scholarly journals Design Integrated in the Mechanical Engineering Curriculum: Assessment of the Engineering Clinics

2007 ◽  
Vol 129 (7) ◽  
pp. 682-691 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Kadlowec ◽  
Krishnan Bhatia ◽  
Tirupathi R. Chandrupatla ◽  
John C. Chen ◽  
Eric Constans ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Mechanical Engineering ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Integrated Design ◽  
Curriculum Assessment ◽  
Rowan University ◽  
Core Courses ◽  
Team Environment ◽  
Design Skills ◽  
The Impact

At Rowan University, design has been infused into the curriculum through an eight-semester course sequence called the Engineering Clinics. Through this experience, students learn the art and science of design in a multidisciplinary team environment and hone their design skills throughout their 4-year career. This paper describes the objectives of the clinics, types of projects, and how the clinics complement traditional core courses in the curriculum. Impacts and benefits of the clinics on students and faculty are discussed, including retention and graduate study rates comparing Rowan University mechanical engineering students to their peers nationally. An assessment of the clinics is presented based on survey data and accreditation objectives and outcomes. Survey data from students were assessed to determine levels of students’ satisfaction and confidence based on the clinics. Results of alumni and employer surveys also provide valuable feedback for assessing and improving the clinics as well as confirmation of the impact of clinics after graduation. Survey data are discussed along with challenges of the clinics at Rowan and adaptability of them at other institutions. Overall, the clinics are a positive and integrated design experience in the curriculum and assist students in achieving the program objectives.

How Function Ordering Within Morphological Charts Influence Exploration1

2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anant Chawla ◽  
Joshua D. Summers
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Mechanical Engineering ◽  
Design Space Exploration ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Design Space ◽  
Space Exploration ◽  
Integrated Design ◽  
Input Function ◽  
Output Function ◽  
Design Concepts

Although morphological charts are widely taught used tools in engineering design, little formal guidance is provided regarding their representation and exploration. Thus, an experiment was conducted to elucidate the influence of functional ordering on the exploration of morphological charts. Two design prompts were used, each with five different functional arrangements: (1) most-to-least important function, (2) least-to-most important function, (3) input-to-output function, (4) output-to-input function, and (5) Random. Sixty-seven junior mechanical engineering students were asked to generate integrated design concepts from prepopulated morphological charts for each design prompt. The concepts were analyzed to determine the frequency with which a given means was selected, how much of the chart was explored, the sequence of exploration, and the influence of function ordering. Results indicated a tendency to focus upon the initial columns of the chart irrespective of functional order. The most-to-least-important functional order resulted in higher chances and a uniformity of design space exploration.

First Year Engineering Projects to Senior Capstone Design: Are Students Gaining Technical and Professional Skills?

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daria Kotys-Schwartz ◽  
Daniel Knight ◽  
Gary Pawlas
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Engineering ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
First Year ◽  
Professional Skill ◽  
Engineering Project ◽  
Professional Skills ◽  
Senior Design ◽  
Design Skills ◽  
Engineering Projects ◽  
Capstone Design

Innovative curriculum reforms have been instituted at several universities and colleges with the intention of developing the technical competence and professional skills of engineering students. First Year Engineering Project (FYEP), or Freshman Design courses have been integrated into undergraduate engineering curricula across the country. Many of these courses provide students with hands-on engineering opportunities early in the curriculum. Senior Capstone Design (SCD) courses are ubiquitous in engineering programs, incorporating technical knowledge and real-world problem solving. Previous research has shown that project-driven classes like FYEP and SCD increase the professional and technical design skills of students. While research into first year and senior design skills development has been more robust, scant research investigating the transformation of skills between freshman design experiences and senior design experiences has been performed. This research project investigates the longitudinal technical and professional skill development of mechanical engineering students at the University of Colorado at Boulder. An overview of First-Year Engineering Projects and the mechanical engineering Senior Capstone Design project course is detailed. Technical and professional skill objectives are discussed within the paper. Pre and post skill surveys were utilized in both First-Year Engineering Projects and the Senior Capstone Design classes. Initial results indicate that student skills deteriorate between the end of the first-year and beginning of the senior year.

The Impact of Direct Competency Testing (DCT)

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey G. Marchetta ◽  
John I. Hochstein ◽  
Teong E. Tan
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Engineering ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Engineering Curriculum ◽  
Valuable Component ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
Program Accreditation ◽  
Competency Testing ◽  
Faculty Survey ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
The Impact

Direct Competency Testing (DCT) was developed and implemented to measure the ability of mechanical engineering students to correctly solve problems in the fundamental areas for each course in the mechanical engineering curriculum. Almost 10 years since the inception of DCT, an effort is made to assess the efficacy of DCT as a measure of student ability. Qualitative and quantitative assessments are conducted to evaluate the impact of administration, documentation, and evaluation of DCT on students and faculty. Student surveys focus on the perception of competency testing as a component of coursework and whether DCT is a reasonable measure of learning. Faculty survey results yield historical data of student DCT and provide perceptions of the effectiveness of DCT in mechanical engineering coursework. The impact of DCT on program accreditation and the connection to EC2000 criteria are examined. Evidence is provided that competency testing helps instructors assess a minimum threshold above which to evaluate the success of their students and that the majority of students believed DCT was a valuable component of an engineering curriculum. Results are presented to support the merit of continuing and further refining the methods for DCT.

scholarly journals The Impact of Makerspaces on Engineering Education

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed Galaleldin ◽  
Francois Bouchard ◽  
Hanan Anis ◽  
Claude Lague
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Students ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Global Market ◽  
Problem Analysis ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
American University ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Design Skills ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Engineering Schools

Makerspaces are gaining more ground in universities and other educational institutions as a novel approach to boost creativity, innovation, and provide more opportunities for experiential and hands-on learning experience. Albeit being multidisciplinary, and open spaces in nature,Makerspaces still lack integration to the curricula of engineering schools. With increasingly competitive markets, there is a need to educate future engineers with necessary skills to be more creative and to be able to compete in today’s global market. A twophase study was developed to study the integration of the Makerspace concept in engineering schools. The first phase was based on interviews with five North American University Makerspaces that vary in size, objective, business model, and management structure to identify best Makerspace practices in preparationof the establishment of the University of Ottawa’s Richard L’Abbé Makerspace. The second phase was a survey administered to engineering students who have used the Richard L’Abbé Makerspace since its opening in the fall of 2014 to assess its impact on their engineering competencies, in particular design skills, problem analysis, communication and teamwork skills, investigation skills, and entrepreneurial skills. This paper aims at studying best practices of Makerspaces on campus and their impacts onengineering education and on the development ofdesired skills and competencies for engineering students.

Knowledge Retention and Scoring Metrics for Functional Modeling in an Engineering Design Context

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Riggs ◽  
Philip Mountain ◽  
Robert L. Nagel ◽  
Matt R. Bohm ◽  
Julie S. Linsey
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Knowledge Retention ◽  
Functional Modeling ◽  
Design Synthesis ◽  
Functional Models ◽  
Data Points ◽  
Design Skills ◽  
Teaching Function ◽  
The Impact

Functional modeling as a design methodology is often covered in engineering design texts as a tool for transforming “customer speak” into “engineering speak.” There is little to no empirical data, though, that clearly demonstrates that learning functional modeling actually improves students’ engineering design skills. The overall objective of this project is to determine the impact of teaching function on engineering students’ design synthesis abilities. This paper focuses on preliminary data collected as a part of the longitudinal study. Students were asked to generate functional models of functionally similar systems at two points during an engineering design course: (1) once as a homework assignment immediately following the introduction of the topic and (2) again as a low stakes in-class activity seven weeks later. This paper will present the comparison of models created at both data points. Student models at each time point are analyzed using a validated 18-question rubric. The results provide promise that, in general, students retain their modeling ability, but there are noted characteristic differences between homework-generated functional models and those generated later in the semester during an in-class activity. These characteristics will be discussed as will potential improvements to the scoring rubric.

Exploring the Effect of Design Education on the Design Cognition of Mechanical Engineering Students

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher B. Williams ◽  
John Gero ◽  
Yoon Lee ◽  
Marie Paretti
Keyword(s):  
Design Education ◽  
Mechanical Engineering ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Protocol Analysis ◽  
Design Cognition ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Protocol Study ◽  
The Impact

In this paper, the authors report on progress of a longitudinal study on the impact of design education on students’ design thinking and practice. Using innovations in cognitive science and new methods of protocol analysis, the authors are working with engineering students to characterize their design cognition as they progress through engineering curricula. In this paper, the results from a protocol study of sophomore Mechanical Engineering students are presented. Specifically, data gathered from two experimental sessions (conducted before and after the students’ introductory design course) are analyzed to identify changes in design thinking cognition. Design cognition is determined using protocol analysis with the coding of the protocols based on a general design ontology, namely, the Function-Behavior-Structure (FBS) as a principled coding scheme (as opposed to an ad hoc one). Preliminary results indicate that statistically significant changes in students’ design cognition occur over the course of their sophomore year. The change manifests itself in an increase in focus on the purposes of designs being produced, which is often a precursor to the production a higher quality designs, and an increase in the design processes associated with the introduction of purposes of designs.

scholarly journals The Impact of Task-Based Language Teaching on the Development of Iranian EFL Learners’ ESP Reading Comprehension Skills

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 70
Author(s):  
Mahnam Setayesh ◽  
Amin Marzban
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Reading Ability ◽  
Mechanical Engineering ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Comprehension Skills ◽  
Post Test ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Reading Comprehension Skills

The present study primarily aimed at investigating the effect of Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) on development of the Iranian EFL learners’ ESP Reading Comprehension Skills. Moreover, it was aimed at investigating the probable difference between the TBLT-instructed students of Law and Mechanical Engineering with respect to their ESP reading skills, on the one hand, and the probable difference between TBLT-instructed males and females, on the other. In so doing, four groups of 25 participants (including two experimental groups and two control ones) were selected through cluster random sampling from among ESP students majoring in Law and Mechanical Engineering. After a four-week instruction treatment, the post-test was conducted to the participants. The results of the data analysis revealed that the experimental groups significantly performed better than the control groups in the post-test with respect to their reading comprehension scores. Furthermore, the results of independent samples t-test indicated that TBLT has been more effective on the Mechanical Engineering students than the Law students. Finally, the findings of the study were indicative of the fact that TBLT was more effective on females’ reading comprehension rather than on males’. Consequently, it can be concluded that TBLT can have a positive effect on students’ ESP reading ability. The findings of this study can be employed in different areas of second/foreign language teaching and learning to facilitate and improve the process of language learning. 

scholarly journals Mechanical Engineering Students’ Perceptions of Design Skills Throughout a Senior Design Course Sequence

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valerie Bracho Perez ◽  
Anilegna Nuñez Abreu ◽  
Ameen Khan ◽  
Luis Guardia ◽  
Indhira Hasbún ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Engineering ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Senior Design ◽  
Course Sequence ◽  
Design Skills

scholarly journals A Critical Survey of Environmental Content in United States Undergraduate Mechanical Engineering Curricula

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6961
Author(s):  
Charles E. Sprouse III ◽  
Maximilian Davy ◽  
Anna Doyle ◽  
Grace Rembold
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Engineering ◽  
Curriculum Study ◽  
Environmental Stewardship ◽  
National Society ◽  
National Council ◽  
Critical Survey ◽  
Green Technologies ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Core Courses ◽  
The Impact

This survey examines how mechanical engineers are being prepared to be responsible stewards of the environment by offering a multi-channeled look at a diverse collection of twelve US colleges and universities, with connections to the larger global context. This study enumerates the external influences of professional organizations, those responsible for program accreditation (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET)), professional conduct (American Society of Mechanical Engineers), and licensure (National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying, National Society of Professional Engineers). At the curricular level, this study presents current mechanical engineering curricula via core courses (required at most institutions) and non-core courses (required at a minority of institutions or elective courses). The curriculum study identifies fifteen core courses and uses the Open Syllabus Project and online bookstores to identify a representative textbook and classify the environmental content therein. Immediate results show the environment receiving sparse treatment in core course textbooks, institutions having zero environment-focused degree requirements, and a tendency towards offering electives that are narrowly focused on green technologies. Elective offerings mirror ABET’s recent move away from emphasizing the “broad education necessary to understand the impact” of engineering solutions to instead “consider the impact of” engineering solutions in an environmental context. Overall, the environmental education mechanical engineers are receiving is insufficient in amount and lacking in scientific and ethical foundation. Ideally, every mechanical engineering program should include coordinated environmental content throughout the curriculum and require at least one course that teaches both environmental design principles and the importance of environmental stewardship. A novel approach eschews the typical artes mechanicae course structure to teach environmental stewardship in the artes liberales educational tradition, emphasizing multi-dimensional thinking by employing great books style discussions of seminal scientific, ethical, and technological works.

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