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035 |a 2318088976 
045 0 |b d19970615 
100 1 |a Ressler, Stephen J 
245 1 |a Building Bridges: Computer Aided Design As A Vehicle For Outreach To High School Students 
260 |b American Society for Engineering Education-ASEE  |c Jun 15, 1997 
513 |a Conference Proceedings 
520 3 |a NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract Session 2525 Building Bridges: Computer-Aided Design as a Vehicle for Outreach to High School Students Stephen J. Ressler, Kip P. Nygren, Christopher H. Conley United States Military Academy This paper describes the use of a specially developed computer-aided design (CAD) software package as a vehicle for outreach to high school students. The CAD package was conceived and developed for future use in a nationwide engineering design contest, to be administered as part of the West Point bicentennial commemoration in the year 2002. In preparation for that event, the software has been used successfully in two different high school outreach activities. Student feedback from these activities has validated the concept of a CAD-based outreach project and provided useful suggestions for improvement as well. Called theWEST POINT BRIDGE DESIGNER, the software guides the user through the design of a truss-type highway bridge, based on a specified design scenario. The program was developed with three principal objectives in mind: • To stimulate interest in engineering and design. • To provide the user with an opportunity to perform a legitimate structural design, based on a realistic set of design specifications and constraints. • To focus attention on West Point’s role as America’s first engineering school and on the contributions made by West Point graduates—past and present—to the design and construction of the nation’s infrastructure. The design scenario used by the WEST POINT BRIDGE DESIGNER is both realistic and open- ended. The user is asked to design a modern replacement for the Dunlap’s Creek Bridge, the first iron bridge built in the United States1. The structure must be a simply supported truss. The only other constraints on the design are a specified span length, a maximum height restriction, and a minimum clearance over the high-water level of the creek. Within these bounds, the user has complete freedom to define the shape and configuration of the structure. Members of the truss may be individually defined, using any of three different materials (carbon steel, high-strength steel, and aluminum), two different cross-section types (solid bars and hollow tubes), and 40 different member sizes. The design must be capable of carrying its own weight and the weight of a standard AASHTO truck loading2. The design objective is to minimize cost. The software is written in the Microsoft Visual Basic programming language. It runs on IBM- compatible personal computers with 486 processor or better, running Windows 3.1 or better. The program features a simple graphical user interface, which students are able to learn easily, even if they have little previous experience with computers. The program’s main window (called the Drawing Board) is shown in Figure 1. To design a bridge, the user simply draws it on the screen with the mouse. Editing of the structure is similarly accomplished by pointing, clicking, and dragging the mouse. Member properties-- material, cross-section geometry, and member sizes—are selected from drop-down lists. 1 
653 |a Drawing and ironing 
653 |a Software 
653 |a Microprocessors 
653 |a Engineering education 
653 |a Windows (computer programs) 
653 |a Design specifications 
653 |a Trusses 
653 |a Graphical user interface 
653 |a Structural design 
653 |a Tubes 
653 |a High strength steels 
653 |a Personal computers 
653 |a Fuel consumption 
653 |a Secondary school students 
653 |a Water levels 
653 |a Students 
653 |a Bridge design 
653 |a Highway bridges 
653 |a Design engineering 
653 |a Graduates 
653 |a Computer aided design--CAD 
653 |a Weight reduction 
653 |a Visual programming languages 
653 |a Bridges 
653 |a Secondary schools 
653 |a Carbon steels 
653 |a Aluminum 
653 |a Visual Basic 
653 |a Cross-sections 
653 |a Property 
653 |a Geometry 
653 |a Engineering 
653 |a Outreach programs 
653 |a Infrastructure 
653 |a Computers 
653 |a Human-computer interaction 
653 |a Programming languages 
653 |a Commemoration 
653 |a Feedback 
653 |a Schools 
653 |a Military schools 
653 |a Constraints 
653 |a Editing 
700 1 |a Colonel Kip P. Nygren 
700 1 |a Conley, C 
773 0 |t Association for Engineering Education - Engineering Library Division Papers  |g (Jun 15, 1997), p. 2.93.1 
786 0 |d ProQuest  |t Library Science Database 
856 4 1 |3 Citation/Abstract  |u https://www.proquest.com/docview/2318088976/abstract/embedded/7BTGNMKEMPT1V9Z2?source=fedsrch 
856 4 0 |3 Full text outside of ProQuest  |u https://peer.asee.org/building-bridges-computer-aided-design-as-a-vehicle-for-outreach-to-high-school-students