scholarly journals Developing and Improving a Multi-Element First-Year Engineering Cornerstone Autonomous Robotics Design Project

Author(s):  
David Frank ◽  
Kelly Kolotka ◽  
Andrew Phillips ◽  
Michael Schulz ◽  
Clare Rigney ◽  
...  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Vernier ◽  
Patrick Wensing ◽  
Craig Morin ◽  
Andrew Phillips ◽  
Brian Rice ◽  
...  

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.  


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Frank ◽  
Kevin Witt ◽  
Chris Hartle ◽  
Jacob Enders ◽  
Veronica Beiring ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Christopher B. Williams ◽  
Janis P. Terpenny ◽  
Richard M. Goff

The creation of an appropriate, meaningful design experience for a first-year engineering design course is challenging as the instructor must balance resource constraints with broad learning objectives and a diverse, and often very large, enrollment. In this paper, the authors present the task of developing a design project for a first-year engineering course as a problem of design. Following a structured design process, the authors articulate the requirements for a successful first-year design project including: learning objectives that are appropriate for a multi-disciplinary group of first-year students and common budgetary and time constraints. Several project alternatives are generated and evaluated in a conceptual design phase. In their description of the embodiment and detail design phases, the authors present the implementation of the selected project concept: ROXIE (“Real Outreach eXperiences In Engineering”). The ROXIE project, a service-learning themed project, tasks first-year students with serving as design consultants to not-for-profit community partners. Through this partnership, students are able to practice principles and tools of design methodology and project management. Preliminary survey data and excerpts of student reflection essays are provided as a means of supporting the instructors’ project selection.


Author(s):  
Jon-Michael J. Booth ◽  
Thomas E. Doyle ◽  
David M. Musson

All students have preferences for the way they receive and distribute information when the objective is learning. These preferences can be shown to have an effect on self-efficacy and on performance. The relationships between learning preference, self-efficacy and performance were studied using survey and grade data obtained from a first-year Engineering Design and Graphics course. The students were placed in one of three groups according to the modality (type) of design project they were given; a Simulation-Based project (SIM) using a software simulation tool, a Prototyping project (PRT) using a 3D printer, or a Simulation and Prototyping project (SAP) where they had to complete a design using both tools. Participants were given a custom survey that assessed self-efficacy and the VARK learning styles inventory which assesses learners on Visual, Aural, Read / Write and Kinesthetic learning preferences. 97 students were surveyed representing a response rate of 22.6%. Student performance was assessed by examining scores on a subset of questions related to design visualization on the final examination for the course. Data analysis involved examining the correlation between learning style and self-efficacy, and scores on final examination for each of the three course modality groups. Findings from this study include higher performance for Kinesthetic learners assigned a simulation-based project and low performance for Read/Write learners with a prototyping project. This study supports the hypothesis that student performance may depend on learning preferences coupled with design project modality.


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.


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