Service

---3/5/05---

Seven of us brought Louie, Tommy, Jimmy, and Paul to a UB Basketball Game!!

To say the least, we all had a real good time at this event.  Much thanks to Rich for setting this event up. 

---10/04---

Assisting UB's Mechanical Engineering Department  

Providing Feedback for the Continuous Improvement of the UB MAE Curriculum

On Monday, November 29^th, a few of the members of Pi Tau Sigma met with Dr. Mayne to discuss the positive and negative attributes of our experiences thus far in the UB MAE program. 

Dr. Mayne began the meeting by summarizing the results of surveys (taken by graduating seniors and MAE Alumni 5 years after graduation) which were conducted by the Department to analyze the positive and negative attributes of the UB MAE curriculum.  The survey provides useful feedback so that the Department can make improvements which need to continually be made in order to adapt with changing times.  Understanding the results of these surveys gave us an understanding of what areas of the curriculum the Department is currently trying to improve upon.

After this, we brainstormed potential ideas which would improve upon various negative attributes of the UB MAE curriculum.  Some of the basic ideas we brainstormed are summarized below.

-         Increased technical communication experience

o       Organize the labs (Systems and Instrumentations) so that they require more oral communication

  --- One way to accomplish this is to require each group to present the procedure and theory of the experiment to the rest of the class; as opposed to the TA doing this

--- Another way to accomplish this is to require the student to give an oral presentation on the results outlined in their written lab report

o       Modify the MAE curriculum so that EAS 480 – Technical Communication for Engineers becomes a required class

-         Increased hands-on experience

o       Offer a manufacturing, machining and tooling class through Buffalo State; this would be beneficial for engineers interested in working in a manufacturing environment

o       Increased awareness of the great hands-on experience opportunity in UB’s Engineering Clubs

o       Incorporate an “Engineering Club” class into the curriculum which allows students who spend 5-8 hours a week working on various engineering club projects to obtain three MAE technical elective credits

o       Incorporate hands-on manufacturing experience into the ECI Program; possibly a manufacturing plant tour

-         Increased team-building experience

o       For the MAE 459 Senior Design Project, the teams could consist of engineers from different disciplines to work on a project which would require the team to combine each members expertise in their particular field

This was a good opportunity for us to interactively express some of our concerns as well as things we liked about the program. 

We know that not everybody was able to make this meeting.  If you have any specific comments/suggestions for the Department, you can contact Dr. Mayne at mayne@eng.buffalo.edu . 

Please e-mail Tom with any other ideas you have for service!