scholarly journals How Do First-Year Engineering Students Experience Ambiguity in Engineering Design Problems: The Development of a Self-Report Instrument

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Dringenberg ◽  
Ruth Wertz
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Self Report ◽  
First Year ◽  
Design Problems ◽  
Engineering Design Problems

Cultivating Students’ Ability of Applying Knowledge in Engineering Design Through Course Project

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jining Qiu ◽  
Bo Zhang ◽  
Huimin Dong ◽  
Yuan Gao
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Mechanical Design ◽  
Gear Train ◽  
Design Problems ◽  
Academic Knowledge ◽  
Multi Stage ◽  
University Of Technology ◽  
Engineering Design Problems ◽  
Wind Power Generator

The ability to solve engineering design problems using academic knowledge flexibly is essential for mechanical engineering students and is also quality that employers look for. This paper introduces how students could explore and experience the process of mechanical design in the course project of Theory of Machines and Mechanisms (TMM) in Dalian University of Technology (DUT) through sharing the design process of accelerator (gear-box) in wind power generator by one representative team of students in the course project. Firstly, design requirements are set based on industrial need and the choosing of the best scheme of multi-stage gear train is conducted. Following that is the design of kinematic parameters of gears and the evaluation of selected system. Then, a possible solution to control the input speed of the generator is proposed. In the end, a survey to 279 students who participate in the course project shows the importance of course project in cultivating their ability to apply knowledge in design.

A Virtual Hemodialyzer Design Project for First-Year Engineers: An Epistemic Game Approach

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi C. Chesler ◽  
Elizabeth Bagley ◽  
Eric Breckenfeld ◽  
Devin West ◽  
David Williamson Shaffer
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Virtual Environment ◽  
Design Problem ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
First Year ◽  
Engineering Profession ◽  
Virtual Design ◽  
Design Problems ◽  
Enrollment Rates ◽  
Epistemic Frame

Engineering institutions nationwide are pursuing first-year engineering design courses to attract and retain nontraditional students. However, these courses often have high enrollment rates and can be resource intensive. Virtual design projects offer a potential solution to the physical resources requirements but often result in an overly constrained design space, creating uninteresting or non-challenging design problems. We are developing a design problem within a novel virtual environment (i.e., a game) that provides first-year engineering undergraduates with a more authentic engineering design experience and a more complete and accurate understanding of the engineering profession. The design problem presented challenges students to incorporate carbon nanotubes and chemical surfactants into a hemodialysis ultrafiltration unit. Our approach seeks to provide students with experience in the skills, knowledge, values, identity, and epistemology of the engineering profession, which is the epistemic frame of the profession. The virtual environment also provides a uniquely comprehensive platform for assessing the students’ epistemic frame development over time. We anticipate that this approach will be highly engaging to first-year undergraduate engineering students and will help engineering instructors understand how engineers-in-training learn to become engineers.

A unified first-year engineering design-based learning course

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saad Odeh ◽  
Shauna McKenna ◽  
Hosni Abu-Mulaweh
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Engineering Problem ◽  
First Year ◽  
Design Problems ◽  
First Semester ◽  
Group Assignment ◽  
Engineering Design Problems ◽  
Workforce Skills ◽  
Apply Physical

This paper describes an innovative engineering design of a first-year engineering course. The course is offered in the second semester of the academic year to students of different engineering disciplines such as mechanical, mechatronic, electrical, electronics, civil, environmental and manufacturing. The course incorporates a mix of techniques to help students better engage with the subject matter and with one another. A major part of the new course is the practical assessment component requiring students to apply physical, mathematical, mechanical and electrical concepts to real life engineering design problems. Three different engineering design modules were developed. Each module consists of an authentic engineering design problem which has been specially constructed in order to provide students with the opportunity to apply the basic engineering, maths and physics concepts they acquired during the first semester. Depending on the students intended engineering major, they choose one of the three engineering design modules. In order to best prepare students for the design project, they firstly do two small group assignment tasks on a particular engineering problem. This serves as the preparatory work for the engineering design module. The assignments are done in class time so as to promote full collaboration between students and instructors and to encourage the exchange of knowledge and ideas. The course aims to better equip students with workforce skills in problem solving and effective oral and written communication.

Should Teams Collaborate During Conceptual Engineering Design? An Experimental Study

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua T. Gyory ◽  
Jonathan Cagan ◽  
Kenneth Kotovsky
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Engineering Design ◽  
Conceptual Design ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Individual Performance ◽  
Design Problems ◽  
Group Problem Solving ◽  
Conceptual Engineering ◽  
Engineering Design Problems ◽  
Working Together

A commonly held presumption is that the production of a team is superior to that of individual performance. However, in certain scenarios, such as during brainstorming activities and in configuration engineering design problems, it has been shown that individuals working alone are more effective than teams working together. This research considers whether the same outcomes hold for a more open-ended scenario, in conceptual engineering design. Thus, a behavioral study is run with freshman engineering students solving a conceptual design problem working in teams or individually. Results corroborate previous findings, showing that individuals outperform teams in the quality of their design solutions. One of the primary differences between individuals and group problem solving is the fact that groups need to verbalize to communicate ideas. Consequently, this study also analyzes how verbalization, which may be one disadvantage of team problem solving, affects the performance of individuals in this context of conceptual engineering design. Individuals who verbalize throughout problem solving, however, perform similarly to those who did not. Overall, the results from this study suggest that, individuals are still better performers and teams may not always be the optimal circumstance. Moreover, verbalization does not seem to act as a cognitive barrier to problem solving, and further investigation needs to be done to diagnose the potential impediments which put teams at a disadvantage to individuals during conceptual design.

Creativity ‘Misrules’: First Year Engineering Students’ Production and Perception of Creativity in Design Ideas

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin M. Gray ◽  
Seda Yilmaz ◽  
Shanna Daly ◽  
Colleen M. Seifert ◽  
Richard Gonzalez
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Students ◽  
Idea Generation ◽  
First Year ◽  
Design Problems ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Design Heuristics ◽  
Minute Period ◽  
Engineering Design Problems ◽  
Present Design ◽  
Relationship Of

We report four cases from a larger study, focusing on participants’ self-identified “most creative” concept in relation to their other concepts. As part of an ideation session, first-year engineering students were asked to create concepts for one of two engineering design problems in an 85-minute period, and were exposed to one of two different forms of fixation. Participants worked as individuals, first using traditional brainstorming techniques and generating as many ideas as possible. Design Heuristics cards were then introduced, and students were asked to generate as many additional concepts as possible. After the activity, participants ranked all of the concepts they generated from most to least creative. Representative cases include a detailed analysis of the concept that each participant rated as “most creative,” idea generation method used, and relative location and relationship of the concept to other concepts generated by that participant. Across four cases, we identified a number of characteristic “misrules” or misconceptions, revealing that first-year students judge creativity in their concepts in ways that could inhibit their ability to produce truly novel concepts. We present Design Heuristics as a tool to encourage the exploration of creative concept pathways, empowering students to create more novel concepts by rejecting misrules about creativity.

scholarly journals Recent Enhancements to the Biosystems Engineering Design Trilogy at the University of Manitoba

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danny D Mann ◽  
Kris J Dick ◽  
Sandra A Ingram
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Professional Communication ◽  
First Year ◽  
Design Problems ◽  
Capstone Course ◽  
University Of Manitoba ◽  
Second Year ◽  
The University

In previous years, several improvements to the teaching of engineering design were made by staff in the Department of Biosystems Engineering at The University of Manitoba. The first innovation occurred when a trilogy of courses spanning the final three years of the program was introduced as a replacement for a single capstone course in the final year of the program. In its original conception, engineering students were to get three opportunities to be involved in design problems originating from industry, with greater expectations with each subsequent experience. A second innovation occurred when technical communication was formally integrated within the trilogy of design courses. This innovation has helped engineering students realize the value of professional communication skills in collaborating with each other and in preparing reports and presentations for an industry client. A third innovation occurred three years ago when the decision was made to allow students to participate in the prototyping of their designs. The so-called “Design Trilogy” now consists of a single course (Design Trilogy I) taken during the second year of the engineering program (which builds upon the first-year design experience with the requirement of a conceptual solution in response to a design problem provided by industry) and two courses taken during the final year of the program. Students are required to have a design completed on paper by the completion of Design Trilogy II and fabrication of the prototype occurs during Design Trilogy III. The student experience in the Design Trilogy, with particular emphasis on curriculum innovations in Design Trilogy III, will be discussed.

Standards, Codes of Practice and Expert Systems

1988 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
E G McCluskey ◽  
S Thompson ◽  
D M G McSherry
Keyword(s):  
Expert System ◽  
Expert Systems ◽  
Engineering Design ◽  
Performance Criteria ◽  
Design Problems ◽  
Codes Of Practice ◽  
Engineering Design Problems ◽  
And Performance

Many engineering design problems require reference to standards or codes of practice to ensure that acceptable safety and performance criteria are met. Extracting relevant data from such documents can, however, be a problem for the unfamiliar user. The use of expert systems to guide the retrieval of information from standards and codes of practice is proposed as a means of alleviating this problem. Following a brief introduction to expert system techniques, a tool developed by the authors for building expert system guides to standards and codes of practice is described. The steps involved in encoding the knowledge contained in an arbitrarily chosen standard are illustrated. Finally, a typical consultation illustrates the use of the expert system guide to the standard.

Biologically Inspired Design: A Macrocognitive Account

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Swaroop S. Vattam ◽  
Michael Helms ◽  
Ashok K. Goel
Keyword(s):  
Biological Sciences ◽  
Information Processing ◽  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Patterns ◽  
Information Processing Model ◽  
Biologically Inspired ◽  
Design Problems ◽  
Engineering Design Problems ◽  
Other Information ◽  
Biologically Inspired Design

Biologically inspired engineering design is an approach to design that espouses the adaptation of functions and mechanisms in biological sciences to solve engineering design problems. We have conducted an in situ study of designers engaged in biologically inspired design. Based on this study we develop here a macrocognitive information-processing model of biologically inspired design. We also compare and contrast the model with other information-processing models of analogical design such as TRIZ, case-based design, and design patterns.

scholarly journals Lévy-Flight Moth-Flame Algorithm for Function Optimization and Engineering Design Problems

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhiming Li ◽  
Yongquan Zhou ◽  
Sen Zhang ◽  
Junmin Song
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Function Optimization ◽  
Superior Performance ◽  
Local Optimum ◽  
Lévy Flight ◽  
Design Problems ◽  
Levy Flight ◽  
Spiral Path ◽  
Straight Line ◽  
Engineering Design Problems

The moth-flame optimization (MFO) algorithm is a novel nature-inspired heuristic paradigm. The main inspiration of this algorithm is the navigation method of moths in nature called transverse orientation. Moths fly in night by maintaining a fixed angle with respect to the moon, a very effective mechanism for travelling in a straight line for long distances. However, these fancy insects are trapped in a spiral path around artificial lights. Aiming at the phenomenon that MFO algorithm has slow convergence and low precision, an improved version of MFO algorithm based on Lévy-flight strategy, which is named as LMFO, is proposed. Lévy-flight can increase the diversity of the population against premature convergence and make the algorithm jump out of local optimum more effectively. This approach is helpful to obtain a better trade-off between exploration and exploitation ability of MFO, thus, which can make LMFO faster and more robust than MFO. And a comparison with ABC, BA, GGSA, DA, PSOGSA, and MFO on 19 unconstrained benchmark functions and 2 constrained engineering design problems is tested. These results demonstrate the superior performance of LMFO.

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