Newly Introduced Capstone Design Course for Mechanical Engineering Technology: Lessons Learned From Two Cohorts and Two Types of Projects

Students working toward a baccalaureate degree in Mechanical Engineering Technology at the University of Cincinnati are required to complete a “Design, Manufacturing, and Test” senior capstone design project. One of these capstone design projects was to design and manufacture a battle robot to participate in the BotsIQ national competition. This robot was built to meet the BotsIQ 120 lb weight class specifications. A BattleBot is a robot which possesses fighting capabilities and competes against other BattleBots with the intent to disable them. The weapon is the main component of the BattleBots. BattleBots compete one on one and the winner is determined by the amount of damaged inflicted to the other using the weapon. In the 2007–2008 academic year, a team of four Mechanical Engineering Technology students at the University of Cincinnati built a BattleBot as their senior capstone design project. As with all capstone projects, expertise and knowledge acquired from their coursework and co-op were utilized. This project gave them an opportunity to showcase their abilities as well as develop additional skills needed to be successful in a team oriented business world. This team also enjoyed the personal satisfaction of working on a technically complex project from concept-to-design, manufacture, test, and compete against other university participants in the competition. This paper will describe students’ experiences in designing, manufacturing, and competing their robot in the national competition and team experience of the participants.

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Design Projects in a Mechanical Engineering Technology Curriculum

Volume 2: 11th Biennial Conference on Reliability, Stress Analysis, and Failure Prevention; 7th International Conference on Design Theory and Methodology; JSME Symposium on Design and Production; Mechanical Design Education and History; Computer-Integrated Concurrent Design Conference ◽

10.1115/detc1995-0212 ◽

1995 ◽

Author(s):

R. L. Alan Jordan

Keyword(s):

Mechanical Engineering ◽

Real Life ◽

Lessons Learned ◽

Problem Definition ◽

Theory And Practice ◽

Engineering Project ◽

Engineering Technology ◽

Lawn Mower ◽

Machine Elements ◽

Design Projects

Abstract Design oriented “capstone” courses for senior students have enjoyed renewed popularity in recent years. However, incorporating design projects as part of lower level laboratory courses is not as widely practiced. This paper discusses the authors’ experience using design projects in four freshman/sophomore level mechanical engineering technology courses. In a mechanics of materials course, the students have been required to design a structure for an overhead granary, and a device to upright a large electrical transformer. In a fluid power course, students have been required to size and select components and create a schematic for a small machine. In a machine elements course, students have designed a commercial lawn mower and a ribbon printing machine. Students in a production drawing class have designed and produced a set of working drawings for a stamping die, and have worked with a machine elements class as the documentation personnel on a concurrent engineering project. The projects all require problem definition, data research and collection, analysis of the required components, minimum sizing verses commercially available parts, and a schematic or full set of drawings. The desired outcomes are an increased level of interest, involvement, and to help the students make the transition between theory and practice. Graduates of technology programs are involved in design after either an associate degree or a bachelors degree. These graduates will either assist engineers in the design process; or, be responsible for their own designs. The technologist must understand how the theory is applied to the solution of design problems. Design projects are utilized as a means of applying the theory learned in the courses and exposing the students to real life problem solving. This paper will discuss some of the above named projects; how they are presented, how the students are involved, and the results. Some of the lessons learned will be presented. Reports are a major part of all the design projects. This paper will discuss how progress and final reports are utilized in these projects.

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Multi Dimentional Connectivity With Industry Of A Mechanical Engineering Technology Program Experience Gained And Lessons Learned

10.18260/1-2--16370 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Mamdouh Bakr

Keyword(s):

Mechanical Engineering ◽

Lessons Learned ◽

Engineering Technology ◽

Technology Program

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Bottlenecks in the transfer of software engineering technology: lessons learned from a consortium failure

Proceedings of the Twenty-Eighth Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences ◽

10.1109/hicss.1995.375680 ◽

2002 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

H. Krasner

Keyword(s):

Software Engineering ◽

Lessons Learned ◽

Engineering Technology

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LabVIEW and Measure Foundry Based Data Acquisition System for Mechanical Engineering Technology Laboratories

Volume 5: Education and Globalization ◽

10.1115/imece2013-66652 ◽

2013 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Emin Yilmaz

Keyword(s):

Data Acquisition ◽

Tensile Testing ◽

Mechanical Engineering ◽

Data Acquisition System ◽

Acquisition System ◽

Materials Testing ◽

Engineering Technology ◽

Computer Data ◽

Data Translation ◽

Application Programs

Since the ASYST data acquisition and analysis software was discontinued and the old versions of ASYST do not support new computer operating systems and new data acquisition boards, old computer data acquisition (CDAQ) system is being replaced with a new data acquisition system. The new microcomputer based data acquisition system consists of an i-3 microcomputer with 3.0 GHz CPU and Windows-7 operating system, a Data Translation (DT) DT-304, 12-bit, 400 MHz data acquisition board with STP-300 screw terminal, Data Translation Measure Foundry (DT-MF) software and DT-LV link software [2], a National Instruments (NI) PCI-6250, M-series, low level, 16-bit, 1.25 MS/s board with 4-module SCC-68 I/O Connector Block, four thermocouple-input plug-in modules and NI LabVIEW (NI-LV) software [4]. Data Translation’s DT-LV software links DT boards with NI-LV software. Most ASYST-based data acquisition and analysis application programs used in Mechanical Engineering Technology (MET) courses have been converted to NI-LV and DT-MF application programs. Purpose of this paper is to describe how our old data acquisition application programs were converted to new data acquisition application programs so that they may be used with our new data acquisition system. Descriptions of the experiments, equipment used, and experiences gained with laboratory experiments are given elsewhere [8–13]. Specifically: Reference [8] covers upgrades made to the Materials Testing Laboratory, including Tinius-Olsen [14] tensile testing machine; reference [9] covers design and development of data acquisition programs for the materials testing, including Tensile Testing of Materials experiment; references [11] and [12] cover Heating Ventilating and Air Conditioning (HVAC) experiments and use of DAQ system in these experiments; reference [13] cover all uses of DAQ system in MET at University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES).

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