Thermodynamics: An Integrated Learning System, Text plus Web

Derek K. Baker is presently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara, Turkey. He has worked domestically and internationally in the areas of energy conservation, renewable energy, and power generation at Duke Power Company, ABB, Siv, Ing. Gaute Flatheim and Xenergy. During graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin, he performed theoretical and experimental research on Calcium carbonate scaling rates on heat transfer surfaces and began developing the Web site ThermoNet. After receiving his Ph.D. in 2000, he became an Assistant Professor at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California. In 2003 he joined the METU Department of Mechanical Engineering, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate classes related to thermodynamics and energy conversion and performs research in the areas of energy efficiency, building energy systems, and renewable energy.

Ofodike A. Ezekoye Dr. Ofodike (DK) Ezekoye is an associate professor in the Mechanical Engineering department at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his BS in mechanical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania (Magna cum laude) in 1987 and his MS and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1989 and 1991,  respectively. Following his Ph.D. he spent one year as a National Research Council Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Building and Fire Research Laboratory at the National Institute for Standards and Technology.

Dr. Ezekoye teaches several thermo-science courses, including thermodynamics, heat transfer, and fire dynamics. Dr. Ezekoye's research is in heat and mass transfer in high-temperature and reacting systems such as combustion engines, furnaces, and fire enclosures. He has published over 100 journal and conference papers in combustion, aerosol dynamics, and heat transfer. This research covers a range of applications from fundamentals of combustion systems to scientific support of the fire service in developing fire-fighting tactics. Ezekoye received a National Science Foundation Early Career Award (CAREER) and a Society of Automotive Engineering Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award, both in 1997. He received a University of Texas College of Engineering Faculty Excellence Award in 1998 and an Award of Excellence fro the Halliburton Foundation in 199. In 2003, he was honored with a Faculty Appreciation Award sponsored by the Student Engineering Council.

Jack Howell Jack Howell presently holds the Ernest Cockrell, Jr., Chair at the University of Texas at Austin, in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Previously he was a heat transfer researcher at the NASA Lewis (now Glenn) Research Center, and associate and full professor at the University of Houston. he joined the UT Austin College of Engineering in 1978. He served as Department Chairman in Mechanical Engineering from 1986 to 1990 and as Associate Dean for Research from 1996 to 1999. He served as program director of the Thermal Transport and Thermal Processing Program with the National Science Foundation (1994-1995). He received the ASME/AIChE Max Jakob Award (1997), the ASME Heat Transfer Memorial Award (1991), and the AIAA Thermophysics Award (1990) for his work in radiative transfer, and the ASEE Ralph Coats Roe Award in 1987 as Outstanding Mechanical Engineering Educator. He is a fellow of ASME and AIAA and was elected a Foreign Member of the Russian Academy of Science (1999). He coauthored Thermal Radiation Heat Transfer, now in 4th edition (Taylor and Francis, 2002) (with Robert Siegel); Fundamentals of Engineering Thermodynamics (2nd ed., McGraw-Hill, 1992) (with Richard Buckius); and Solar Thermal Energy Systems (McGraw-Hill, 1982) (with Gary Vliet and Richard Bannerot). He has also published over 200 articles, papers, and reports.

Philip S. Schmidt Dr. Philip S. Schmidt is the Donald J. Douglass Centennial Professor of Engineering and University Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his bachelor's degree in aeronautics and astronautics from M.I.T. (1962) and his MS and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Stanford (1965 and 1968). He has been on the faculty in mechanical engineering at UT since 1970.

Dr. Schmidt's research focuses on the development of electrothermal processes for industry, and he teaches courses in thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, and thermal-fluid systems design. He has written over 75 articles in the research literature and is the author of two books, Electricity and Industrial Productivity: A Technical and Economic Perspective (Pergamon, 1984) and Industrial Energy Management and Utilization (Hemisphere, 1988). He has served as Chairman of the Joint U.S.-Soviet Symposium on Efficient Electricity Use, as a member of the Committee on the Future of Central-Station Electric Power of the National Academy of Engineering, and as a Member of the Electricity Utilization Working Group for the Office of Technology Assessment of the U.S. Congress. He served as Head of the Processed Energetic Program in the Center of Energy and  Environmental Resources at UT Austin from 1981 to 2004.

Dr. Schmidt received the General Dynamics Teaching Excellence Award from the College of Engineering in 1983 and the UT Excellence Award for Undergraduate Teaching in 1989. In 1991, he received the Amoco Foundation Outstanding Teaching Award and was also the recipient of the Friar Centennial Teaching Fellowship Award. In 1992, he was awarded the ASEE Ralph Coats Roe Award for Outstanding Mechanical Engineering Educator. In November 1994, he was named Texas Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), and in June 1995 he was named one of the 10 inaugural members of the Academy of Distinguished Teachers at the University of Texas at Austin.

• Overall approach:  the text presents thermodynamic principles in as intuitive a manner as possible, then employs mathematical representations that follow logically from physical intuition.
• ThermoNet offers a wealth of learning resources: conceptual coverage with accompanying ‘real world’ images; interactive graphics to show systems and processes in action;brief quizzes, additional worked examples, and homework problems, and interactive property tables.
• Innovative pedagogy and delivery take advantage of the best features of both text and Web. 
• The Web component eliminates all constraints on the use of photographs and color graphics.
• Extensive examples
• Alternate navigation schemes and modularized content allow instructors to manage and pace the learning experience.  The use of identical numbering schemes in the text and on the web allows content found under a specific section number in the text and on the web to be complimentary, thus forming the basis for the integrated learning package.
• Flexibly accommodates the whole range of students’ learning styles. ThermoNet’s graphics-rich environment will help students gain a good conceptual understanding of the material, and the interactive presentation of governing equations will help them understand the physics underlying each term. The text’s explanatory and discourse-driven approach enables students to gain comprehension of the underlying theory—at which point they may go to the web-site to gain better conceptual understanding and to expand their problem-solving skills using the extensive library of examples.
• All work and heat transfer processes are described in terms of “in” and “out” values. For a specific problem statement, the student can immediately formulate an appropriate energy equation and the resulting energy flows will, in most cases, be positive, eliminating the confusion of rigid sign conventions.  .
• New derivation of entropy replaces the heat engine approach with the “arrow-of-time” argument, explaining how entropy can be used both to clarify the natural directions in which energy transitions occur and to quantify the measure of energy-conversion efficiency.