Practical Epistemic Cognition in a Design Project—Engineering Students Developing Epistemic Fluency

Abstract – First-year engineering students at Vancouver Island University in Canada and second-year engineering students at Tra Vinh University in Vietnam have been brought together to work on a cooperative cornerstone design project as a means to introduce intercultural competencies early in the students' academic experience. Student teams at each institution were partnered, whereby a design proposal developed by a team at one institution was constructed by their partner team at the other institution. Each team provided stakeholder input early in the design stage, and team pairs established a change management structure to respond to challenges occurring during the construction phase of the project. We explore the challenges and successes of the students experience as they navigated the linguistic, cultural, technical, and geographic barriers towards successfully completing this major design project.

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EDUCATING ENGINEERS ABOUT PRODUCT DESIGN METHODOLOGY

Proceedings of the Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA) ◽

10.24908/pceea.v0i0.3838 ◽

2011 ◽

Author(s):

Paul M. Kurowski ◽

George K. Knopf

Keyword(s):

Product Design ◽

Computer Aided Design ◽

Design Methodology ◽

Engineering Students ◽

Design Project ◽

Structured Design ◽

Modern Computer ◽

Development Methodology ◽

Actual Design ◽

Aided Design

A successful product designer must combine natural creativity with the systematic use of structured design methodology and modern computer-aided design tools. Practice without proper instruction and formal guidance fails to recognize the vast knowledge of the design process developed by successful professionals. However, designing a product solely by theory without the experience derived from practice is ineffective because many subtleties and exceptions are learned by working on actual design project. In this paper, the authors discuss how formal lectures on product design and development methodology can be effectively combined with a hands-on design project leading to viable solutions by novice engineering students to open-ended problems.

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INTRODUCTING A NEW ENGINEERING COURSE: A LEARNING EXPERIENCE FOR STUDENTS AND FACULTY

Proceedings of the Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA) ◽

10.24908/pceea.v0i0.3791 ◽

2011 ◽

Author(s):

Peter Dare ◽

Brian Cooke

Keyword(s):

Engineering Students ◽

Task Force ◽

Learning Experience ◽

First Year ◽

Design Element ◽

Design Project ◽

Different Types ◽

Second Year ◽

The University ◽

First Time

A Task Force was created by the Faculty of Engineering at the University of New Brunswick in September 2004 charged with creating a new course for all first year engineering students to be delivered for the first time in September 2005. The course, to be taken by approximately 270 students, was to integrate material from other first year courses, introduce the students to working in teams, contain a substantial design element through a design project, and introduce communication skills. Nine professors from throughout engineering “volunteered” to help develop and deliver the course. In this paper we own up to what we did wrong during the first two years of delivery of this course, and (naturally!) counter this by celebrating our successes. Students are assessed based on a combination of individual and team submissions, with some submissions being oral and others written. This paper will outline the complex assessment scheme we initially used, and how we later simplified it. Rubrics were used to evaluate many of the course assignments. For most of the instructors, this was the first time they had used rubrics and so it was a learning experience to both develop and apply them. We show how we adapted their use in the second year of delivery after the experiences of the first year. We were pleased with the way that the assessments were mostly built around the design project – this helped the students grasp why clear communication is vital and enabled them to obtain continual feedback on the project. We were also delighted that an element of social responsibility was introduced into the course by making the project an international “Engineers Without Borders” project based in Africa. We believe this added an additional dimension to the course and especially the project. The professor-delivered skits were especially popular! Delivered by two wannabe actors, they introduced the students in a humorous manner to the different types of engineering that are taught at UNB. Engineering students at UNB have to commit to their specific engineering field from their first day at UNB, so these skits were included to ensure the students were exposed to all the UNB engineering disciplines. We conclude the paper with our plans for delivery of the course in September 2007 and beyond.

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AN OPEN-ENDED DESIGN-BASED LAB EXERCISE FOR A FIRST THERMOFLUIDS COURSE

Proceedings of the Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA) ◽

10.24908/pceea.v0i0.6490 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Michele Hastie ◽

Jan Haelssig

Keyword(s):

Creative Thinking ◽

Engineering Students ◽

Team Work ◽

Work Skills ◽

Theoretical Concepts ◽

First Semester ◽

Design Project ◽

Hands On ◽

Hands On Learning ◽

The Many

The Thermo-Fluid Engineering I course provides all first-semester second-year engineering students at Dalhousie University with a basic introduction to thermodynamics and fluid mechanics. In the past three years, we have used a combination of six traditional laboratory exercises and a short four-week design project to provide students with hands-on learning experiences in this course. In general, these projects have been well-received by students as a welcome break from the many abstract theoretical concepts that are normally associated with introductory thermodynamics. However, two of the continuing challenges with these projects have been the students’ limited engineering design experience and the availability of time to perform a design project. To address these challenges, in the fall 2015 offering of Thermo-Fluid Engineering I, the four-week design project was replaced by an open-ended design-based lab exercise.The open-ended lab exercise required groups of students to develop specific laboratory experiments related to thermodynamics and fluid dynamics, given a limited quantity of resources. While the focus shifted away from a traditional short design project, the open-ended lab exercise continues to allow students to develop their creative thinking, critical analysis, hands-on, communication, and team work skills, which was the primary purpose of the short design projects in the first place.

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LEARNING DESIGN THROUGH A CNC MINI-CAR PROJECT

Proceedings of the Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA) ◽

10.24908/pceea.v0i0.3732 ◽

2011 ◽

Author(s):

Vincent Chan

Keyword(s):

Mechanical Engineering ◽

Engineering Students ◽

Cnc Machining ◽

Learning Design ◽

Design Project ◽

Cad Cam ◽

Second Year

A design project is used to reinforce concepts of CAD/CAM and CNC machining in a second year manufacturing course in mechanical engineering. Students are required to design mini-cars from a common kit of stock materials. For many of the students, this was their first attempt at a design project for which a working prototype is required. A survey at the end of the project suggested to the effectiveness of the project.

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Creative Thinking of Practical Engineering Students During a Design Project

Research in Science & Technological Education ◽

10.1080/02635140308343 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

pp. 101-121 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Shlomo Waks ◽

Moti Merdler

Keyword(s):

Creative Thinking ◽

Engineering Students ◽

Design Project ◽

Practical Engineering

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Engineering Management In An Interdisciplinary Senior Design Project

Balkan Region Conference on Engineering and Business Education ◽

10.2478/cplbu-2014-0033 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 153-156

Author(s):

Kumar Yelamarthi ◽

Joseph Slater ◽

John Wu ◽

P. Ruby Mawasha

Keyword(s):

Creative Thinking ◽

Engineering Students ◽

Interdisciplinary Collaboration ◽

Opportunity To Learn ◽

Thinking Skills ◽

Management Plan ◽

Design Project ◽

Senior Design ◽

Efficient Management ◽

Students First

AbstractInnovation in the changing undergraduate engineering curriculum mandates efficient management of interdisciplinary capstone senior design projects. This effort requires collaboration and management of students and faculty from multiple disciplines, and provides students an opportunity to learn from other engineering disciplines. In addition, this approach will i) emphasize problem solving and creative thinking skills; ii) provide students first-hand experience in generating a management plan; iii) expose students to multiple engineering disciplines, and work in diverse, multi-cultural teams; and iv) prepare students with an in-depth understanding of the interdisciplinary skills necessary for success. The senior design project (SDP) presented is based on the interdisciplinary collaboration of electrical, computer, and mechanical engineering students and faculty to design an integrated high altitude balloon system that would reach an altitude of 100,000 feet and return safely to earth. This paper presents methods by which all the above issues are addressed, results obtained over the recent years.

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