Structure and Management of an Engineering Senior Design Course

2016 ◽  
Vol 138 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin L. Tanaka ◽  
Kenneth J. Fischer
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Students ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Team Leadership ◽  
Business Culture ◽  
Design Team ◽  
Senior Year ◽  
Capstone Course ◽  
Entry Level ◽  
Senior Design ◽  
Attention To Detail

The design of products and processes is an important area in engineering. Students in engineering schools learn fundamental principles in their courses but often lack an opportunity to apply these methods to real-world problems until their senior year. This article describes important elements that should be incorporated into a senior capstone design course. It includes a description of the general principles used in engineering design and a discussion of why students often have difficulty with application and revert to trial and error methods. The structure of a properly designed capstone course is dissected and its individual components are evaluated. Major components include assessing resources, identifying projects, establishing teams, understanding requirements, developing conceptual designs, creating detailed designs, building prototypes, testing performance, and final presentations. In addition to the course design, team management and effective mentoring are critical to success. This article includes suggested guidelines and tips for effective design team leadership, attention to detail, investment of time, and managing project scope. Furthermore, the importance of understanding business culture, displaying professionalism, and considerations of different types of senior projects is discussed. Through a well-designed course and proper mentoring, students will learn to apply their engineering skills and gain basic business knowledge that will prepare them for entry-level positions in industry.

Nanofacture: Senior Design Experience in Nanotechnology

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoltán Szabó ◽  
Eniko T. Enikov ◽  
Rudolf Kyselica
Keyword(s):  
Formative Evaluation ◽  
Biomedical Application ◽  
Design Team ◽  
Senior Year ◽  
Team Meetings ◽  
Senior Design ◽  
Students Attitudes ◽  
College Of Engineering ◽  
Design Experience ◽  
Capstone Design

This paper describes the outcomes of an NSF-funded undergraduate engineering training project launched at the University of Arizona - College of Engineering. The program aims to engage senior-year students in a capstone design project focused on biomedical applications of nanotechnology. The senior design team has previously attended a micro- and nanofabrication and a mechatronics technical elective courses. Both courses have been adjusted to better suit the goals of the program. Modifications include a self-guided research component, requirement to utilize a nanotechnology based sensors or actuators in a biomedical application. Formative evaluation data has been gathered through personal interviews to assess changes of students attitudes towards nanotechnology. Data includes reports from junior-year members of the technical elective classes, along with graduate assistants serving as mentors of the undergraduate participants. Results indicate that students who enrolled in Fabrication Techniques for Micro- and Nano-devices gained formal knowledge about nanotechnology through lectures and hands-on activities, while those who joined a senior design team learned about nanotechnology by interfacing regularly with the faculty advisor who imparted his knowledge and enthusiasm about nanotechnology applications during design team meetings. Students who took the first course in the sequence, Guided Self-Studies in Mechatronics prior to the capstone design experience benefited most.

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.

A Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Examination of the Development of Innovation Capability in Undergraduate Engineering Students

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trina C. Kershaw ◽  
Rebecca L. Peterson ◽  
Molly A. McCarthy ◽  
Adam P. Young ◽  
Carolyn Conner Seepersad ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Academic Performance ◽  
Engineering Design ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Concept Generation ◽  
Senior Year ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Capstone Course ◽  
Undergraduate Engineering ◽  
The Difference

Multiple research studies have examined the role of the undergraduate engineering curriculum on students’ innovation capabilities. The majority of these studies have used cross-sectional samples to compare students at the beginning and end of their college careers, and most results have shown that seniors outperform freshmen. In the following paper, we use a combination of cross-sectional and longitudinal comparisons to uncover when innovation capabilities grow. Over a two-year period, undergraduate engineering majors at different points in their college careers completed concept generation tasks. Their resulting concepts were scored for originality. While no difference was found from freshman to senior year using a cross-sectional comparison, a significant increase in originality was found between separate senior groups at the beginning and end of a capstone course. The difference between the senior groups occurred despite no difference between these students in academic performance or engineering design self-efficacy. In addition, a significant increase in originality was found from junior to senior year using a longitudinal analysis. This increase in originality occurred without corresponding changes in academic performance or engineering design self-efficacy. These results are discussed in relation to prior research regarding the interplay between curricular and individual difference factors in the development of students’ innovation capabilities.

Analogy Seeded Mind-Maps: Testing of a New Design-by-Analogy Tool

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Scott Marshall ◽  
Richard Crawford ◽  
Matthew Green ◽  
Daniel Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Students ◽  
Word List ◽  
Design Team ◽  
Functional Requirement ◽  
Concept Generation ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Design Metrics ◽  
Engineering Design Problems ◽  
Design By Analogy ◽  
Mind Maps

Recent research has investigated methods based on design-by-analogy meant to enhance concept generation. This paper presents Analogy Seeded Mind-Maps, a new method to prompt generation of analogous solution principles drawn from multiple analogical domains. The method was evaluated in two separate design studies using senior engineering students. The method begins with identifying a primary functional design requirement such as “eject part.” We used this functional requirement “seed” to generate a WordTree of grammatically analogical words for each design team. We randomly selected a set of words from each WordTree list with varying lexical “distances” from the seed word, and used them to populate the first-level nodes of a mind-map, with the functional requirement seed as the central hub. Design team members first used the word list to individually generate solutions and then performed team concept generation using the analogically seeded mind-map. Quantity and uniqueness of the resulting verbal solution principles were evaluated. The solution principles were further analyzed to determine if the lexical “distance” from the seed word had an effect on the evaluated design metrics. The results of this study show Analogy Seeded Mind-Maps to be useful tool in generating analogous solutions for engineering design problems.

scholarly journals GLOBAL CLASSROOM: A CASE STUDY IN ONLINE LEARNING ON SUSTAINABLE CITIES

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadine Ibrahim ◽  
Allison Van Beek
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Civil Engineering ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Sustainable Cities ◽  
Diverse Classroom ◽  
Design Learning ◽  
Global Classroom

A new learning opportunity among civil engineering students is learning about urbanization in cities, which combines the sub-disciplines of civil engineering in a seamlessly interdisciplinary manner.  One of the greatest benefits of learning about a global phenomenon such as urbanization is introducing the opportunities to offer examples of the technological, cultural and social diversity surrounding the evolution of urban design, technologies and sustainable strategies from global cities. The ability to have a globally diverse classroom to bring in these perspectives and create a learning experience that captures this information sharing and exchange can be created through course design, learning activities, and assessments, hence the “global classroom.”  The authors present a case study of the global classroom for the online course “Sustainable Cities: Adding an African Perspective” and share their perspective on learner-driven formats that support the global classroom, which hinges upon students’ own interest and commitment to an online learning format.  

Incorporating 3D Printing to Bridge Two Introductory Courses in Mechanical Engineering

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Onur Denizhan ◽  
Meng-Sang Chew
Keyword(s):  
3D Printing ◽  
Mechanical Engineering ◽  
Material Selection ◽  
Introductory Courses ◽  
Senior Year ◽  
Early Start ◽  
Lehigh University ◽  
Senior Design ◽  
Fundamental Understanding ◽  
Engineering Drawings

Abstract A course in Computer Graphics using SolidWorks™ is one of the very first courses that a Mechanical Engineering major would take within the department at Lehigh University. In this course, students learn the basics of engineering graphics with a view towards engineering design. Such a course gives students an overall view of not just the mechanics of creating engineering drawings using SolidWorks, but also one of understanding the consequences of their drawings as they affect tolerances, material selection, fabrication processes as well as the viability of their designs. The very next introductory mechanical engineering course is a laboratory dealing with engineering measurements, data acquisition and testing. This article reports on the use of a 3-D printing exercise to bridge these two somewhat very different courses with different objectives, thereby giving students an early start into understanding the process of design; from a concept to its design and fabrication, and finally, testing and analysis of data. Moreover, it gives a fundamental understanding of the use of 3-D printing that many students would end up using for their Senior Design course in their senior year.

Senior Designs to Aid the Disabled: The UAB Experience

1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan W. Eberhardt ◽  
Laura K. Vogtle ◽  
Gary Edwards
Keyword(s):  
National Science Foundation ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
University Of Alabama ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
Senior Design ◽  
National Science ◽  
The Disabled ◽  
The University

Abstract This paper presents a review of two years experience regarding senior design projects to aid persons with disabilities, for mechanical engineering students at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). The efforts are funded by the National Science Foundation and are aimed at developing alternative, low cost, custom devices to aid specific disabled individuals or targeted groups. A collaboration has been established with UAB Occupational Therapy and United Cerebral Palsy of Birmingham (UCP), who have provided projects which combine depth in both engineering and life sciences. The “UAB experience” described in the following includes project selection, development, student advising and overall significance. Completed designs are listed, along with efforts to bring the products to a marketable level.

Integrated Product Teams at The University of Alabama in Huntsville

2011 ◽  
pp. 68-76
Author(s):  
Matthew W. Turner ◽  
Michael P.J. Benfield ◽  
Dawn R. Utley ◽  
Cynthia A. McPherson
Keyword(s):  
Text Messaging ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Instant Messaging ◽  
Aerospace Engineering ◽  
University Of Alabama ◽  
Senior Design ◽  
Phone Calls ◽  
The University ◽  
E Mail ◽  
Product Team

The capstone senior design class in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) is taught as a distributed Integrated Product Team (IPT) experience. Engineering students are teamed with students of different disciplines within UAH and with students at universities in other states and Europe. Because of the distributed nature of these teams, the IPT students must use a variety of technologies to communicate. The authors of this chapter found that the students prefer familiar, informal, contemporary forms of communication, including Google Groups/Sites, Skype, instant messaging, e-mail, phone calls, and text messaging for team communication and project management, and reject more formalized forms of communication, even if advanced features are offered. Most importantly, the authors found that the effectiveness of all forms of technology based communication tools is greatly enhanced when the students have the opportunity to personally meet prior to the design semester.

Text mining for human resources competencies: Taiwan example

2019 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chih-Hung Chung ◽  
Lu-Jia Chen
Keyword(s):  
Text Mining ◽  
Human Resources ◽  
Success Factors ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Job Market ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Entry Level ◽  
Critical Success ◽  
Job Advertisements

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the capabilities required by entry-level human resources (HR) professionals based on job advertisements by using text mining (TM) technique. Design/methodology/approach This study used TM techniques to explore the capabilities required by entry-level HR professionals based on job advertisements on HR agency 104’s website in Taiwan. Python was used to crawl the advertisements on the website, and 841 posts were collected. Next, the author used TM to explore and understand hidden trends and patterns in numerous data sets. Findings The results of this study revealed four critical success factors (specific skills, educational level, experience and specific capabilities), five clusters and ten classifications. Practical implications The results can aid HR curriculum developers and educators in customizing and improving HR education curricula, such that HR students can develop capabilities required to secure employment in the current HR job market. Originality/value Our results may facilitate the understanding of the current trends in the HR job market and provide useful suggestions to HR curriculum developers for improving training and professional course design, such that students’ competitiveness is enhanced and professional capabilities improved.

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