Using Hands-On Physical Computing Projects to Teach Computer Programming to Biomedical Engineering Students

2018 ◽  
Vol 140 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Trevor Ham ◽  
S. Cyrus Rezvanifar ◽  
Vineet S. Thomas ◽  
Rouzbeh Amini
Keyword(s):  
Active Learning ◽  
Programming Languages ◽  
Biomedical Engineering ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Computer Programming ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Physical Computing ◽  
Skill Sets ◽  
Hands On

Rapid advancements in the multidisciplinary field of biomedical engineering (BME) require competitive engineers with skill sets in a broad range of subjects including biology, physiology, mechanics, circuits, and programming. Accordingly, such a need should be reflected in the training of BME students. Among those skills, computer programming is an essential tool that is used in a wide variety of applications. In this paper, we have provided our experience in incorporating project-based learning, a promising approach in active learning, for teaching computer programming to BME students. We describe a low-cost method for using physical, hands-on computing that directly relates to BME. Additionally, we detail our efforts to teach multiple programming languages in one semester and provide a detailed analysis of the outcomes. We also provide basic materials for other instructors to adapt to fit their own needs.

Enhancing Engineering Learning Experience at UTB by Freshmen iHOP

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nazmul Islam
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Real World ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Senior Design ◽  
Team Selection ◽  
Hands On ◽  
Lower Division

Most of the engineering courses focus more on theory and very little on hands-on, project-based learning in the classroom. Integration of real-world engineering problems and applications in lower division engineering courses will produce engineering students, who will be technically sound and be able to execute and manage real-world projects, when they will do senior design projects in their final year of engineering study. To overcome the engineering design challenges we have developed iHOP (Ingenieŕia Hands on Project) and integrate it with our lower division engineering courses. iHOP has been developed to emphasis the design component at the University of Texas at Brownsville (UTB) Engineering Physics curriculum and the project is now an integral part of Introduction to Engineering class. The iHOP project is one that is challenging, fun, requires teamwork, associated with the engineering material being studied, low cost, and doable in a limited amount of time. The experience from iHOP project motivates our freshman students to choose a better senior design project in senior year of their college career. The objectives of the iHOP projects are — to have students develop teamwork skills, and to teach students basic engineering design concepts in a complementary format to the traditional lecture. Various techniques related to team selection, encouraging teamwork, incorporation of engineering topics, keeping costs down, project results presentations, and gathering feedback from students will also be presented in this paper. Integrating iHOP Project with Introduction to Engineering class helped us to improve our retention effort in the engineering department.

Sustainable and Renewable Energy Undergraduate Research

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Radian Belu ◽  
Richard Chiou ◽  
Tzu-Liang (Bill) Tseng
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Driving Force ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Green Energy ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Experimental Result ◽  
Original Research ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Technical Problems ◽  
Hands On

Energy is a continuous driving force for the social and technological prospective developments and a vital and essential ingredient for all human transactions. The world is facing an energy “crisis”, due to limited fossil fuel resources, growing energy demand and population. All these facts led to and increased interests in renewable energy sources and green manufacturing. Equipping engineering students with the skills and knowledge required to be successful global engineers in the 21st century is one of the primary objectives of academic educators. Enabling students to practice self-directed learning, find design solutions that are sustainable, and helping them recognize that they are part of a global community are just of few of our educational goals. Project-based learning provides the contextual environment making learning exciting and relevant, providing opportunities to explore technical problems from systems-level perspectives, with an appreciation for the inter-connectedness of science principles. The quest for knowledge is the driving force behind education no matter what field is being studied. This means a lot of reading from textbooks, completion of assignments, exams, lectures but quite little of this work involves original research. Active research experience is one of the most effective ways to attract and retain talented undergraduates in science and engineering. At our institutions, we are regularly modifying curriculum content to embrace sustainability and green energy concepts in learning outcomes. However this crosses over between a numbers of multi-disciplinary, multidimensional study areas that include philosophy and ethics. Consequently a major challenge for us is to encourage engineering students whose primary focus is purely technical to include sustainability and renewable energy topics in their designs. To join into this effort of equipping the future engineers and technologists with renewable energy background, we developed a set of project-based courses related to these topics and include them also in our senior project design course sequence. The main objectives of these curricula changes are to provide students with theoretical and practical knowledge reinforced by hands-on experience. These projects are also good examples of multi-disciplinary cooperation of different engineering disciplines as well as providing valuable hands-on and research experience. This paper presents the changes in the course structure, sample of projects, student survey of the course, as well as plans and expectations for future success. We are also discussing here the project team structure, plan and management, component selection, system simulation, and experimental result.

IIUM CubeSat Structural Subsystem Design

2015 ◽  
Vol 1115 ◽  
pp. 568-572
Author(s):  
Siti Sarah Isharuddin ◽  
Mohamed Okasha ◽  
Sultan Ibrahim
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Students ◽  
Development Process ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Model Structure ◽  
Test Results ◽  
Hands On ◽  
The World ◽  
Subsystem Design ◽  
Vibration Tests ◽  
Ansys Workbench

This paper investigates the development process of a CubeSat model structure subsystem for the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM). Many universities around the world have participated in similar CubeSat satellite projects. CubeSat satellite enables to design and produce a fully functional satellite at low cost compared to other types of satellites. It gives the engineering students especially the aerospace one, a hands-on education, and learning about how to design their own satellite. This paper will discuss the procedures that can be used to design and test the CubeSat structure subsystem considering design goals and constraints. The analyses will consider the structure static and vibration tests utilizing ANSYS Workbench platform and SolidWorks software and the simulation results will be compared with the experimental test results on the physical model.

scholarly journals Multivariate Analysis of Students Perception on Teaching with Client Based and Non-Client Based Team Projects

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 93
Author(s):  
Philip Appiah-Kubi
Keyword(s):  
Active Learning ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Student Evaluation ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Motivation To Learn ◽  
Research Knowledge ◽  
Skill Sets ◽  
Main Challenge ◽  
Problem Solvers

The classroom experience has evolved from traditional lecture, PowerPoint and whiteboards to a more active environment where students and instructors work together more on hands-on activities to achieve the course objectives. Various names have been given to this pedagogy; experiential learning, project-based learning, active learning, problem-based learning are a handful of names used to describe this evolving pedagogy. The main challenge faced by educators in educating undergraduate students to be independent thinkers and problem solvers, has been the driving force fueling the shift in pedagogy. The skill sets needed to be successful in the workforce has also evolved over the years. Today’s employees are not only expected to demonstrate proficiency in green skills in their field of study, but must also possess soft skills required to be competitive in the industry. Gone are the days where engineers worked in silos applying their green skills to create for the common good. To be productive, employers expect today’s engineer to demonstrate the ability to work in teams, communicate effectively, while applying the technical and analytical know-how needed to achieve a desired goal. To ensure that undergraduate students have these desired skills, most engineering educators have shifted away from the traditional all lecture classes and are applying active learning pedagogies. This research looks into student’s perception on project-based learning with client based and non-client based projects in terms of: the project as a learning device, contribution to research knowledge, motivation to learn, contribution to skills and personal benefits, and their effects on student evaluation of teaching and motivation to learn.

Experimental Vehicles Program Aides in Innovative Hands-On Learning Experiences

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saeed Foroudastan ◽  
Brigette Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Student Development ◽  
Real World ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Green Energy ◽  
Solar Panels ◽  
Skill Sets ◽  
Formula Sae ◽  
Hands On ◽  
International Industry ◽  
Hands On Learning

The Experimental Vehicles Program (EVP) was created in 2004 as an umbrella program for five different undergraduate experimental vehicle design teams. These projects consist of the Solar Vehicle, Moonbuggy, Baja SAE, Formula SAE, and Solar Boat. The goal of the EVP is to foster undergraduate student development through hands-on construction of experimental vehicles with the guidance of faculty mentors and partnerships with both national and international industry leaders. Each EVP project performs a vital function in the professional development of students. The projects provide a forgiving environment in which students can test their classroom knowledge in a real-world setting and learn important skills such as leadership, effective communication, and working as a team member. Furthermore, the students in the EVP develop highly versatile and qualified skill sets that will allow them to fill various positions within the workplace. In the past 90% of EVP graduates have been able to obtain highly regarded national and international positions upon graduation due to their real-world hands-on experience gained throughout their involvement in the EVP. Each year the EVP sponsors up to sixty interdisciplinary students that come together in peer-led teams to combine and expand upon their classroom knowledge in building innovative vehicles. The successes of the MTSU EVP have been recognized by becoming the national model for hands-on engineering education; helping engineering students take classroom knowledge and apply it to real-world situations. Students work in teams to annually design, construct, and test novel vehicle designs for participation in national and international competitions. Due to the competitive nature of each of the events, students must use cutting edge technology and design methods in order to create the best entries possible. Often times this means creating partnerships with industry leaders who help mentor the students from the design conception, the fabrication, through the manufacturing of each vehicle. These partnerships benefit both the students and the companies; students are able to create real-world contacts and gain a working knowledge of the industry that they cannot learn in the classroom. Furthermore, the students are able to use the contacts to garner equipment like solar panels and wheels. Likewise, the companies are able to receive recognition at national and international competition as program sponsors are advertised on the competition vehicles. Moreover the industries are able to build relationships with future employees who have real-world experience and who have become intimately involved with specialized technology such as “green energy”.

scholarly journals A Multidisciplinary Mechatronics Program: From Project-Based Learning to a Community-Based Approach on an Open Platform

Electronics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 954 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mai-Ha Phan ◽  
Ha Quang Thinh Ngo
Keyword(s):  
International Development ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Technology Program ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Skill Sets ◽  
Open Platform ◽  
Innovation And Technology ◽  
Control Automation ◽  
Innovative Thinking

To face contemporary problems, international engineers must be trained in advanced learning environments and with professional skills and knowledge. Sponsored by USAID (US Agency for International Development), the Build-IT (Building University-Industry Learning and Development through Innovation and Technology) program leverages the vast capabilities of the implementing partner from Arizona State University and plays a key role as an innovative pioneer in converging personalities from various fields. A well-educated engineer can contribute to the sustainable development of society. With the aim of building community-oriented education, an integrated strategy was proposed in which a problem-based learning method is investigated to apply technical knowledge. In accordance with this strategy, in our proposed method, students from Mechatronics Engineering first had to work together with other learners in the electronics, software, control automation, and mechanics fields, followed by the design of an open platform integrated multi-disciplinary approach. By collaborating with their peers in developing this hardware, students become better equipped with specialized knowledge. This process also allows students to feel confident in implementing their innovative thinking while still maintaining the core meaning of the instrument. One of the key benefits of this approach is that helping students overcome their problems concurrently enhances the engineer’s function in the community despite missing some specialized skill sets. Based on experimental works using this open framework, the present approach demonstrates that pupils in our program have sufficient ability to contribute to social achievements. Lastly, the feasible, low-cost, and visually educational instrument made by the participants showcases the value of such a multi-disciplinary approach.

scholarly journals Success Factors in Students’ Motivation with Project Based Learning: From Theory to Reality

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. 4
Author(s):  
Sara Reis ◽  
Fátima Coelho ◽  
Luis Coelho
Keyword(s):  
Social Presence ◽  
Biomedical Engineering ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Success Factors ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Special Effect ◽  
Study Case

<strong>One of the teacher’s first goals should be to inspire students to learn. Using project-based learning (PBL) to involve students in the learning process could be a useful and powerful tool to prepare the students for their professional future. As part of a degree course in Biomedical Engineering, students were asked to look at society and identify a possible biomedical-related failure or daily-life problem. From this, the students were challenged to work towards a solution, by preparing a project and creating a prototype or a minimum viable product. In this article we present the case study of a students’ team, whose project was candidate and winner of a national prize. This prize was related to health innovation. Despite the particularization of this case study case, the students considered the experience innovative, motivating, and challenging. They also underlined the added value of a project whose impact goes beyond the classroom. Therefore, this method of teaching and learning, based on projects, may have a special effect on the students and, therefore on the civil society. The PBL can help higher education institutions to have a more prominent social presence, as innovation drivers and as forces of intervention.</strong>

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