scholarly journals Bugbots! A Multidisciplinary Design Project For Engineering Students

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fan Lau ◽  
Kathryn Hollar ◽  
Eric Constans ◽  
Kauser Jahan ◽  
Bernard Pietrucha ◽  
...  
2021 ◽  
pp. 251512742110292
Author(s):  
Darby R. Riley ◽  
Hayley M. Shuster ◽  
Courtney A. LeMasney ◽  
Carla E. Silvestri ◽  
Kaitlin E. Mallouk

This study was conducted to examine how first-year engineering students conceptualize the Entrepreneurial Mindset (EM) and how that conceptualization changes over the course of their first semester of college, using the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN)’s 3Cs as a starting point. Students enrolled in an introductory, multidisciplinary design course responded to biweekly reflection prompts on their educational experiences (either in high school or as a first-year college student) and related this experience to one of the 3Cs of EM: Curiosity, Connections, or Creating Value. Results indicate that students’ conceptualization of the 3Cs often align with definitions of EM from KEEN, as well as foundational works in the entrepreneurship field, and that their interpretation of each of the 3Cs does change during their first semester in college. For instance, students were less likely to write about curiosity and more likely to write about creating value at the end of the semester compared to the beginning.


2010 ◽  
Vol 132 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald G. Saari

All areas of engineering have a need to find appropriate aggregated outcomes for systems. Issues range from decision problems, “divide-and-conquer” approaches that include aspects of multidisciplinary design optimization and the effects of a division of labor for, perhaps, a design project, the inefficiencies that can accompany multidisciplinary projects involving, say, design, manufacturing, and sales, to the complexities of multiscale design, analysis, and even nanotechnology. But as shown, if the adopted approach (e.g., management choices, divide-and-conquer methodology, modeling of the biology/physics, decision rule, etc.) satisfies particular accepted practices, then certain complexities and inefficiencies must be anticipated. A disturbing corollary is that even should “success” appear to have been achieved with an approach that satisfies these conditions, it need not be as firm as expected. Ways to improve methodologies must avoid the specified conditions.


2005 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 472-481 ◽  
Author(s):  
F.J.F. Martin ◽  
J.C.C. Rodriguez ◽  
J.C.A. Anton ◽  
J.C.V. Perez ◽  
C.B. Viejo ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Brian Dick ◽  
Thai Son Nguyen

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.  


2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 216-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonte Bernhard ◽  
Anna-Karin Carstensen ◽  
Jacob Davidsen ◽  
Thomas Ryberg

Author(s):  
Paul M. Kurowski ◽  
George K. Knopf

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.


Author(s):  
Peter Dare ◽  
Brian Cooke

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.


Author(s):  
Michele Hastie ◽  
Jan Haelssig

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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