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 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.

The Interest of Mechanical Engineering Students in the Grand Challenges for Engineering in the 21st Century

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Hailey ◽  
Michael Drysdale ◽  
Daniel Householder
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Mechanical Engineering ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Strong Relationship ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Grand Challenges ◽  
Complex Problems ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Undergraduate Engineering Education ◽  
Survey Results

In 2008, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) announced 14 Grand Challenges for Engineering in the 21st Century, a set of exceptionally complex problems associated with national security, quality of life, and a sustainable future. Understanding the extent to which engineering students are interested in these complex problems and the extent to which they feel confident that they can contribute to the solution of these problems could serve as a starting point to foster engagement with the Grand Challenges. This paper presents results from a survey of mechanical engineering (ME) students’ interest in the NAE Grand Challenges and their confidence in their ability to contribute to resolutions of the Challenges. Seventy-six sophomore mechanical engineering majors completed the survey composed of 36 examples of problems described within the NAE Challenge report. Survey results show a strong relationship between students’ interest and their confidence in meeting a challenge. Six students participated in a semi-structured interview regarding their experience with and knowledge of the Challenges. Interview results indicated the students had few course-related experiences that exposed them to the Challenges. Results of this study can contribute to a broader conversation among ME educators about ways to integrate the NAE Grand Challenges in undergraduate engineering education.

scholarly journals The Impact of Entrepreneurship on Engineering Education

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Majed Jarrar ◽  
Hanan Anis
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Education ◽  
Technological Innovation ◽  
Direct Observation ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Graduate Attributes ◽  
Start Up ◽  
Hands On ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
The University ◽  
The Impact

Engineering schools are integrating entrepreneurship within their curriculum in order to equip their students with the capacity to adapt quickly to technological innovation. The University of Ottawa has developed an entrepreneurship course that is open to all engineering students, and aims to provide them with a hands-on approach to starting and growing a technology start-up. This paper is centred on assessing the students who took this course. The results of the survey analyze the impact entrepreneurship has had on their engineering skillset. This skillset reflects the graduate attributes that the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB) expects engineering students to develop. We will observe whether this impact has changed since the inception of this course in 2012 and throughout 5 course cycles. Using the survey results as well as the direct observation during those semesters, we present our analysis on how these outcomes can be replicated in other environments.

Improving students’ freehand sketching skills in mechanical engineering curriculum

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 274-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacek Uziak ◽  
Ning Fang
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Engineering Design ◽  
Current Literature ◽  
Mechanical Engineering ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Engineering Curriculum ◽  
Communication Tool ◽  
Modern Engineering ◽  
Computer Aided

Freehand sketching is a fundamental skill in mechanical engineering and many other engineering disciplines. It not only serves as a communication tool among engineers, but plays a critical role in engineering design and problem solving. However, as computer-aided drafting has replaced traditional drawing classes nowadays, the training of students’ freehand sketching skills has been almost completely eliminated in modern engineering curricula. This paper describes the attributes of freehand sketching and its roles in several essential aspects of engineering; in particular, in its roles in problem solving, of which current literature has ignored. Representative examples are provided to show students’ freehand sketching skills in problem solving in a foundational undergraduate mechanical engineering course. Pedagogical suggestions are made on how to teach freehand sketching to engineering students.

Design in the Thermal Fluids Engineering

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sadegh M. Sadeghipour ◽  
Mehdi Asheghi
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Mechanical Engineering ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Thermal Engineering ◽  
Engineering Curriculum ◽  
Job Market ◽  
Design Engineers ◽  
Thermal Fluids ◽  
Design Competition

Design is seen as the magic word and being a design engineer is considered to be the key to success in the job market by many of the mechanical engineering students. However, it is always assumed that the mechanical systems not the thermal engineers are indeed design engineers by education and practice. This notion probably stems from the fact that most of the thermal fluid courses in mechanical engineering curriculum seem to have been defined and developed to prepare undergraduate students for going to graduate school rather than the job market. The undergraduate courses usually emphasize on the theories with less attention to the design and application aspects. Perhaps, the responsibility of thermal engineering educators is to correct this notion by emphasizing more on the application and design in the existing courses or alternatively to develop and offer new courses on more applied topics. In this paper, we will report an integrated approach in teaching topics in fins and fin assemblies, which includes class lectures, laboratory experiments, ANSYS simulations and design competition. In this manuscript, we will report on the details of this approach including the procedures, methods, our observations, and the students’ feedbacks.

scholarly journals Self Evaluation for Compliance with the 12 CDIO Standards

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Platanitis ◽  
Remon Pop-Iliev
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Engineering ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Engineering Ethics ◽  
Engineering Curriculum ◽  
Engineering Programs ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Self Evaluation ◽  
Engineering Program

Throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s, collaboration began between universities, industry, and government to improve the quality and state of engineering education. Their paramount goal was to provide better ways to help students become successful engineers, possessing the necessary technical skills and expertise, exhibiting creativity, and having awareness of social, lawful, ethical, and environmental impacts as related to their profession. Traditionally, engineering programs emphasized the theoretical aspects required, while placing little emphasis on practical applications. An approach that has been introduced to provide a better learning experience for engineering students and to educate them as well-rounded engineers to be able to develop complex, value-added engineering products and processes is the CDIO (Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate) approach. This approach has been adopted by several universities within their engineering departments. At UOIT, the Mechanical Engineering curriculum has been developed around and continually evolves to line up with the goals of CDIO in terms of course and curriculum offerings for core and complementary engineering design courses, science, math, communications, engineering ethics, and humanities courses. Herein, we present an evaluation of the Mechanical Engineering program at UOIT against the twelve CDIO standards.

scholarly journals Forensic Investigation on The High Failure Rate of Civil Engineering Solid Mechanics Course

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 227
Author(s):  
Siong Wee Lee ◽  
Mohammad Hazizi Jamal ◽  
Mohd Amran Hasbullah ◽  
Mohd Johan Mohamed Ibrahim ◽  
Shahrul Nizam Mohammad ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Failure Rate ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Solid Mechanics ◽  
Civil Engineering ◽  
Deep Understanding ◽  
High Failure Rate ◽  
Program Outcomes ◽  
Final Exam ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
The Impact

Abstract: The attainment of program outcomes for Solid Mechanic course offered to the Diploma in Civil Engineering students is evaluated. It was found that most of the students were incapable to demonstrate graduate attributes which applying knowledge of mathematics, natural science and engineering fundamentals and the ability to analyse engineering problems. Therefore, this study investigates the impact of physics and maths scores on the students’ performance of solid mechanics. Analysis of the previous results in physics and maths shows that there is a clear link between students’ fundamentals knowledge and the understanding of solid mechanics. Meanwhile, this study also aims to find out the root causes that led to the high failure rate of solid mechanics. A quantitative method was employed and a total of 180 students responded to the survey. Results of survey indicate that most of the students perceived that they had limited time to gain deep understanding of the course and they could not visualise the complex problems in solid mechanics. Majority of the students admitted that they did not manage to solve all questions during their final exam, and they were indeed not well prepared for it. Hence, the problem of high failure rate is feasible to be solved provided both lecturers and students making efforts in striving the success of this course.      Keywords: Solid mechanics, Program outcomes, Failure rate, Problem solving, Applying knowledge

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.

V-Learn-Fact: A New Approach for Teaching Manufacturing and Design to Mechanical Engineering Students

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thenkurussi Kesavadas
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Engineering ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Engineering Curriculum ◽  
Student Survey ◽  
Direct Experience ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Manufacturing Automation ◽  
Written Comments ◽  
Product Realization ◽  
Better Than

Students in the mechanical engineering curriculum are rarely given opportunities for direct experience in the topics in many areas. This is especially true for the education component of the manufacturing and design curriculums. Some reading and stylized laboratory and group projects often substitute for real experience. In this paper an innovative experiential learning curriculum called Virtual Learning Factory (V-Learn-Fact) is described for teaching manufacturing and design courses. In the V-Learn-Fact curriculum, the entire class takes part in a single large project, which covers product realization from concept to final production stage. V-Learn-Fact was implemented in MAE464/564 – Manufacturing Automation course (senior elective and graduate level course) between 2006–2012. A student survey was carried out to gauge effectiveness of this curriculum. 89% of the students fully or partially agreed that the V-Learn-Fact helped them learn topics in manufacturing automation better than traditional mechanical engineering courses. Written comments also provided interesting insights.

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