Impact of Model-Based Design in Engineering Design Education

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kjell Andersson
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Education ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Idea Generation ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Machine Design ◽  
Project Work ◽  
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 among students at technical universities. And when the project work addresses real industrial problems, offers insight into post-graduation working environments and gets direct feedback from professionals in industry, students can see the immediate relevance of their education — an invaluable boost to their learning experience. Students taking MF2004, a capstone course at KTH Department of Machine Design, learn the whole process from idea generation to manufacturing and testing a final prototype built in close collaboration with an industrial partner or a research group at the department. The benefits of using real prototypes cannot be stressed enough — students find out for themselves why a product must be designed in a certain way (e.g. to make it possible to assemble). The course uses project-based learning as a teaching strategy and introduces a model-based design methodology 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 focuses on the introduction of the model-based design methodology and evaluation of its impact on learning in a capstone course in the Engineering Design MSc programme at KTH Department of Machine Design. A questionnaire was used to evaluate the effects on the students’ learning, as well as to assess how feasible they consider this methodology to be. On the basis of this, in combination with the weekly meetings with the project teams, we can report a positive attitude among the students and improved learning outcomes.

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.

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.

Enhancing Engineering Learning Experience at UTB by Freshmen iHOP

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nazmul Islam
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Real World ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Senior Design ◽  
Team Selection ◽  
Hands On ◽  
Lower Division

Most of the engineering courses focus more on theory and very little on hands-on, project-based learning in the classroom. Integration of real-world engineering problems and applications in lower division engineering courses will produce engineering students, who will be technically sound and be able to execute and manage real-world projects, when they will do senior design projects in their final year of engineering study. To overcome the engineering design challenges we have developed iHOP (Ingenieŕia Hands on Project) and integrate it with our lower division engineering courses. iHOP has been developed to emphasis the design component at the University of Texas at Brownsville (UTB) Engineering Physics curriculum and the project is now an integral part of Introduction to Engineering class. The iHOP project is one that is challenging, fun, requires teamwork, associated with the engineering material being studied, low cost, and doable in a limited amount of time. The experience from iHOP project motivates our freshman students to choose a better senior design project in senior year of their college career. The objectives of the iHOP projects are — to have students develop teamwork skills, and to teach students basic engineering design concepts in a complementary format to the traditional lecture. Various techniques related to team selection, encouraging teamwork, incorporation of engineering topics, keeping costs down, project results presentations, and gathering feedback from students will also be presented in this paper. Integrating iHOP Project with Introduction to Engineering class helped us to improve our retention effort in the engineering department.

scholarly journals REFLECTING ON THE USE OF DESIGN METHODOLOGY IN ENGINEERING DESIGN EDUCATION

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Li ◽  
G. Gress ◽  
P. Ziadé
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Education ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Course Delivery ◽  
Engineering Design Education ◽  
Need Support ◽  
Design Activities ◽  
Design Ideas ◽  
Context Free ◽  
Capstone Design

In the teaching of engineering design, it may be common to use design methodology (DM), as documented in several textbooks, in the course delivery.  However, considerable drawbacks could be observed in our case when DM is taken as the major guidance for a capstone design course. We argue that DM tends to prescribe some context-free methods and procedures, which cannot be easily applied by students to their capstone design projects. At the same time, we observe that students need support to characterize a design problem, integrate technical knowledge in design activities and verify design ideas. These aspects require analytical and critical thinking, where DM may not be particularly helpful for students. In the five-year journey of deemphasizing DM in a capstone design course, we have explored and examined various pedagogical approaches such as online modules, design labs and peer evaluations.  Without the teaching of DM, the pedagogical strategy needs to be carefully planned to deliver specific learning in engineering design.  

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.

EXPERIENCE OF PARTNERING WITH INDUSTRY TO ENRICH ENGINEERING DESIGN EDUCATION

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Herring ◽  
Peihua Gu
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Education ◽  
Capstone Course ◽  
Engineering Design Education ◽  
Industrial Projects ◽  
Design Expertise ◽  
Design Projects ◽  
Industrial Participation

Involving industry in engineering design education would enhance quality of education and student experience as most design expertise resides in industry that can be accessed through guest lectures and interactions with students; and real, meaningful engineering design projects are needed for our students. Good industrial projects with enthusiastic industrial participation in the design capstone course would provide very valuable opportunity for students to gain meaningful experience and would prepare students better to be design ready engineers upon graduation. However, there are a number of challenges in association with industry participation. This paper reports our experiences in dealing with industry-based design projects as well as associated challenges. It is our experience and belief that these challenges can be successfully addressed if both university and industry treat the partnership from a long term perspective and provide reasonable resources to the partnership.

Introducing Model-based Design Methodology with LabVIEW to Teaching ARM-based Embedded System Design

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (7) ◽  
pp. 47-54
Author(s):  
Nannan He ◽  
Lakshmi Teja Mullapudi
Keyword(s):  
Embedded System ◽  
Student Outcomes ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Research Effort ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Learning Approach ◽  
Graphical Programming ◽  
Model Based ◽  
Programming Tools ◽  
Embedded Applications

This paper presents our latest experience of introducing the new topic of model-based design (MBD) concepts and tools to a Programming Tools (PT) course for educating students to be capable of utilizing modern tools for correctly developing complicated ARM-based embedded systems. It describes the course contents, student outcomes and lecture and lab preparation for teaching this topic with the emphasis on two sub-topics. Firstly, we present the details of using NI LabVIEW tool in programming ARM Cortex-M MCUs or ARM Cortex-A9 MCUs on the embedded device like NI myRIO for fast developing embedded applications. Secondly, to integrate an on-going research effort on the model-based verification into this course, we also introduce model-checking and the tools that have been utilized in the research project. This new topic helps introducing students the latest research advances which promote the wide applications of the MBD in safety-critical embedded applications. Our primary experience shows that the project-based learning approach with the graphical programming tools and selected MCUs is efficient and practical to teach the MBD of 32-bit MCUs programming.

scholarly journals EXPERIENTIAL EDUCATION AND LANGUAGE IMPROVEMENT THROUGH P2P INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Gordon Dickinson
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Learning By Doing ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Project Work ◽  
International Exchange ◽  
Easy Access ◽  
Exchange Students ◽  
Educational Model

In order to meet the needs of employers and to make students more employable Laurea University, Finland has developed an “experiential” educational model through project-based learning in English based around real business projects linking theory studied. The programme is a bachelors degree conducted with international exchange students from many different countries (including Turkey, Germany, Romania, Spain, China, Holland, Mexico, Japan, and Italy) within project teams. English is a second language to these students, but it is not known as to how and if their language develops during the programme. The study considers the “experiential” nature of both the programme and the language from a literature perspective then focusing particularly on the learning of English by the students without any formal teaching classes. The students participated within projects for one semester (via an exchange programme) during an academic period from August 2018 to May 2020. There is a quantitative empirical approach (using a written questionnaire) which was qualitative in nature (including open questions) which related to the assessment of the English language learning experience of 29 international exchange students. Their feedback via answers to written questions forms the basis of the study. Findings reveal that such an approach to language learning can be successful and was positive in the sense of flexibility, relevance and enjoyability as well as the easy access and help of technology. The students generally felt their language level had improved through informal discussions and by use of a language app connected to the project work. Also, some students felt that the “learning by doing” (through the projects) improved their language authenticity and application. However, some students felt their language learning would have further increased by the use of a “weekly relevant noun/adjective list” during the project meetings. The research overall shows that some language improvement can be achieved informally within an “experiential” educational model through project-based learning. Additionally, that can be within one semester and by students from different countries with different educational systems. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0770/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Transforming Design Education by Design

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eli Kolberg ◽  
Yoram Reich ◽  
Ilya Levin
Keyword(s):  
High School Students ◽  
Design Education ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Design Research ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Design Methods ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Careful Study ◽  
School Students

Design is a contextualized activity influenced by many factors. In order to understand or teach it, a holistic approach that involves students in actual design activities is required. Often, such educational setup is called problem or project-based learning (PBL). There are many views about implementing PBL. Our approach to design education is different than others in the way we treat design courses as products with constraints and objectives. Following our experience in previous design courses, we set to create the best design course possible in our particular context by carefully designing it using design tools developed in design research. We elaborated the course objectives; observed and analyzed failures of design projects in previous courses; and proposed new design methods that could remedy those failures. The collection of potential design methods was evaluated and six methods were selected as the backbone of the design curriculum. The curriculum we designed was implemented in a mechatronic course for high school students. Careful study with several groups including control demonstrated that our design improves the existing course. We describe the course design; provide some details about the design methods that comprise the design curriculum and some examples of using these methods in the course to ground the discussion. A reader unfamiliar with mechatronic could skip these descriptions. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, we show that there is no single general design methodology. For different products and contexts, different design methodologies should be designed. If we use design methods developed in design research, the methodologies could prove successful. Second, and more specifically, we present a new, possible, and successful design methodology for mechatronics. We are not aware of such comprehensive approach in the literature.

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