scholarly journals Studying the Impact on Mechanical Engineering Students who participate in Distinctive Projects in Thermodynamics

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Bailey
2007 ◽  
Vol 129 (7) ◽  
pp. 682-691 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Kadlowec ◽  
Krishnan Bhatia ◽  
Tirupathi R. Chandrupatla ◽  
John C. Chen ◽  
Eric Constans ◽  
...  

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.


Author(s):  
Jeffrey G. Marchetta ◽  
John I. Hochstein ◽  
Teong E. Tan

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.


Author(s):  
Christopher B. Williams ◽  
John Gero ◽  
Yoon Lee ◽  
Marie Paretti

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.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 70
Author(s):  
Mahnam Setayesh ◽  
Amin Marzban

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. 


Author(s):  
Warren F. Smith

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.


Author(s):  
A Gonzalez-Buelga ◽  
I Renaud-Assemat ◽  
B Selwyn ◽  
J Ross ◽  
I Lazar

This paper focuses on the development, delivery and preliminary impact analysis of an engineering Work Experience Week (WEW) programme for KS4 students in the School of Civil, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering (CAME) at the University of Bristol, UK. Key stage 4, is the legal term for the two years of school education which incorporate GCSEs in England, age 15–16. The programme aims to promote the engineering profession among secondary school pupils. During the WEW, participants worked as engineering researchers: working in teams, they had to tackle a challenging engineering design problem. The experience included hands-on activities and the use of state-of-the-art rapid prototyping and advanced testing equipment. The students were supervised by a group of team leaders, a diverse group of undergraduate and postgraduate engineering students, technical staff, and academics at the School of CAME. The vision of the WEW programme is to transmit the message that everybody can be an engineer, that there are plenty of different routes into engineering that can be taken depending on pupils’ strengths and interests and that there are a vast amount of different engineering careers and challenges to be tackled by the engineers of the future. Feedback from the participants in the scheme has been overwhelmingly positive.


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