scholarly journals COMMUNITY FINDING AS LEARNING: IMPACTS OF A NOVEL MODEL FOR COMMUNITY ENGAGED, PROJECT BASED LEARNING IN ENGINEERING

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Chong ◽  
Robert K. Irish ◽  
Jason Foster
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Education ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Personal Contact ◽  
Engaged Learning ◽  
Education Experience ◽  
Personal Investment ◽  
Community Finding ◽  
Specific Implementation ◽  
The Impact

This paper explores the impact of a specific implementation of community engaged engineering design pedagogy. By asking students about their experience in choosing, engaging with, and researching a community to develop an understanding of and clearly articulating a design problem in a Requests for Proposals, we seek to understand how student initiated community engaged learning (CEL) can contribute to learning about design. Results of the survey show that students did pick up skills and experiences that reflected course and activity learning objectives. Students engaged and relied on – sometimes to their detriment – personal contact and communication with stakeholder communities for information. They expressed an awareness of the importance of personal investment in the community, even if that investment was limited in their own projects. Not unexpectedly, students also reported a preference for and greater perceived learning in a more conventional design education experience. However, the act of community finding and engagement did impact their understanding of engineering design, particularly around often neglected aspects, and helped them to see design more holistically.  

scholarly journals How Concept Selection Tools Impact the Development of Creative Ideas in Engineering Design Education

2018 ◽  
Vol 140 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuan Zheng ◽  
Sarah C. Ritter ◽  
Scarlett R. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Education ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Design Stage ◽  
Concept Selection ◽  
Engineering Design Education ◽  
Student Teams ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Selection Tools

Concept selection tools have been heavily integrated into engineering design education in an effort to reduce the risks and uncertainties of early-phase design ideas and aid students in the decision-making process. However, little research has examined the utility of these tools in promoting creative ideas or their impact on student team decision making throughout the conceptual design process. To fill this research gap, the current study was designed to compare the impact of two concept selection tools, the concept selection matrix (CSM) and the tool for assessing semantic creativity (TASC) on the average quality (AQL) and average novelty (ANV) of ideas selected by student teams at several decision points throughout an 8-week project. The results of the study showed that the AQL increased significantly in the detailed design stage, while the ANV did not change. However, this change in idea quality was not significantly impacted by the concept selection tool used, suggesting other factors may impact student decision making and the development of creative ideas. Finally, student teams were found to select ideas ranked highly in concept selection tools only when these ideas met their expectations, indicating that cognitive biases may be significantly impeding decision making.

Helping Teams Expand the Breadth of Their Solution Space Through Product Dissection: A Simulation Based Investigation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Alsager Alzayed ◽  
Christopher McComb ◽  
Samuel T. Hunter ◽  
Scarlett R. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Education ◽  
Computational Simulation ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
Solution Space ◽  
First Year ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Engineering Design Education ◽  
Simulation Based ◽  
The Impact

Product dissection has been highlighted as an effective means of interacting with example products in order to produce creative outcomes. While product dissection is often conducted as a team in engineering design education as a component of larger engineering design projects, the research on the effectiveness of product dissection activities has been primarily limited to individuals. Thus, the goal of this study was to investigate the impact of the type(s) of product dissected in a team environment on the breadth of the design space explored and the underlying influence of educational level on these effects. This was accomplished through a computational simulation of 7,000 nominal brainstorming teams generated by a statistical bootstrapping technique that accounted for all possible team configurations. Specifically, each team was composed of four team members based on a design repository of 463 ideas generated by first-year and senior engineering design students after a product dissection activity. The results of the study highlight that simulated senior engineering design teams explored a larger solution space than simulated first-year teams and that dissecting different types of products allowed for the exploration of a larger solution space for all of the teams. The results also showed that dissecting two analogically far and two simple products was most effective in expanding the solution space for simulated senior teams. The findings presented in this study can lead to a better understanding of how to most effectively deploy product dissection modules in engineering design education in order to maximize the solution space explored.

Expanding the Solution Space in Engineering Design Education: A Simulation-Based Investigation of Product Dissection

2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Alsager Alzayed ◽  
Christopher McComb ◽  
Samuel T. Hunter ◽  
Scarlett R. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Educational Level ◽  
Design Education ◽  
Computational Simulation ◽  
Solution Space ◽  
First Year ◽  
Creative Design ◽  
Engineering Design Education ◽  
Virtual Dissection ◽  
The Impact

Product dissection has been highlighted as an effective means of interacting with example products in order to produce creative outcomes. While product dissection is often conducted as a team in engineering design education, the research on the effectiveness of product dissection activities has been primarily limited to individuals. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of the type(s) of product dissected in a team environment on encouraging creative design outcomes (variety, novelty, and quantity) and the underlying influence of educational level and dissection modality on these effects. This was accomplished through a computational simulation of 14,000 teams of noninteracting brainstorming individuals generated by a statistical bootstrapping technique using a design repository of 931 ideas generated by first-year and senior engineering students. The results of the study highlight the importance of educational level, dissection modality, and the number of products dissected on team design outcomes. Specifically, virtual dissection encouraged the exploration of more novel solutions across both educational levels. However, physical dissection encouraged the exploration of a larger variety and quantity of ideas for senior teams while virtual dissection encouraged the same in first-year teams. Finally, dissecting different types of products allowed teams to explore a larger solution space. The findings presented in this study can lead to a better understanding of how to deploy product dissection modules in engineering design education in order to drive creative design outcomes.

The Impact of Team-Based Product Dissection on Design Novelty

2014 ◽  
Vol 136 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine A. Toh ◽  
Scarlett R. Miller ◽  
Gül E. Okudan Kremer
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Education ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Design Method ◽  
Idea Generation ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Design Concepts ◽  
Engineering Design Education ◽  
Current Design ◽  
The Impact

Although design novelty is a critical area of research in engineering design, most research in this space has focused on understanding and developing formal idea generation methods instead of focusing on the impact of current design practices. This is problematic because formal techniques are often not adopted in industry due to the burdensome steps often included in these methods, which limit the practicality and adoption of these methods. This study seeks to understand the impact of product dissection, a design method widely utilized in academia and industry, on design novelty in order to produce recommendations for the use or alterations of this method for supporting novelty in design. To investigate the impact of dissection, a study was conducted with 76 engineering students who completed a team-based dissection of an electric toothbrush and then individually generated ideas. The relationships between involvement in the dissection activity, the product dissected, the novelty and quantity of the ideas developed were investigated. The results reveal that team members who were more involved in the dissection activity generated concepts that were more novel than those who did not. In addition, the type of the dissected product also had an influence on design novelty. Finally, a positive correlation between the number of ideas generated and the novelty of the design concepts was identified. The results from this study are used to provide recommendations for leveraging product dissection for enhancing novelty in engineering design education and practice.

scholarly journals TEAM FORMATION IN ENGINEERING DESIGN COURSES

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed Galaleldin ◽  
Justine Boudreau ◽  
Hanan Anis
Keyword(s):  
Student Satisfaction ◽  
Engineering Design ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Team Composition ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Great Opportunity ◽  
Project Outcome ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Impact

Engineering design courses often include a team-based project. Project-based learning offers a great opportunity for engineering students to learn about teamwork and collaboration. It also gives students a chance to learn about themselves and improve their conflict management skills. Choosing the right team members for a specific project is not trivial, as the choice of the team often affects the project outcome and the students’ experience in the course. Moreover, there is a debate among engineering educators as to whether it is better to force team composition or not. In this paper, we investigate the impact of team composition and formation on project outcomes and student satisfaction in a second-year engineering design course at the University of Ottawa. The course is open to all engineering students and has an accessibility theme. Students work in teams with a client that has a specific accessibility need. Students meet the client three times during the semester and deliver a physical prototype by the end of the semester. For this study, students in the design course were divided into two groups. Students in the first group were allowed to pick their teams, while the instructor created the teams in the second group based on multidisciplinary composition and year of study. Both groups had the same instructor and the same course material, labs, project choices, etc. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a few teams in each group.

Using Model-Based Design in Engineering Design Education

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kjell Andersson
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Education ◽  
Major Part ◽  
Idea Generation ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Machine Design ◽  
Project Work ◽  
Capstone Course ◽  
Model Based ◽  
Engineering Design Education

Project-based education in combination with problem-based learning has been one of the key factors for the popularity of engineering design education among students at technical universities. The use of industry-connected projects has boosted this popularity still further. To get feedback from professionals in industry is very stimulating and in this way students also get confirmation that their education is related to industrial needs. In the Machine Design capstone course at KTH Department of Machine Design, the curriculum covers the whole process from idea generation to manufacturing and testing a final prototype. A major part of the course consists of project work where students will develop a product prototype in close cooperation with an industrial partner or with a research project at the department. The benefits of using real prototypes cannot be stressed enough. This is a very efficient way to explain to the students why a product must be designed in a certain way, e.g. to make it possible to assemble. This means that a major part of the course is using project-based learning as a teaching strategy. In addition, the use of model-based design is introduced as a methodology that enables the students to evaluate and “experience” many different behaviors of the product using digital models in a virtual environment. In this way many undesirable concepts and flaws can be avoided even before a prototype is manufactured. This paper describes a model-based methodology for product development. It also shows the application of this methodology in project work in a capstone course in engineering design at KTH, and discusses the effects on student motivation and learning.

scholarly journals SCAFFOLDING STRATEGIES FOR TEACHING ENGINEERING DESIGN IN A COLLABORATIVE PROJECT-BASED LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed Galaleldin ◽  
Hanan Anis ◽  
Patrick Dumond ◽  
David Knox
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Team Work ◽  
Skill Assessment ◽  
Collaborative Project ◽  
The Impact

 Abstract –Collaborative Project Based Learning (CPBL) is known for enhancing deep learning, professional skills development, student engagement and motivation, cultivating interdependence in learning, thinking, problem solving, and creating interest and excitement in learning. This article describes the impact of an engineering design course on first-year engineering students. Student performance was evaluated before and after taking the course using a pre-and-post design skill assessment test, peer feedback evaluations, and thematic analysis of each student’s self-reflection of lessons learned. Initial analysis of the data indicates that a CPBL environment has a significantly positive impact on the development of engineering students’ ability to describe the engineering design process and relate it directly to real-world problems. Students also realized the importance of communication, team work, investigation and project management skills.

Evaluation of a Model Based Learning Approach for Engineering Design

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kjell Andersson
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Education ◽  
Major Part ◽  
Idea Generation ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Machine Design ◽  
Project Work ◽  
Learning Approach ◽  
Capstone Course ◽  
Model Based

Project-based education in combination with problem-based learning has been very successful, and has contributed to the popularity of engineering design education among students at technical universities. The close connection to industrial problems by the use of industry-connected projects has boosted this popularity still further and to get an insight of future working environments after graduation is very inspiring for the students. The curriculum of the Machine Design capstone course at KTH Department of Machine Design covers the whole process from idea generation to manufacturing and testing a final prototype. A major part of the course consists of project work where students develop a product prototype in close cooperation with an industrial partner or with a research project at the department. This means that a major part of the course uses project-based learning as a teaching strategy. In addition, a model-based design methodology is introduced which enables the students to evaluate and “experience” many different behaviors of the product using digital models in a virtual environment. In this way, students can see that many undesirable concepts and flaws can be avoided even before a prototype is manufactured. This paper evaluates the use and learning outcome of model-based design in a capstone course in the Engineering Design MSc program at KTH Department of Machine Design. The approach has been used during a period of three years and the effect on the students’ learning has been evaluated by a questionnaire after each course. I this paper we compare the results of these questionnaires and discuss implications and general conclusions about this learning approach.

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