scholarly journals Engineering for American Communities: Engaging Engineering Students in Multidisciplinary Altruistic Engineering Design Projects

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malinda Zarske ◽  
Lauren Rockenbaugh ◽  
Daria Kotys-Schwartz ◽  
Derek Reamon
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Design Projects

Functional Design Tree for Mechatronic Projects in Mechanical Engineering Design Course

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meltem Korkmazel ◽  
Abdülkadir Erden
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Mechanical Engineering ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Functional Approach ◽  
Design Approach ◽  
Engineering System ◽  
Systematic Design ◽  
Functional Design ◽  
Mechatronic Systems ◽  
Design Projects

Abstract The functional approach utilizes a ‘Functional Design Tree’, which is a decomposition hierarchy of functions involving sub-functions of an engineering system at various levels of resolution. Use of functional approach in the design of mechatronic systems is investigated in the senior level mechanical engineering design projects. A survey is conducted on the senior mechanical engineering students after an engineering design course. It is attempted to find out whether the students followed the systematic design approach, and to what extent they used the functional design tree. The results of the survey are presented and evaluated in the paper, and some conclusions are derived for possible outcomes of the survey.

scholarly journals CLIENT-BASED CORNERSTONE DESIGN PROJECTS

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justine Boudreau ◽  
Hanan Anis
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Unmet Need ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Problem Definition ◽  
Student Groups ◽  
Engineering Teams ◽  
Design Projects ◽  
Second Year

Engineering students at the University of Ottawa are exposed to engineering design in first- and second-year courses. Both courses are open to all engineering students and are multidisciplinary in nature. Students work in teams to deliver a physical prototype by the end of the term. The design projects are all community-based and involve a client from the local community with a specific unmet need. Examples of such clients include local hospitals, accessibility organizations, Ottawa police, Indigenous elders and many more. The client meets with the students a minimum of three times throughout the semester to provide the problem definition and give feedback to the student groups at different stages of the design process. The goal of this paper is to share best practices in selecting and delivering client-based projects targeting first- and second-year students in multidisciplinary engineering teams. The paper discusses the choice of project themes and specific projects. In addition, it presents lessons learned based on student-client interactions, lab manager-client interactions and client satisfaction. Examples are presented from the past three years of delivering such engineering design courses, with testimonials from clients and students.

Improving Student Design Skills Through Successive Design and Build Projects

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rober Choate ◽  
Kevin Schmaltz
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Program Outcomes ◽  
Design Project ◽  
Design Component ◽  
Student Teams ◽  
Design Projects ◽  
Design Skills ◽  
Team Design

Mechanical Engineering students at Western Kentucky University (WKU) are given instruction and must demonstrate their abilities to execute design projects during each of their four years of study. The features and goals of these projects are governed by a Professional Plan, which assures that graduates of the program have experienced key areas of the engineering profession and shown the ability to perform in an acceptable professional manner. The Engineering Design component of the Professional Plan is the focal point of the professional experiences. For students to be able to execute a structured approach to solving problems with an appreciation for the art of engineering, they must experience meaningful projects that expand and challenge their capabilities. WKU ME freshmen individually create physical devices with little engineering science, developing a sense of the manufacturing skills required for realistic designs. Sophomore students execute a team design project with more technical expectations, and also individually complete a design and build project that continues from their freshman project. As juniors, the team design experience is extended to an external audience with greater technical rigor, and additionally student teams implement the ASME Student Design Competition (ASME SDC) as their design and build project. The goal is for seniors to be prepared to implement an industry-based design and build project subject to realistic constraints and customer needs. The implementation of the Engineering Design Component has evolved over the past four years guided by ongoing assessment of both course outcomes and program outcomes, internal and external evaluations of the design project outcomes, and the maturing status of the program facilities and curriculum. One strength of the Professional Plan framework is the ability to build upon previous coursework, assess student progress, and adjust course activities based on prior assessment results to assure that graduates are capable of practicing as engineers. This paper will detail a sustainable model for implementing the design process across the curriculum, with the basis for selecting projects, managing the efforts of student teams, and providing effective feedback. In addition to the engineering design component, the use of professional communications and professional tools are also structured within the design projects.

Toying With Engineering: Teaching Engineers to Be Entrepreneurial by Developing a Toy

2021 ◽  
pp. 251512742110290
Author(s):  
Smitesh Bakrania
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Students ◽  
Business Case ◽  
Stem Fields ◽  
The Past ◽  
Middle Schoolers ◽  
Assembly Instructions ◽  
Design Projects ◽  
Product Assembly ◽  
Engineering Concept

Most engineering design projects focus primarily on the engineering fundamentals. Studying the business case or manufacturability of a design is often left for other courses, if at all. To address this gap, an existing mechanical engineering course project was modified by embedding the interdependent entrepreneurial dimensions. In the past, junior engineering students developed a reciprocating air engines over two semesters. The modified project extended the engineering fundamentals into an entrepreneurial venture. To accomplish this, students were asked to propose an air engine toy for middle schoolers. The proposed toy had to be assembled, provide a learning opportunity, and demonstrate utility. The students had to ensure the product appealed to those interested in the STEM fields. The students, working in groups, created renders of the final product, assembly instructions, and a guided worksheet for the kids to explore the underlying engineering concept. The groups produced a website with a video pitching their toy concepts. This case study exemplifies how any engineering endeavor can be modified to capture a more holistic simulation of the profession.

A Pillar of Mechanical Engineering Design Education in Australia: 25 Years of the Warman Design and Build Competition

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Warren F. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Education ◽  
Mechanical Engineering ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Student Assessment ◽  
National Committee ◽  
Engineering Design Education ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Institutional Learning ◽  
History Of

The “Warman Design and Build Competition”, running across Australasian Universities, is now in its 26th year in 2013. Presented in this paper is a brief history of the competition, documenting the objectives, yearly scenarios, key contributors and champion Universities since its beginning in 1988. Assuming the competition has reached the majority of mechanical and related discipline engineering students in that time, it is fair to say that this competition, as a vehicle of the National Committee on Engineering Design, has served to shape Australasian engineering education in an enduring way. The philosophy of the Warman Design and Build Competition and some of the challenges of running it are described in this perspective by its coordinator since 2003. In particular, the need is for the competition to work effectively across a wide range of student group ability. Not every group engaging with the competition will be competitive nationally, yet all should learn positively from the experience. Reported also in this paper is the collective feedback from the campus organizers in respect to their use of the competition as an educational experience in their classrooms. Each University participating uses the competition differently with respect to student assessment and the support students receive. However, all academic campus organizer responses suggest that the competition supports their own and their institutional learning objectives very well. While the project scenarios have varied widely over the years, the intent to challenge 2nd year university (predominantly mechanical) engineering students with an open-ended statement of requirements in a practical and experiential exercise has been a constant. Students are faced with understanding their opportunity and their client’s value system as expressed in a scoring algorithm. They are required to conceive, construct and demonstrate their device with limited prior knowledge and experience, and the learning outcomes clearly impact their appreciation for teamwork, leadership and product realization.

Can Induced Gratitude Improve Creative Performance on Repurposing Tasks?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Natalie M. Sisson ◽  
Emily Impett ◽  
L.H. Shu
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Small Body ◽  
Design Creativity ◽  
Creativity Research ◽  
Full Study ◽  
Societal Problems ◽  
First Time

Abstract Urgent societal problems, including climate change, require innovation and can benefit from interdisciplinary solutions. A small body of research has demonstrated the potential of positive emotions (e.g., gratitude, awe) to promote creativity and prosocial behavior, which may help address these problems. This study integrates, for the first time, psychology research on a positive and prosocial emotion (i.e., gratitude) with engineering-design creativity research. In a pre-registered study design, engineering students and working engineers (pilot N = 49; full study N = 329) completed gratitude, positive-emotion control, or neutral-control inductions. Design creativity was assessed through rater scores of responses to an Alternate Uses Task (AUT) and a Wind-Turbine-Blade Repurposing Task (WRT). No significant differences among AUT scores emerged across conditions in either sample. While only the pilot-study manipulation of gratitude was successful, WRT results warrant further studies on the effect of gratitude on engineering-design creativity. The reported work may also inform other strategies to incorporate prosocial emotion to help engineers arrive at more original and effective concepts to tackle environmental sustainability, and in the future, other problems facing society.

MNC-Sponsored Multidisciplinary Industrial-Strength Capstone Design Projects in China

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (10) ◽  
pp. 54-65
Author(s):  
Vincent Chang
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Education ◽  
Biomedical Engineering ◽  
Multinational Corporation ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Internet Technology ◽  
Computer Engineering ◽  
University Of Michigan ◽  
Design Projects ◽  
Industrial Strength ◽  
Capstone Design

With a growing need to reform Chinese higher engineering education, University of Michigan—Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Institute (JI) initiated multinational corporation-sponsored industrial-strength Capstone Design Projects (CDP) in 2011. Since 2011, JI has developed 96 corporate-sponsored CDPs since its inception, which include multinational corporation sponsors such as Covidien, Dover, GE, HP, Intel, NI, Philips, and Siemens. Of these projects, healthcare accounts for 27%, energy 24%, internet technology (IT) 22%, electronics 16%, and other industries 11%. This portfolio reflects the trends and needs in the industry, which provides opportunities for engineering students to develop their careers. An accumulated 480 JI students have been teamed up based on their individual backgrounds, specifically electrical engineering, computer engineering, computer science, mechanical engineering, and biomedical engineering. The corporate-sponsored rate grew from 0% in 2010 to 86% in 2014.

Development of a DSM-Based Methodology in an Academic Setting

2012 ◽  
Vol 134 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
George Platanitis ◽  
Remon Pop-Iliev ◽  
Ahmad Barari
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Design Structure ◽  
Academic Settings ◽  
Task Durations ◽  
Random Disturbances ◽  
Process Convergence ◽  
Work Transformation

This paper proposes the use of a design structure matrix/work transformation matrix (DSM/WTM)-based methodology in academic settings to serve engineering educators as a facilitating tool for predetermining the difficulty and feasibility of design engineering projects they assign, given both the time constraints of the academic term and the expected skill level of the respective learners. By using a third-year engineering design project as a case study, engineering students actively participated in this comprehensive use of DSM methodologies. The engineering design process has been thoroughly analyzed to determine convergence characteristics based on the eigenvalues of the system followed by a sensitivity analysis on the originally determined DSM based on data provided by students in terms of task durations and number of iterations for each task. Finally, an investigation of the design process convergence due to unexpected events or random disturbances has been conducted. The obtained predictive model of the design process was compared to the actual dynamics of the project as experienced by the students and the effect of random disturbances at any point in the design process has thereby been evaluated.

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