by tracking only a small number of distinctive features for each teaching numeral in each coordinate, the proposed system can provide robust recognition of handwritten numerals.

Lee, Sukhan↗

Portable Presentation And Instruction Unit

Proposed electronic display unit reminiscent of kiosk serves as portable, interactive, multimedia information terminal. Used as traveling science exhibit, aid for teaching science in schools, or training and skill-refresher device for space flight crews. Provides interactive video and audio displays, including three-dimensional-appearing video simulations. Speeds learning and improves retention by applying principles of scientific visualization. Also helps previously trained but recently unpracticed personnel relearn special skills and procedures quickly.

Christman, L.↗

Air transportation in the California Corridor of 2010

The topic of the 1988-1989 NASA/USRA Advanced Design Project at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, was the development of an air transportation system to meet the needs of the California Corridor for the year 2010. As aircraft design is taught by two instructors having different philosophies about the teaching process, the two classes took different approaches to address the problem. The first part of this summary (California Air Transit System) represents the work done by the students of Professor A. E. Andreoli, who followed a systems approach, emphasizing the determination of the proper mission. The second part of the summary (Four Aircraft to Service the California Corridor) contains the four aircraft designed by Dr. D. R. Sandlin's class based on specifications determined from work done in previous years.

Cameron, M.↗

The Canadian experience: Using telemedicine for the support of medical care at remote sites

While the majority of Canadians live in a narrow strip about 200 miles wide just north of the 45th parallel, a significant proportion of the population lives in non-urban, remote and sometimes isolated areas. Given this widely dispersed population, the provision of health services has always been a challenge. A list of non-urban health needs include the following: consulting services; clinical laboratory resources; investigative techniques (e.g., EEG, radiology, ultrasound, nuclear medicine); continuing education for physicians, nurses and other health professionals; teaching and training programs for administrative and support staff (dietary, housekeeping, maintenance); community health education and improved general education for health workers and families. For nearly three decades physicians and other health care professionals in the United States and Canada have been exploring the application of telecommunications to health care in rural and remote areas. The terms telemedicine and telehealth are used interchangeably to describe this activity. The prefix 'tele' refers to distance and now includes all types of communication over distance that support health care and health educational programs. Actually, telemedicine is as old as the telephone, which is still the most widely used communications technology in health care.

House, Maxwell↗

A telemedicine health care delivery system

The Interactive Telemedicine Systems (ITS) system was specifically developed to address the ever widening gap between our medical care expertise and our medical care delivery system. The frustrating reality is that as our knowledge of how to diagnose and treat medical conditions has continued to advance, the system to deliver that care has remained in an embryonic stage. This has resulted in millions of people being denied their most basic health care needs. Telemedicine utilizes an interactive video system integrated with biomedical telemetry that allows a physician at a base station specialty medical complex or teaching hospital to examine and treat a patient at multiple satellite locations, such as rural hospitals, ambulatory health centers, correctional institutions, facilities caring for the elderly, community hospital emergency departments, or international health facilities. Based on the interactive nature of the system design, the consulting physician at the base station can do a complete history and physical examination, as if the patient at the satellite site was sitting in the physician's office. This system is described.

Sanders, Jay H.↗