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.

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.

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.

AN EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING APPROACH FOR DEVELOPING MENTAL MODELS IN ENGINEERING DESIGN EDUCATION

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Li ◽  
C. Chua
Keyword(s):  
Experiential Learning ◽  
Engineering Design ◽  
Mental Models ◽  
Design Education ◽  
Mental Simulation ◽  
Learning Approach ◽  
Engineering Design Education ◽  
Design Activities ◽  
Support Engineering ◽  
Prior Experiences

Mental simulation represents how a person interprets and understands the causal relations associated with the perceived information, and it is considered an important cognitive device to support engineering design activities. Mental models are considered information characterized in a person’s mind to understand the external world. They are important components to support effective mental simulation. This paper begins with a discussion on the experiential learning approach and how it supports learners in developing mental models for design activities. Following that, the paper looks at the four types of mental models: object, making, analysis and project, and illustrates how they capture different aspects and skills of design activities. Finally, the paper proposes an alternative framework, i.e., Spiral Learning Approach, which is an integration of Kolb’s experiential learningcycle and the Imaginative Education (IE) framework. While the Kolb’s cycle informs a pattern to leverage personal experiences to reusable knowledge, the IE’s framework suggests how prior experiences can trigger imagination and advance understandings. A hypothetical design of a snow removal device is used to illustrate the ideas of design-related mental models and the spirallearning approach.

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 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.  

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document