Cognitive Empathy in Design Course for a More Inclusive Mechanical Engineering

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Wong (Lau) ◽  
Rebecca L. Norris ◽  
Zahed Siddique ◽  
M. Cengiz Altan ◽  
James Baldwin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Engineering ◽  
Cognitive Empathy ◽  
Student Survey ◽  
Student Body ◽  
Empathy Training ◽  
University Of Oklahoma ◽  
Senior Design ◽  
Undergraduate Programs ◽  
The University ◽  
New Generation

Cognitive Empathy, often referred to as perspective taking, refers to the ability to identify and understand details about another’s experience so that one can understand why people may think and feel the way that they do. In recent years the need for designers to develop Cognitive Empathy skills has been recognized and has given rise to human-centered design and empathic design. Many mechanical engineering and design departments offer courses and have programs in these emerging topics. Mechanical engineers need to have basic understanding of Cognitive Empathy to function in today’s workplace. In addition, most mechanical engineering undergraduate programs do not have a diverse student body representative of the general population. Although there are many reasons, we believe that having a welcoming, inclusive environment is a precursor to improving diversity and thus should be an important consideration in mechanical engineering education. We propose that introducing carefully designed training on Cognitive Empathy in design courses could result in (i) a more welcoming and inclusive environment and (ii) a new generation of designers better equipped to consider the users. In this paper we present an “Intercultural Cognitive Empathy” training that was given to all mechanical engineering seniors at the University of Oklahoma to create a more inclusive environment. The students in a senior design course received the training at the beginning of the semester, before forming their design teams, so that they could use the skills to better communicate with each other. Cognitive Empathy research provided the foundation for the training and intercultural active learning components were also integrated. A student survey, done at the end of the semester, showed that students retained and used different components of the training throughout the semester. The assessment strongly suggests that this training should be part of the regular curriculum.

Structuring Senior Design Capstone to Develop Competencies

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zahed Siddique
Keyword(s):  
Learning Community ◽  
Mechanical Engineering ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Energy Industry ◽  
Student Outcome ◽  
Engineering Programs ◽  
University Of Oklahoma ◽  
Senior Design ◽  
Student Teams ◽  
The University

Senior Design Capstone is a required component of many undergraduate engineering programs. The School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Oklahoma has incorporated industry sponsored design projects, with Experiential Learning as the model, to develop technical and meta-competencies through the Senior Design Practicum Program. The Mechanical Engineering Capstone program has been developed to provide a learning environment, where students in teams work closely with an industry sponsor and a faculty advisor. The student teams work as a consulting group to produce useful results on an open-ended project to the sponsors’ satisfaction within the constraints of time and budget. Three major program elements, are (1) Student teams to learn and perform the tasks to achieve the desired goals of the project (2) Sponsor to define the problem, guide and accept or reject the results, and (3) Faculty to advise, coordinate, and evaluate. The Capstone program has targeted the energy industry, with a focus on oil and gas, which has a very strong presence in the region. The program, working closely with industry partners as mentors, prepares students for the energy industry. The student outcome and program are evaluated with extensive participation from industry. The program was implemented during 2002–2003. Over the last 10-years the program been able to sustain and grow. The plan that was used to sustain the program relied on developing a learning community of students, faculty and industry to support development of student competencies.

Design-Build-Test Senior Design Project

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas G. Boronkay ◽  
Janak Dave
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Engineering ◽  
Engineering Technology ◽  
Bachelor Of Science ◽  
Design Project ◽  
Technology Students ◽  
Senior Design ◽  
Design Build ◽  
Course Sequence ◽  
Capstone Projects ◽  
The University

Abstract Every student in the Mechanical Engineering Technology Department must complete a Senior Capstone Design Project course sequence as a requirement for the partial fulfillment of the Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering Technology degree. Mechanical Engineering Technology students at the University of Cincinnati must design, build, and test their product for the satisfactory completion of the Senior Design Project course sequence. At many institutions the capstone projects do not include the build and test components. This paper gives a short description of the Senior Design course sequence, the list of pre-requisite design courses, the design process used by the students to complete their projects. It addresses issues, such as, team versus individual projects, industrial versus personal projects, etc. It also describes typical projects, two of which are being used in industry with minor modifications.

Teaching Mechatronics to the New Generation

1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory P. Hayward ◽  
Burford J. Furman
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Engineering ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Computer Programming ◽  
State University ◽  
San Jose ◽  
Elective Course ◽  
Programming Skills ◽  
San Jose State University ◽  
Undergraduate Programs ◽  
New Generation

Abstract Students entering undergraduate programs have increasing familiarity with elements of mechatronics such as computer programming skills and familiarity with robotics. A new elective course in mechatronics at San José State University is under development through collaboration of senior mechanical engineering students and faculty to effectively teach mechatronics to the new generation of students. The proposed course is project-based and uses a self-contained microcontroller so that students can work on their project outside of a traditional laboratory space.

Post-Graduation Assessment of the Effectiveness of an Industrially Sponsored Senior Design Capstone Course

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vito Moreno ◽  
Bryan Weber ◽  
Thomas Barber
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Engineering ◽  
Student Perspectives ◽  
Capstone Course ◽  
Senior Design ◽  
Recent Graduates ◽  
Course Outcomes ◽  
The University ◽  
University Of Connecticut ◽  
Level Of Effort

Results of a survey of recent graduates who completed the Mechanical Engineering Senior Design Capstone course at the University of Connecticut are presented. Student perspectives on level of effort, effectiveness of course outcomes, and value of the course in their current jobs are presented. Overall results suggest that the industrially sponsored projects together with the class lectures have provided valuable experiences.

A Six-Legged Walking Robot as a Senior Design Project

1997 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-71
Author(s):  
H. B. Gürocak ◽  
J. M. Ancona
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Engineering ◽  
Design Criterion ◽  
Walking Robot ◽  
Research Committee ◽  
Design Project ◽  
Senior Design ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Minimum Number ◽  
Leg Motion ◽  
The University

In this article the design of a six-legged walking robot as a mechanical engineering senior design project is presented. The design criterion was to use a minimum number of motors for leg motion while the robot would have the ability to turn when it ran into an object. The project proved to be a good example for the application of fundamental mechanical engineering concepts such as kinematics, statics and machine design. This project was funded by the Faculty Research Committee of the University of the Pacific.

A Mechanical Engineering Activity-Based Freshman Course

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oziel Rios ◽  
Dani Fadda
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Engineering ◽  
Computer Software ◽  
Student Survey ◽  
Freshman Year ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Engineering Activity ◽  
Design Activities ◽  
The University ◽  
Future Education ◽  
Core Course

A freshman course is offered by the Mechanical Engineering (ME) Department at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD). This course is a core course for the second semester of the freshman year. The course is divided into four segments where each segment addresses one area of mechanical engineering. The course is designed to facilitate the improvement of design activities from one semester to another based on student feedback, the needs of the mechanical engineering curriculum and contemporary issues important to the mechanical engineering profession. The course is described in this paper along with the student’s response to specific questions related to the design projects. Specifically, feedback from a student survey administered at the end of the course is presented. This survey includes the student’s perception of their understanding of the topics studied, value of the activities for their future education, and their enjoyment of the activities. Comments received from the survey are also included and are used, along with instructor observations, to make improvements to the learning outcomes. The course resources needed including lab space, computer software, tools, and teaching assistants are also discussed, as well as the course organization. A sample 16-week schedule is provided.

scholarly journals The WxChallenge: Forecasting Competition, Educational Tool, and Agent of Cultural Change

2013 ◽  
Vol 94 (10) ◽  
pp. 1501-1506 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bradley G. Illston ◽  
Jeffrey B. Basara ◽  
Christopher Weiss ◽  
Mike Voss
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Change ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
The United States ◽  
Higher Learning ◽  
Educational Tool ◽  
Web Interfaces ◽  
Wind Speeds ◽  
University Of Oklahoma ◽  
The University

The WxChallenge, a project developed at the University of Oklahoma, brings a state-of-the-art, fun, and exciting forecast contest to participants at colleges and universities across North America. The challenge is to forecast the maximum and minimum temperatures, precipitation, and maximum wind speeds for select locations across the United States over a 24-h prediction period. The WxChallenge is open to all undergraduate and graduate students, as well as higher-education faculty, staff, and alumni. Through the use of World Wide Web interfaces accessible by personal computers, tablet computer, and smartphones, the WxChallenge provides a state-of-the-art portal to aid participants in submitting forecasts and alleviate many of the administrative issues (e.g., tracking and scoring) faced by local managers and professors. Since its inception in 2006, 110 universities have participated in the contest and it has been utilized as part of the curricula for 140 classroom courses at various institutions. The inherently challenging nature of the WxChallenge has encouraged its adoption as an educational tool. As its popularity has grown, professors have seen the utility of the Wx-Challenge as a teaching aid and it has become an instructional resource of many meteorological classes at institutions for higher learning. In addition to evidence of educational impacts, the competition has already begun to leave a cultural and social mark on the meteorological learning experience.

An Open Source Solution for “Hands-on” teaching of PET/CT to Medical Students under the COVID-19 Pandemic

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Biermann ◽  
Salim Kanoun ◽  
Trond Davidsen ◽  
Robert Gray
Keyword(s):  
Medical Students ◽  
Student Satisfaction ◽  
Student Survey ◽  
Technical Challenge ◽  
Course Work ◽  
Pet Ct ◽  
Hands On ◽  
Hands On Learning ◽  
Central Image ◽  
The University

Abstract Aims Since 2017, medical students at the University of Bergen were taught PET/CT “hands-on” by viewing PET/CT cases in native format on diagnostic workstations in the hospital. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, students were barred access. This prompted us to launch and evaluate a new freeware PET/CT viewing system hosted in the university network. Methods We asked our students to install the multiplatform Fiji viewer with Beth Israel PET/CT plugin (http://petctviewer.org) on their personal computers and connect to a central image database in the university network based on the public domain orthanc server (https://orthanc-server.com). At the end of course, we conducted an anonymous student survey. Results The new system was online within eight days, including regulatory approval. All 76 students (100 %) in the fifth year completed their course work, reading five anonymized PET/CT cases as planned. 41 (53 %) students answered the survey. Fiji was challenging to install with a mean score of 1.8 on a 5-point Likert scale (5 = easy, 1 = difficult). Fiji was more difficult to use (score 3.0) than the previously used diagnostic workstations in the hospital (score 4.1; p < 0.001, paired t-test). Despite the technical challenge, 47 % of students reported having learnt much (scores 4 and 5); only 11 % were negative (scores 1 and 2). 51 % found the PET/CT tasks engaging (scores 4 and 5) while 20 % and 5 % returned scores 2 and 1, respectively. Conclusion Despite the initial technical challenge, “hands-on” learning of PET/CT based on the freeware Fiji/orthanc PET/CT-viewer was associated with a high degree of student satisfaction. We plan to continue running the system to give students permanent access to PET/CT cases in native format regardless of time or location.

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