Idea Generation Practices in a Biomedical Engineering Capstone Course

Project-based education in combination with problem-based learning has been one of the key factors for the popularity of engineering design education among students at technical universities. The use of industry-connected projects has boosted this popularity still further. To get feedback from professionals in industry is very stimulating and in this way students also get confirmation that their education is related to industrial needs. In the Machine Design capstone course at KTH Department of Machine Design, the curriculum covers the whole process from idea generation to manufacturing and testing a final prototype. A major part of the course consists of project work where students will develop a product prototype in close cooperation with an industrial partner or with a research project at the department. The benefits of using real prototypes cannot be stressed enough. This is a very efficient way to explain to the students why a product must be designed in a certain way, e.g. to make it possible to assemble. This means that a major part of the course is using project-based learning as a teaching strategy. In addition, the use of model-based design is introduced as a methodology that enables the students to evaluate and “experience” many different behaviors of the product using digital models in a virtual environment. In this way many undesirable concepts and flaws can be avoided even before a prototype is manufactured. This paper describes a model-based methodology for product development. It also shows the application of this methodology in project work in a capstone course in engineering design at KTH, and discusses the effects on student motivation and learning.

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Extending Design Heuristics From Mechanical Engineering to a Biomedical Projects Course

Volume 3: 19th International Conference on Advanced Vehicle Technologies; 14th International Conference on Design Education; 10th Frontiers in Biomedical Devices ◽

10.1115/detc2017-67795 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jin Woo Lee ◽

Anastasia K. Ostrowski ◽

Shanna R. Daly ◽

Aileen Y. Huang-Saad ◽

Colleen M. Seifert

Keyword(s):

Engineering Design ◽

Biomedical Engineering ◽

Empirical Studies ◽

Idea Generation ◽

Instructional Tools ◽

Design Heuristics ◽

Award Winning ◽

Individual Concepts ◽

Applied Design ◽

Support Students

Research in design has led to emergence of instructional tools to support students in generating multiple candidate concepts. Design Heuristics was developed through empirical studies of professional engineers and award-winning products, and have been shown to support student engineers in generating creative and diverse concepts. We hypothesized that they could be beneficial to student designers in biomedical engineering. In this qualitative classroom study, we examined how graduate students in a biomedical engineering design course applied Design Heuristics to generate individual concepts for their design projects. Our analysis showed that students were able to apply Design Heuristics in their biomedical engineering projects, and that the heuristics supported idea generation in a variety of biomedical engineering design contexts.

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Design in Biomedical Engineering: Student Applications of Design Heuristics as a Tool for Idea Generation

10.18260/1-2--28115 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Anastasia Ostrowski ◽

Jin Woo Lee ◽

Shanna Daly ◽

Aileen Huang-Saad ◽

Colleen Seifert

Keyword(s):

Biomedical Engineering ◽

Idea Generation ◽

Engineering Student ◽

Design Heuristics

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Evaluation of a Model Based Learning Approach for Engineering Design

Volume 3: 17th International Conference on Advanced Vehicle Technologies; 12th International Conference on Design Education; 8th Frontiers in Biomedical Devices ◽

10.1115/detc2015-47276 ◽

2015 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Kjell Andersson

Keyword(s):

Engineering Design ◽

Design Education ◽

Major Part ◽

Idea Generation ◽

Project Based Learning ◽

Machine Design ◽

Project Work ◽

Learning Approach ◽

Capstone Course ◽

Model Based

Project-based education in combination with problem-based learning has been very successful, and has contributed to the popularity of engineering design education among students at technical universities. The close connection to industrial problems by the use of industry-connected projects has boosted this popularity still further and to get an insight of future working environments after graduation is very inspiring for the students. The curriculum of the Machine Design capstone course at KTH Department of Machine Design covers the whole process from idea generation to manufacturing and testing a final prototype. A major part of the course consists of project work where students develop a product prototype in close cooperation with an industrial partner or with a research project at the department. This means that a major part of the course uses project-based learning as a teaching strategy. In addition, a model-based design methodology is introduced which enables the students to evaluate and “experience” many different behaviors of the product using digital models in a virtual environment. In this way, students can see that many undesirable concepts and flaws can be avoided even before a prototype is manufactured. This paper evaluates the use and learning outcome of model-based design in a capstone course in the Engineering Design MSc program at KTH Department of Machine Design. The approach has been used during a period of three years and the effect on the students’ learning has been evaluated by a questionnaire after each course. I this paper we compare the results of these questionnaires and discuss implications and general conclusions about this learning approach.

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Impact of Model-Based Design in Engineering Design Education

Volume 1: 15th International Conference on Advanced Vehicle Technologies; 10th International Conference on Design Education; 7th International Conference on Micro- and Nanosystems ◽

10.1115/detc2013-12625 ◽

2013 ◽

Author(s):

Kjell Andersson

Keyword(s):

Engineering Design ◽

Design Education ◽

Design Methodology ◽

Learning Experience ◽

Idea Generation ◽

Project Based Learning ◽

Machine Design ◽

Project Work ◽

Capstone Course ◽

Model Based

Project-based education in combination with problem-based learning has been very successful, and has contributed to the popularity of engineering design among students at technical universities. And when the project work addresses real industrial problems, offers insight into post-graduation working environments and gets direct feedback from professionals in industry, students can see the immediate relevance of their education — an invaluable boost to their learning experience. Students taking MF2004, a capstone course at KTH Department of Machine Design, learn the whole process from idea generation to manufacturing and testing a final prototype built in close collaboration with an industrial partner or a research group at the department. The benefits of using real prototypes cannot be stressed enough — students find out for themselves why a product must be designed in a certain way (e.g. to make it possible to assemble). The course uses project-based learning as a teaching strategy and introduces a model-based design methodology which enables the students to evaluate and “experience” many different behaviors of the product using digital models in a virtual environment. In this way, students can see that many undesirable concepts and flaws can be avoided even before a prototype is manufactured. This paper focuses on the introduction of the model-based design methodology and evaluation of its impact on learning in a capstone course in the Engineering Design MSc programme at KTH Department of Machine Design. A questionnaire was used to evaluate the effects on the students’ learning, as well as to assess how feasible they consider this methodology to be. On the basis of this, in combination with the weekly meetings with the project teams, we can report a positive attitude among the students and improved learning outcomes.

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