Throughout the campus we are expecting so many changes with the commencement of Banner/HR, the introduction of SACS and the number of new administrative leaders. In addition, the stress level across campus will very likely be high throughout the fall semester and into the spring. Within the walls of our College, this simply means we must exercise restraint and patience. There may be times when the impulse is to show frustration or anger, but that will strain relationships and won’t help resolve problems.

I am thrilled about the upcoming year and look forward to each department’s successes.

• Construction Management will continue to produce a high numbers of seniors with job offers waiting upon graduation as well as its tremendous community outreach through programs like Project GOAL and construction of the DH Conley tennis shelter.
• Computer Science continues to draw attention by working to repair programs for other departments on campus and attaining recognition from global companies investing in our research.
• Technology Systems is experiencing tremendous growth, specifically in the areas involved with distance education such as the BSIT program.
• Engineering will graduate the first ever class of engineers from East Carolina University and its students continue to engage through capstone projects and internships with major industry partners.

With more than 4,000 incoming freshmen and 1,800 transfer students gracing our campus this fall, our Academic Advisors will no doubt be very busy this year, but definitely ready for the challenge.

In the last fiscal year, the CITE program operated more than 60 funded projects with local and regional businesses which included the participation of 16 faculty members.

Once again, I hope you are as ready for the upcoming year as I am. I look forward to your input, suggestions and efforts to make the College of Technology and Computer Science continue to take great strides in 2007-08. Have a great year!!

Making Headlines

Over the course of the summer, several College of Technology and Computer Science faculty, staff and students were featured in local and regional media.  Here are some of those making headlines and newscasts.

Daily Reflector – Monday June 18, 2007
Local Students Getting Taste of Higher Education at ECU

The college experience is a few years away, but numerous high school and middle school students from Pitt and surrounding counties are getting a taste of higher education in the coming weeks.

Programs and camps featuring technology, health and the legislative process are going on this week at East Carolina University. All have the goal of introducing area children and teenagers to fields of study and career possibilities.

The College of Technology and Computer Science is opening its doors today to several Pitt County high school students and their teachers to introduce them to the education and career opportunities available to them.

Rising 10th graders will facilities in the Department of Technology Systems through the Business and Technology Academy Summer Institute.

They will also visit multiple laboratories for demonstrations and interactive projects.

“Kids always say ‘what will I need math and science for later in life’ and this is a great way for us to show them exactly what is available,” said Andrew E. Jackson, chairman of the Department of Technology Systems.

In the labs, the students will be exposed to three-dimensional scanners, a robot and a new fabrication shop. They also get firsthand experiences with network architecture and computer security.

On Tuesday, the group will visit Pitt Community College’s Business Division, and on Wednesday it will travel to the Research Triangle Park in Raleigh for a tour of CISCO Systems.

By 2014, the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that jobs for computer programmers, software engineers and other professional will be among the fastest growing occupations.

Daily Reflector - Monday July 9, 2007
ECU’s CITE program assists Wilson Company

East Carolina University’s College of Technology and Computer Science recently completed a series of training events that benefitted a Wilson, NC automotive parts manufacturing company. The Center for Innovation in Technology and Engineering (CITE), housed within the College of Technology and Computer Science, conducted three one-week sessions at Standard Motor Products, Inc. with the goal of improving production efficiency as well as create the opportunity to increase the number of operational product lines.

CITE Director David Harrawood and Elmer Miller, a special consultant to ECU, conducted the training sessions with the focus on implementing the Toyota Production System to Standard Motor Products (SMP). During the training sessions, CITE instructors work with management, supervisors and employees to explore areas of personnel and the production line that aren’t operating efficiently without eliminating jobs. Beyond simply pointing areas needing improvement, the team identifies solutions and begins the implementation process immediately.

“With the number of manufacturing plants and jobs being outsourced to other countries, it doesn’t benefit anyone if the only thing we accomplish is showing them problem areas,” said Harrawood. “Standard Motor Products is an extremely successful company in a very competitive global market and it’s our obligation to assist them take steps forward, not backward.”

At that’s exactly what happened at SMP, which is proven by the results listed below:

20% Improved efficiency of the pressing operation

5,000 Square Feet (of SMP’s 35,000 sq. ft. plant) freed up for new product lines

Eliminated worker downtime and freed up three positions to operate new product lines

Identified three separate product lines that worked more effectively as one cell and combined them

Wilson Technical Community College set up funding for SMP’s training sessions and worked very closely with CITE to obtain the maximum benefits for a minimal cost.

“This type of relationship between the community college system and ECU’s CITE program should be happening in every county in North Carolina,” said Tommy Askew, SMP Manufacturing Manager. “It’s very likely that had this partnership not been available, regional business and industry like us might not be able to fund this training. And our state’s manufacturing workforce can’t afford to fall behind the rest of the world.”

July 21, 2007 - Daily Reflector
PROFESSOR EARNS NATIONAL AWARD

A technology systems professor has been recognized nationally for his work to improve the education and leadership of students on campus.

David Batts with the College of Technology and Computer Science is the recipient of the Faculty Advisor Award of Excellence presented by the Professional Fraternity Association. For the last 10 years, Batts served as the faculty advisor for ECU’s Tau Chapter of Phi Sigma Pi.

Phi Sigma Pi is a coeducational national honor organization which promotes the advancement of humanity through the application of knowledge and noble service, while fostering a spirit of fraternal unity.

Members of the local chapter have earned university recognition as most outstanding student leader, most outstanding student organization and most outstanding student service organization in the past few years.

“David Batts has mastered the fine balance between remaining an active leader in organization while aiding the independent development of leaders of East Carolina University,” said Brittany Bodart, Phi Sigma Pi National Honor Fraternity Tau Chapter. “Tau Chapter has been awarded the highest honor given by the Phi Sigma Pi National Office 34 times, nearly twice as many as any other collegiate chapters, and in the shadows is our constant source of support and guidance…Dr. David Batts.”

Batts works heavily with the university’s bachelor of science industrial technology program, which enable graduates with a two-year industrial or technological degree from a community college to complete a bachelor’s degree at ECU.

“I get tremendous satisfaction from watching students emerge as great leaders year after year,” said Batts. “It is a great honor to be recognized by the Professional Fraternity Association, but the real credit goes to our students who take advantage of their opportunities and make the most of them.”

Batts will receive the award at the PFA national convention being held Sept. 6-8 in Phoenix.

Danny Morton and Construction Management’s Project GOAL Featured on WNCT-TV 9
News - July 20, 2007 – WNCT-TV 9 (CBS-Greenville)

East Carolina University’s Department of Construction Management has spent the last several weeks working with small business and minority business owners from all over the east who are trying to keep their businesses alive in a very competitive economical market. More than a dozen business men and women, many of which own and operate family run businesses; will complete Project G.O.A.L. (Generation of Achievement in Learning) this weekend. This is the first of what is expected to be numerous Project G.O.A.L. management training programs taught by ECU’s Department of Construction Management in Eastern North Carolina.

With thousands of jobs being outsourced from North Carolina to other states or even other countries in the last decade, these small businesses want to capitalize on the opportunity to improve their current business, and even create plans for expansion. The Project G.O.A.L. participants operate businesses in Kinston, Wilson, Ayden, Farmville, Greenville, and Elm City. In addition to the small and minority business owners, some Project G.O.A.L. participants are also pursuing their General Contractors License.

On Saturday, July 21, 2007 from 11am-1pm, the final Project G.O.A.L. session will be held at the Kinston Training Center in Kinston. The topics will include Financial and Project Accounting as well as an overall course summary. The Project G.O.A.L class will receive certificates during a graduation ceremony on July 28, 2007 at the Hampton Inn in Kinston beginning at 10am.

ECU’s College of Technology and Computer Science has partnered with Lenoir Community College to identify small business and minority business owners that would benefit from Project G.O.A.L. These students have great stories and have agreed to share their experiences as well as how they expect Project G.O.A.L. to impact their business plans.

This is the first installment of what is expected to be numerous Project G.O.A.L. courses to be taught in this region to small and minority business owners. If anyone is interested in signing up for future events, please contact Danny Morton, ECU Department of Construction Management at (252) 328-4141.

Career Solutions: Meet the Teachers
By: Tamara Chapman

Who better to comment on the future of the supply chain than the people educating the next generation of logistics executives? Inbound Logistics profiles three dynamic professors on the front lines of logistics education, including ECU Department of Technology Systems professor Leslie Pagliari.

Change Agent
Leslie Pagliari
Assistant Professor & Coordinator, Industrial Distribution and Logistics Program, East Carolina University

As Leslie Pagliari sees it, constant change is the only constant facing logistics educators.

An assistant professor in the department of technology systems at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C., Pagliari is coordinator of the school's undergraduate logistics program. Her job is to prepare students for never-ending, all-encompassing, head-spinning change.

"The ideas we teach students as freshmen will be obsolete by the time they become juniors," says Pagliari, known to her students as Dr. P.

Coping with unplanned obsolescence turns a professor's life topsy-turvy. How do you prepare students for a future that defies predictability?

Pagliari does it by embracing the few certainties that characterize the field: The technology in use today will be quaint and outmoded tomorrow. The workforce that greets you this week will look vastly different next week. And the conditions shaping business operations could change dramatically with one international crisis.

So how can a scholar keep up with, if not stay ahead of, non-stop change? Pagliari, who has a Southerner's gift for easy exchange, insists on building and maintaining personal ties with the companies that hire her graduates.

Her courses -- which range from freshman-level Introduction to Distribution and Logistics to senior-level Distribution Research -- feature the requisite case studies and textbook readings. But they also incorporate on-site visits to the front lines and guest speakers from all facets of logistics.

Pagliari counts on these delegates from the trenches to supply lessons in Reality 101, lessons that not only instruct her students, but also keep her in tune with the latest industry developments.

Face-to-face contacts, along with ongoing research, ensure that she doesn't fall back on old classroom tricks.

"Some professors teach a supply chain class the same way year after year," Pagliari says.

They hammer home spreadsheet analysis and insist on a mastery of certain software programs. Pagliari incorporates these into her syllabus, too, but she also trains her students to scan the horizon for approaching trends, technologies, and market demands.

Pagliari, who hails from the North Carolina foothills, came to her current post after earning her undergraduate degree and a master's in occupational safety and health from East Carolina University (ECU).

A job with Procter & Gamble, as well as on-site experience associated with her continuing studies, landed her in numerous manufacturing and warehouse/distribution settings.

With these experiences under her belt, Pagliari decided to pursue studies that would marry her long-time interest in safety and health with her emerging interest in logistics challenges.

Mixing online classes with periodic residencies at different businesses, she earned a PhD in applied management and decision sciences, with an emphasis in engineering management, from Walden University, Minneapolis.

Pagliari no sooner finished her doctoral course work when her old alma mater offered her the opportunity to help convert its undergraduate logistics concentration into a full major. The proposal was too intriguing to pass up.

Since the program's launch in the 2002-2003 academic year, the number of ECU logistics students has grown from 80 to 185. Each semester, the department graduates about 40 students, most of whom are hired before the ink dries on their diplomas.

"We have more job requests than graduates," Pagliari says.

Many of these graduates refine their classroom skills on the job, then return to ECU for graduate degrees that prepare them to assume leadership roles. This leads to the kind of two-way knowledge exchange -- professor to student and student to professor -- that Pagliari considers essential for the development of the logistics field.

With ECU's undergraduate enrollment on the rise, Pagliari is working on curriculum enhancements that ensure her students' preparedness for change and even for catastrophe. She's currently developing a syllabus and conducting research to support a class on security risk analysis and logistics.

Scheduled to debut in 2007-2008, the course will be taught in the undergraduate program and eventually become part of the graduate curriculum.

The course stems from Pagliari's interest in the safety and logistics challenges the business community grappled with in the aftermath of Sept. 11.

To prepare, she's studying the way various companies respond to changing homeland security regulations regarding everything from transporting oil and gas to warehousing chemicals. How do they track the location of hazardous materials? How do they know if a shipment has been hijacked? How do they respond if a worst-case scenario materializes?

She's also examining the logistics challenges that face the public-health sector. In collaboration with North Carolina's health agencies, Pagliari has analyzed possible responses to a hypothetical radiation scare. This opportunity drew on her relish for solving logistics puzzles and her interest in the human side of her discipline.

The study explores the logistics of communication, especially in a state with a swelling population of Spanish-speaking immigrants.

How should the relevant health and government agencies communicate with all sectors of the population? And assuming the agencies will need to coordinate response, where should they post translators, dispatch health care workers, and distribute medicine?

In addition to keeping the curriculum current and change-sensitive, Pagliari also wants to diversify her student population. Currently, female students account for less than 25 percent of all ECU logistics majors.

As Pagliari sees it, women are missing out on a career that plays to their strengths: problem-solving, listening, and big-picture thinking. Unfortunately, she says, too many women think logistics is only about warehouses, and overcoming these perceptions is not easy.

"It takes me twice as long to interest a female student in this program as it does a male student," she explains.

That will change once more women, her students among them, permeate the field and spread the word. In the meantime, Pagliari says, "you don't hear much about females in the field."

Present company excluded.

To view this entire article, please log on to www.inboundlogistics.com/articles/features/0607_feature04.shtml

ECU Computer Science lends helping hand to solve Department of Rehabilitation Studies Software Problems

There are few things more special to a college department than receiving new equipment that will improve the methods in which they educate students.

In June 2006, Dr. Paul Alston, the chair for ECU’s Department of Rehabilitation Studies, was given some very expensive and complex video production equipment by a former professor. The equipment called Digital Rapids uses Stream Software to capture audiovisual recordings of counseling sessions, involving students, held in five small counseling rooms.

The recording sessions are viewed and evaluated by students and instructors. The goal was to have the students set up the recordings themselves by operating the video cameras positioned in each counseling room and making an audio/visual recording. However, it wasn’t very long before all parties involved faced major obstacles.

“Our students found the system difficult to use,” said Dr. Alston.

Some of the issues involved switching between servers while others related to faulty recordings or previously recorded sessions being erased.

“The goal was to have a user-friendly system for students while at the same time freeing up much needed time for our faculty and staff,” Alston added. “Instead, our departmental assistants and program operators were often times forced to stop their normal workload to set up sessions or attempt to salvage an erased recording.”

Dr. Alston was faced with two options: (1) Hire an outside private software company at a typically higher cost and chance that a new system may be needed. (2) Team up with ECU’s Department of Computer Science to assess the problem and find maximum results at minimum expense.

Dr. Alston chose the second option and in the spring of 2007, a partnership was built. ECU Computer Science professor Dr. Nasseh Tabrizi, along with a pair of Computer Science students, Chris Westbrook and Mitzi Ponce, attacked the problem head-on to develop a user-friendly version of the same system and eliminate excessive intervention from faculty and staff.

“Too many times technology tends to change us, when it really shouldn’t be that way,” said Dr. Tabrizi. “We really need to create technology to meet our (customer’s) needs.”

In the following months, Dr. Tabrizi and his team identified multiple methods to streamline teaching and student activities as well as ways to reduce the learning curve for training new students each semester.

“We developed a software system using software engineering practice specifically for Rehabilitation Studies and the problems they experienced,” added Dr. Tabrizi.

“Some students would record a session in Room #1, but it end up on a different server unless it was properly configured,” said Dr. Alston. “The training was too intense and students were opting against using the equipment because they were losing projects and the costly time wasted in failed attempts.”

Dr. Tabrizi, together with his students Westbrook and Ponce, developed a series of interface capabilities that allow students to utilize dropdown menus in each counseling room to properly route the recording to the proper server. Additionally, students could save sessions under their own names, thus eliminating lost files or erased recordings. Faculty and staff now serve merely in informational and security capacities while instructors and students communicate more clearly and effectively.

After about five weeks of implementation, the end result was Dr. Tabrizi’s team developed a single screen that accepts input from all users and passes it on to the Stream software.

“Dr. Tabrizi and his team have continued to work with us even in minor adjustments needed and we were fully functional by the start of the second summer session,” said Dr. Alston. “I really believe partnerships like this one can pave the road for future projects between departments on ECU’s campus.”

Dr. Tabrizi agrees that more departments at East Carolina should adopt this approach. “Everyone wants the most highly qualified persons addressing their problems. We have that caliber of expertise all over our campus and Ph.D. level skilled specialists that can find solutions in a very cost effective manner.”

Dr. Tabrizi developed ECU’s Software Engineering program as well as develops and directs the Technology Innovation Lab. “I am always available to help other departments with all their Software Development, e-Commerce, Mobile Computing, Virtual Reality-based and assistive technologies in Distance Education and Medicine, and other related needs. Our students while working on these projects gain real world professional software engineering experience while at ECU and are better prepared for high tech job opportunities.”

Faculty News

Dr. Douglas Kruger, Department of Construction Management chair, delivered a speech to ECU Chancellor Steve Ballard and the new members of the Board of Governors in early August as a part of their orientation. Dr. Kruger was invited to speak to this elite group due to the overwhelming and constant success of ECU’s Department of Construction Management. During the speech, he spoke about the successful graduation rate of the program, regional and national recruiting of ECU graduates and the impact Construction Management students and faculty have on the community through philanthropic projects.

Dr. Evelyn Brown (Engineering) co-authored a study with two professors from Virginia Tech and Radford that was published in the International Journal of Information Technology & Decision Making. The title was “A Grouping Genetic Algorithm for the Multiple Traveling Salesperson Problem.” The paper focused on the greater grouping algorithm (GGA) introducing a new chromosome representation to indicate which salesperson is assigned to each tour and the ordering of the cities within each tour. They compared the method to standard genetic algorithms (GA’s) that employ either the one-chromosome or two-chromosome representation for multiple traveling salespersons (MTSP.) This research demonstrates that the authors GGA with its new chromosome representation is capable of solving a variety of MTSP problems from the literature and can outperform the traditional encodings of previously published GA methods.

Dr. Gene Dixon (Engineering) was elected by the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) and will serve as Secretary and News Editor for the Engineering Management Division in 2007-08. Dixon will be tasked with surveying ASEE members on input related to division management within the organization as well as reporting on research related to the development and delivery of content related to the engineering curriculums across the nation and internationally. ASEE’s Engineering Management Division has more than 250 members throughout the country and around the world. Three of the current officers with Engineering Management come from the state of North Carolina. Along with Dixon at ECU, Dr. Gary Teng and Dr. Ertunga Ozelkan represent UNC Charlotte as officers.

Dr. Michael Behm (Technology Systems) has been involved in several outreach efforts through MS Operational Safety including work with the Eastern North Carolina Chapter of the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE). In February, ECU held a virtual meeting from the Global Classroom and it was actually well received. On September 26, another virtual meeting is scheduled, this time using Centra. Wesley Thigpen, local ASSE Chapter President and MSOS alumni, has been very receptive and open to the use of technology to support Chapter efforts and has been kind enough to publicize ECU’s outreach efforts to the folks at national-level ASSE. When the national-level folks heard about Dr. Behm’s outreach efforts they were excited to better understand how to revitalize local Chapters via virtual educational technology. He has been invited to Chicago on Saturday September 8 to present and demonstrate the utilization of the technology to conduct virtual meetings during their Executive Leadership Conference in the future.

Dr. Erol Ozan (Technology Systems) has been awarded with a scholarship by the Information Assurance Scholarship Program Grant by the Department of Defense. The amount of the grant totals more than $36,000 with a possible option of reaching in excess of $250,000.

Ranjeet Agarwala (Technology Systems) had his paper entitled “Incorporating Remote Capabilities in Undergraduate Lab Introductions” was accepted by the ASME Congress. He has been invited to present the paper at the international conference held in Seattle, Washington on November 11-15.

Dr. M.H. Tabrizi has been awarded a $30,000 grant by IBM. He prepared a proposal on “Teaching Online Software Engineering Courses in a Virtual Reality Classroom Environment” using his Agent and Virtual Reality (AVR) system. (Getting more information)

Samir Khoury (Technology Systems) was the lead author of a paper that has been accepted and is to be presented at the Mountain Plains Management Conference in Kearney, NE in October. The paper is entitled Academic Dishonesty: The Need for Prevention and Control and was co-authored by Dr. Himli Lahoud and Dr. David Batts. The paper discusses how academic dishonesty negatively affects students, employers and educational institutions. Additionally, it addresses the need for control and prevention as well as methods that can be utilized.

At the same conference, Khoury will also present a paper he authored entitled “Employee Monitoring: An Analysis Using Ethical Theories.” It discusses increases of global competition, new laws protecting society and employees, as well as advances in technology that have forced many businesses to monitor their employees. This paper explores the methods used to monitor employees to determine if firms are ethical in their approach to employee monitoring by applying Kant’s categorical imperative theory and the theory of ethics of care.

Photo Gallery

Hawaii Conference
More than two dozen TECS faculty and staff attended the American Society of Engineering Education conference held in Hawaii at the end of June. Faculty presented numerous papers during the conference as well as participated in a variety of small group sessions, poster presentations, as well as attended Executive Board and Council committee events. Below are several of the photographs from the conference.

What a view!!! Conference life is rough.	Ranjeet Agarwala not camera shy!!

ECU Faculty well represented in Hawaii!! Dr. Pagliari talking about Camtasia concepts	Drs. Sherion and Andy Jackson

Summer Ventures 2007
Below are some photos from the Summer Ventures program conducted throughout the summer involving high school students and administrators. Below Engineering faculty and students offered a variety demonstrations and robotic performances.

Technology Systems
Pitt County Schools Business and Technology
Academy Summer Institute
Pitt County students were introduced to the career opportunities available to them in the world of technology at East Carolina University. The rising 10th graders spent several hours touring labs and facilities for demonstrations and interactive projects. ECU was one of three stops in late June for the Summer Institute students. They also visited Pitt Community College and Cisco Systems in Raleigh.

Students learning about routers from Lab Supervisor Kris Augustus

Mark Angolia and Leonard Palmer give a tour and discuss Industrial Distribution and Logistics

Bruce Petersen gave high school students a chance to operate a variety of robots

Student Spotlight

Four MS, Occupational Safety students, under the guise of Dr. Michael Behm, presented research projects as poster presentations at the American Society of Safety Engineers national Professional Development Conference June 24 – 26 in Orlando, FL. The students were Brian Briley, Matt Rice, Veronica Haynes, and Robert Miller. The ECU ASSE Student Section also received an Honorable Mention for Outstanding national Student Section and a $500 award. Dr. Behm worked on a project through APV Heating Exchange in Goldsboro, which was funded through David Harrawood and the CITE program. Some of the funds raised from APV were used to send these students to the conference.

Ron Sessoms, Construction Management instructor, has been working on a project with Pitt County Schools that has involved several students. The students and CMGT staff have been working on a community service project at DH Conley to construct a weather shelter at the tennis facility. This project began during the summer and will conclude this fall.
Additionally, Sessoms and students of the ECCA (East Carolina Construction Association) will soon be starting another community service project at Northwest Elementary School for the construction of an exercise course.

Upcoming Events

9/26 - Technology Systems - Michael Behm

At 10am, Dr. Behm will conduct a virtual meeting for the local chapter of the ASSE via CENTRA, a marketing tool used in distance education. The North Carolina Commissioner of Labor will be speaking to the participants as well as fielding questions. This is the second virtual meeting ECU has conducted for ASSE and is a large reason the local chapter is still in existence. Dr. Behm presented his work at the ASSE National Conference in Chicago and will be working again with the local chapter on Sept. 26th. There will be more on this topic in the next edition of the Nexus.

9/27 - Construction Management - Erich Connell

David Blakeley from the Miami, Florida office will be making a presentation on “transportation” type construction, based on the current work of Kiewit Construction. This presentation shows that the Department of Construction Management is “connecting students to the professional world” with current and relevant education from committed industry experts. There will be more on this topic in the next edition of the Nexus.

10/6 - Construction Management - Major Dedication of High Bay

On Saturday, October 6th at 4:30pm, the Department of Construction Management will have a special dedication ceremony to name the High Bay Laboratory after Caterpillar and Gregory Poole. Chancellor Steve Ballard will be the primary speaker for the event which will be held on the brick walkway outside the High Bay Lab. Local and national media are expected to attend. There will be more on this topic in the next edition of the Nexus.

10/12 -10/21 - North Carolina State Fair - Entire College

The College of Technology and Computer Science is one of only two groups at East Carolina University to have been selected to have a booth at the North Carolina State Fair. Participants from all four departments, plus the Advising Center will be operating the booth during the fair which runs from October 12-21 in Raleigh. There will be more on this topic in the next edition of the Nexus.

Birthdays

For Giggles

Using Creativity

There are two big conferences in NY....one for Engineers and one for Lawyers. They are both being held in the same building downtown. On the first day of the conference, two groups run into each other at the train station and chat while waiting in line to buy tickets into the city.

When they reach the counter, the three lawyers each buy tickets and watch as the three Engineers buy only a single ticket. "How are three people going to travel on only one ticket?" asks a lawyer. "Watch and you'll see," answers an Engineer.

They all board the train. The lawyers take their respective seats, but all three Engineers cram into a restroom and close the door behind them. Shortly after the train has departed, the conductor comes around collecting tickets. He knocks on the restroom door and says, "Ticket, please." The door opens just a crack and a single arm emerges with a ticket in hand. The conductor takes it and moves on. The lawyers saw this and agreed it was quite a clever idea.

So after the conference, the lawyers decide to copy the Engineers on the return trip and save some money (recognizing the Engineers' superior intellect). When they get to the station, they buy a single ticket for the return trip. To their astonishment, the Engineers don't buy a ticket at all. "How are you going to travel without a ticket?" says one perplexed lawyer. "Watch and you'll see," answers an Engineer.

When they board the train the three lawyers cram into a restroom and the three Engineers cram into another one nearby. The train departs. Shortly afterward, one of the Engineers leaves his restroom and walks over to the restroom where the lawyers are hiding. He knocks on the door and says, "Ticket, please."