Behrend hosts ASME manufacturing Conference
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RYAN FRANKOWSKI
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The School of Engineer
ing is currently hosting the
American Society of Me
chanical Engineers Manu
facturing Science and
Engineering Conference.
The conference ran from
Wednesday, Oct. 13 to
Amanda Snyder / Behrend Beacon
McDougle speaks before introducing the panel.
Indonesian professor loses doctorate for plagiarism
CHRIS HENLEY
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When one hears plagia
rism, writing is always the
first subject that comes to
mind.
Across the Pacific, at In
stitute Teknologi Bandung
(ITB), in Indonesia, plagia
rism was spotted.
A lecturer at the school
was found guilty of plagia
rism. The penalty - losing
his doctorate degree.
In order for him to gain
his degree, it was a require
ment that he have a paper
published.
The paper was published
and posted in The Institute
of Electrical and Electronic
Engineers' (lEEE) digital li
brary. The offense was re
alized after an allegation
had been made and lEEE
gGlcYee cYI
ehe week
"Engineers like to
solve problems. If
there are no prob
lems handily avail
able, they will create
their own problems."
-Scott Adams
today, Friday, Oct. 15 at the
Bayfront Convention Cen
ter.
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Jack McDougle gave the
key note speech on Thurs
day after speakers like
Dave Grzelak (CEO of Ko
matsu America) and U.S.
Representative Kathy
Dahlkemper.
"What do 400 CEOs and
business executives around
further investigated.
They concluded that he
submitted a nearly com
plete copy of an Austrian
scholar's work.
He has now stepped
down from his position at
ITB and also, lEEE has
flagged his article in their
library.
Now, the whole world
can know about this guy's
mistake. Not only that, but
he is also banned from
publishing anything in any
lEEE publications for three
years (beginning in April
2009).
Plagiarism and engineer
ing are typically not topics
we associated with one an-
It is the same as stealing
a candy bar from the gro
cery store. You get caught,
you face the consequences.
Not all cases are like this
One engineer's frustrations with SCALE-UP physics
EDITORIAL
LOUIS ROBINSON
•r
SCALE-UP Physics, an
acronym for Student Cen
tered Activities for Large
Enrollment Undergraduate
Programs.
Most engineers hear this
and almost immediately
want to throw up. SCALE
UP Physics is Penn State
Erie's gift to every aspiring
engineer or scientist.
Inspiring every engineer
to think about becoming a
business major since 2007.
Arriving at Behrend a few
years ago this program "is
an innovative approach to
teaching introductory
physics. Using an innova
tive pedagogical approach
and a unique classroom de
sign, SCALE-UP seeks to
the world think about the
state of U.S. manufacturing
and prospects for the fu
ture," said McDougle, Sen
ior Vice President of U.S.
Council on Competitive
ness.
McDougle explained the
history of manufacturing
and stressed the impor
tance to increase the inno
vation of manufacturing.
The U.S. is currently the
4th leading country in
manufacturing, but Mc-
Dougle worries that it will
slip to sth if we don't ad
dress the concerns about
our position and develop
solutions to our possible
decrease.
"We do not want to lose
the know how to manufac
ture, lose the know how to
invent things, lose the
know how to innovate
things," said McDougle.
According to McDougle
working in manufacturing,
is beneficial. This sector is
the highest paid output of
the economy, sitting at a
$1.40 rate compared to oth
ers, such as information
one though. The professor
copied another's work be
cause he needed a paper to
get his degree, but imagine
a situation that most, if not
all, students have been in.
It's Sunday night. You
have spent the entire week
end doing everything, be
sides your project (that was
assigned two weeks ago).
You are so stressed. You
feel rushed and don't be-
"Do you want a student who copies
others to design the medical equip
ment to keep you alive? Or the car
you drive? Or the bridge your
reduce physics courses tra
ditionally high drop-out
rate by giving students
greater responsibility in the
classroom, not less" says
an article on the Penn State
Erie website.
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Did everyone really think
this was such a great idea?
All the professors sitting
around a table saying, "hey
guys, the students aren't
doing very well we need a
new approach," and an
other one said, "I got it!
Let's not teach them at all!
They can learn on their
own then everybody wins!"
Most students under
stand the thought process
behind it on how giving
students more responsibil
ity is a good thing, but in a
complex subject like
physics is extremely diffi
cult and time consuming.
For anyone who has not
taken Physics 211 or 212 at
Behrend, here's the low-
MEM
To write for the Engineering page, e-mail Engineering Editor Ryan Frankowski at rsfsos4@psu.edu.
cross?"
-Melanie Ford
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technology, which is at $l.
He explained how the
United States has 11 mil
lion workers in manufac
turing, compared to
China's 70-100 million.
On Oct. 14, the confer
ence featured 20 symposia
topics.
David Loker (Assistant
Professor of Engineering)
and John Roth (Assistant
Professor of Mechanical
Engineering) directed re
search on a Bluetooth
transmitter during the
spring of 2010. Loker and
Roth worked with students
Derek Suen and Richard
Sowles.
Using a spectrum ana
lyzer with an EMC an
tenna, they received signal
strength and collected
data. A Bluetooth board
was also used in their re
search, which was de
signed by a former student.
The logic of the program
was to allow users to type
and transmit text to a dif
ferent device.
The testing was done in a
rural area, and they then
lieve that you have enough
time to finish.
The problem is a lack of
time. Since you don't have
enough time to think of
anything on your own, the
motive is there to plop on
that computer and look up
something that will get you
a good grade and require
much less effort on your
part.
"When there is plagia-
down. You walk into a
giant room with round ta
bles and fancy equipment
and sit down at a table with
two other partners.
When class starts the
professor throws work
sheets at you and tells you
to crack away at them and
turn them in when you're
done. There you go, that's
the class!
The worksheets consist
of oddly worded questions
that don't make any sense
and end in frustration and
headaches.
If you get stuck though
you can raise your hand to
ask the professor or a TA
for help, this usually results
in two different scenarios.
One, they could spin you
in circles and reword the
question you asked them
and throw it back at you
and walk away leaving you
clueless.
Or, two, after some emo
En • ineerin •
compared the signal
strength to that in ob
structed areas with build
ings and machines.
The research concluded
the large area equipment
operation is not a con
tributing factor to the sig
nal and there was no
significant noise emission
relative to distance.
"Wireless transmission
Amanda Snyder / Behrend Beacon
McDougle gives keynote address to CEOs and Engineers.
rism in the engineering
field, what do you think
motivates it," asks Mrs.
Melanie Ford, Head of the
Engineering Outreach Cen
ter and Lecturer here at
Behrend's school of Engi
neering.
"It can be summed up in
one word, time. Many
cases we see here in the
School involves students
who ran out of time to get
an assignment done, or felt
that when you work with
someone, it's okay to copy
each other's work. When it
comes time to do the prob
lem, or write the computer
program, it should be your
own work."
For many of the cases, a
simple question to the pro
fessor or to a tutor would
have avoided the situation.
"Do you want a student
who copies others to de
tional abuse on how "it's
just basic algebra," or "if
you would have read the
book you would know"
they actually show you and
what's left of your dignity
how to find the answer.
A professor told a class
"we are more your coaches
than we are your teachers."
So, when people ask them
what they do for a living,
they should tell them, "oh
we're physics coaches at
Penn State Erie." Physics
is a class not a sport.
Some professors truly
believe that a class that
throws away instruction
completely and forces stu
dents to learn it themselves
is the better alternative.
The United States Army
does not tell their troops,
"we're going to just skip
the whole boot camp thing
and send you guys right
into the action, so you can
learn more efficiently."
can potentially be impor
tant when you are inter
ested in tool health, in
wireless labs," said Loker.
The conference also fea
tured organizations such as
Boeing, Caterpillar, Cum
mins and GE.
This was the first time
Behrend hosted the three
day conference.
sign the medical equip
ment to keep you alive,
said Ford. "Or the car you
drive? Or the bridge your
cross?"
Time management is
crucial as a student and in
life. Every professor on
campus would agree that
they want more than a few
hours of work done on the
programming sheet before
the day it's due, no matter
the topic.
"If you are given any
length of time to complete
any assignment, then it
should not be hastily done
the night before or as you
sit in class," said Ford.
Time management,
that's the key. If time is ra
tioned carefully, any mo
ment that there is to cheat
or copy can be prevented.
Approximately 65 per
cent of the population
learns visually as opposed
to only 5% who are kines
thetic learners. Students
need to see the informa
tion. Students need to see
how to approach such
problems that arise in
physics, not just try and
guess at it and be com
pletely wrong. That
doesn't solve anything.
Now, if the SCALE-UP
program consisted of a lec
ture one day and the lab
stuff another day I think
that would be a lot better
because it would incorpo
rate visual and kinesthetic
learning.
When scheduling make
sure you as a student have
the choice to attend a
Physics lecture class at a
branch over the summer.