Close to a decade ago, John Hersey High School (JHHS) in Arlington Heights, Illinois, made a transition from a traditional classroom-based pre-engineering program. The new program is geared towards helping students understand the entire manufacturing process. Previously, a JHHS student would design a project in computer-aided design (CAD) software…

Desktop MCs work in the space of the desktop, choreographing content using multiple applications. For the desktop MC, new technologies allow for new combinatory forms of composition.

(Purpose) The purpose of this paper was to examine the issues associated with bringing new technology into the classroom, in particular, the vocational/technical classroom. (Methodology) A new Haas 5 axis vertical Computer Numerical Control machining center was purchased to update the CNC machining curriculum at a community college and the process…

The Northeast United States just experienced one of the region's worst natural disasters. Fortunately, because of the confluence of modern computing power and scientific computing methods, weather forecasting models predicted Sandy's very complicated trajectory and development with a precision that would not have been possible even a decade ago.…

Just as the democratization of information through personal computers was a key advance of the 20th century, the democratization of production through improvements in fabrication technologies will be a pivotal development in the 21st century. Digital fabrication is the process of translating a digital design into a physical object. At one time,…

In this article, the author describes how students in Kirk Marshall's industrial technology class at Bloomsburg Area High School, Pennsylvania, designed and manufactured battling robots (BattleBots) and their participation in an annual national robotics competition. According to Marshall, designing and building a complex robot would be virtually…

NT OpenGL hardware allows modelers and animators to work at relatively inexpensive NT workstations in their own offices or homes previous to shared space and workstation time in expensive studios. Rates seven OpenGL boards and two QuickDraw 3D accelerator boards for Mac users on overall value, wireframe and texture rendering, 2D acceleration, and…

Virtual reality (VR), as an emerging visualization technology, has introduced an unprecedented communication method for collaborative design. VR refers to an immersive, interactive, multisensory, viewer-centered, 3D computer-generated environment and the combination of technologies required to build such an environment. This article introduces the…

If we intend to teach through educational media, we also have to teach about those media. This article explores the implications of this perspective for the use of computer games in the classroom. It seeks to explain why and how teachers might teach about computer games as a medium in their own right, just as they teach about film or television or…

In communication courses, the focus has traditionally been on text: how to craft good news or bad news messages, proposals, reports, and so on. However, rapid developments in printing and computer technology have meant that communication has become more visual than ever before. Words alone are not enough; students need to be able to communicate…

Computer operators using the technique of three-dimensional printing or rapid prototyping may soon be able to sculpt an object on the screen and within minutes, have a paper, plastic, or ceramic version of the object in hand. The process uses the principle that physical objects can be created in layers. (MSE)

Chances are that many high school students would not know how to use drafting instruments, but some might want to gain competence in computer-assisted design (CAD) and possibly computer-assisted manufacturing (CAM). These students are often attracted to tech courses by the availability of CAD/CAM instructions, and many go on to impress employers…

Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) is a course that is required during the third year in the mechanical engineering curriculum at Binghamton University. The primary objective of the course is to educate students in the procedures of computer-aided engineering design. The solid modeling and analysis program Pro/Engineer[TM] (PTC[R]) is used as the…

A project developed and evaluated an intermediate form of presentation that provides a virtual dynamic tactile display for use with computers that could complement static tactile displays of graphical material. The device is a two-dimensional extension of the tactile mouse and provides contour and slope information to the user. (Contains nine…

This paper examines the process of drawing, including theories of perception and visualization. The intent is to apply knowledge of teaching drawing as a right brain activity to students using the computer and overcome the limitations that drawing on the computer imposes on students. The paper identifies the following domains of drawing: (1)…