scholarly journals A Preliminary Study of the Design Approaches to Project Work Taken by Undergraduate Engineering Students

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy J. Laliberté ◽  
C. Schramm ◽  
A. L. Steele
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Students ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Problem Definition ◽  
Project Work ◽  
Design Work ◽  
Design Processes ◽  
Undergraduate Engineering ◽  
Design Cycle ◽  
Preliminary Study ◽  
Capstone Projects

We report on a preliminary study of discrete design processes and their timing, when undergraduate engineering students undertake project work. The method of the study followed the approach undertaken by others1,2 where the project design cycle is broken into discrete stages, for example problem definition, modeling, feasibility analysis and communication. In these previous studies the design was over approximately 3 hours1 using a single session design problem and required talking aloud by the designer, so that an observer could assess the stages being undertaken at given time intervals. Our study is over one or two terms and uses self-reporting by students to the criteria. Weekly emails prompted students with individualized links to a webform to report the type of design work done in the previous week. Because a week is a relatively long interval, the web form asks the students to report in terms of their primary (most effort and time) and secondary tasks. Similar to previous studies, this study compares the time spent and the points in the design cycle when certain process are undertaken or revisited. Our results, however, describe the design process over various durations (one term projects or full-year capstone projects), for different years of study (primarily, third and fourth year), different fields of engineering (from Aerospace, Civil, Mechanical, Electrical as well as Systems) and finally for different sized teams (from pairs of students in course projects to teams of twenty in Mechanical and Aerospace capstone projects). Comparisons will also be made between the design processes of different students, based on their final grade for their project. This first year of study is seen as a preliminary year to a longer and broader study, and the paper present our preliminary results as well as lessons learned in the areas of self-reporting and sizeable, longer-term data collection.

Human-Centered and Psychological Concepts in Undergraduate Engineering Project Documentation

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 505-509
Author(s):  
Rod D. Roscoe ◽  
Samuel T. Arnold ◽  
Chelsea K. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Students ◽  
Engineering Project ◽  
Design Processes ◽  
Undergraduate Engineering ◽  
Project Documentation ◽  
And Behaviors ◽  
Psychological Concepts

The success of engineering and design is facilitated by a working understanding of human thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. In this study, we explored how undergraduate engineering students included such human-centered and psychological concepts in their project documentation. Although, we observed a range of concepts related to design processes, teams, cognition, and motivation, these concepts appeared infrequently and superficially. We discuss how this analysis and approach may help to identify topics that could be leveraged for future human-centered engineering instruction.

scholarly journals Developing Student Meta-Cognition in a Design Course.

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan L. Steele
Keyword(s):  
Group Work ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Project Work ◽  
Group Project ◽  
Design Work ◽  
Main Route ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
Life Long Learning ◽  
Capstone Project ◽  
Planning Group

practice can help with developing professional skills. To encourage the development of self reflection and ultimately meta-cognition related to project and design work, undergraduate electrical engineering students in anon-capstone project course undertook reflection exercises on their group project. The instructor observed a range of abilities to undertake the reflections, with some not going beyond describing the work that they had done, whereas others started to show a deeper consideration and thinking about their project work. The main route for reflection was a reflection journal, where five entries were required over the period of the project. The choice of reflection topic was up to the student except in one entry case when a mandatory question on life long learning was asked. For each of the other reflections a suggestion was provided for a reflection topic. Other opportunities for reflection were included with questionnaires at the beginning and end of the course, as well as presentations including one describing one thing the group had learned.The individual experiences of students in a first major group project course allow a range of reflections to occur, from ideas about planning, group work, problem solving and design being potential areas for discussion. Evaluation here is restricted to the instructors observations and not a detailed analysis of the student’s reflection work. This is an early examination of reflection and meta-cognition of the students but there areindications that students are taking the first steps in considering their approaches to project and design work.

Teaching Design Methodologies Across Engineering Disciplines

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cameron J. Turner
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Mechanical Design ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Colorado School ◽  
Design Processes ◽  
Design Methodologies ◽  
Design Program ◽  
Mechanical Products ◽  
Capstone Design

The Colorado School of Mines (CSM) offers a combined capstone design experience for mechanical, civil, electrical and environmental engineering students. In a recent re-invention of our design curriculum, a new emphasis on design methodologies has been implemented. Many of these design methods have origins in the design of electro-mechanical products, and it is certainly in these areas where the most vibrant design communities seem to reside. Yet in a combined setting, analogous design processes appear to exist in a broader engineering design community. This paper describes the capstone design program at CSM, with a focus on the methods that we are teaching and how they translate between disciplines. The lessons learned in such a translation not only illuminate how engineering design may differ in other disciplines, but also may reveal new perspectives on mechanical design processes.

Pilot of Systematic Ideation Study With Lessons Learned

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda C. Schmidt ◽  
Noe Vargas Hernandez ◽  
Gu¨l Kremer ◽  
Julie Linsey
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Design ◽  
Treatment Condition ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Undergraduate Engineering ◽  
Pilot Work ◽  
Experimental Process ◽  
The Impact

This work describes an experiment to research improving the ideation performance of undergraduate engineering students in classroom settings. This research investigates the impact of TRIZ, increasing emphasis on sketching during design, and using the Pulse Smartpen, on ideation performance. The research team’s goal is to develop an experimental design and protocols for this suite of ideation tools. Successful experimentation will provide a standard way to benchmark ideation tool effectiveness. The experimental design includes training students in the appropriate tools for their treatment condition and presenting students with an ideation design assignment. The design assignment results will be analyzed using ideation measures of novelty, variety, quantity and quality as defined in the literature. Results from pilot work at three institutions are introduced here along with observations on the experimental process to date.

scholarly journals CLIENT-BASED CORNERSTONE DESIGN PROJECTS

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justine Boudreau ◽  
Hanan Anis
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Unmet Need ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Problem Definition ◽  
Student Groups ◽  
Engineering Teams ◽  
Design Projects ◽  
Second Year

Engineering students at the University of Ottawa are exposed to engineering design in first- and second-year courses. Both courses are open to all engineering students and are multidisciplinary in nature. Students work in teams to deliver a physical prototype by the end of the term. The design projects are all community-based and involve a client from the local community with a specific unmet need. Examples of such clients include local hospitals, accessibility organizations, Ottawa police, Indigenous elders and many more. The client meets with the students a minimum of three times throughout the semester to provide the problem definition and give feedback to the student groups at different stages of the design process. The goal of this paper is to share best practices in selecting and delivering client-based projects targeting first- and second-year students in multidisciplinary engineering teams. The paper discusses the choice of project themes and specific projects. In addition, it presents lessons learned based on student-client interactions, lab manager-client interactions and client satisfaction. Examples are presented from the past three years of delivering such engineering design courses, with testimonials from clients and students.

The Fluids Rap: It’s All About Flow

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivaylo Nedyalkov
Keyword(s):  
Fluid Dynamics ◽  
Fluid Mechanics ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Video Production ◽  
Experimental Fluid Dynamics ◽  
Undergraduate Engineering ◽  
Experimental Facilities ◽  
American Society ◽  
Experimental Fluid

Abstract Most of the currently-enrolled undergraduate engineering students grew up with exposure to social media websites like Facebook and Youtube. Making sure that students are not distracted by their mobile devices in class has become more challenging, and one way to address the issue is to present engineering in a more entertaining and engaging way. A rap song about fluid mechanics was created by the author for entrainment, outreach, and education purposes. The song covers the fundamentals of fluid mechanics and mentions some theoretical basics, as well as some of the most widely used computational fluid dynamics and experimental fluid dynamics techniques. The song was written with the intention to be entertaining and educational — the goal was that someone with no prior fluid mechanics background will be able to understand it after spending 10–20 minutes reading through the lyrics explanations. A music video was produced for the song. The video production was sponsored by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and includes visuals of experimental facilities and equipment. The paper provides the background of the project, marketing plans, some of the lessons learned, the lyrics, and the explanations of the lyrics.

scholarly journals STUDENTS LEARNING TO LEARN THROUGH DESIGN

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken Tallman
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Creative Activity ◽  
Learning To Learn ◽  
Design Processes ◽  
Limited Ability ◽  
Undergraduate Engineering ◽  
Video Recordings ◽  
Capstone Design

Research being conducted in an engineering capstone design course analyzes student creativity and its connection to metacognition. Data collected from questionnaires, video recordings, and interviews willattempt to show that creativity in the design process and metacognitive understanding of creative activity are important factors in successful engineering design.Motivation for this research comes from the observation that undergraduate engineering students, including those in senior years, have difficulty explaining their design processes. They often have limited understanding of their creative accomplishments as well as a limited ability to explain what makes their approach distinctive or effective.Future research will build on the methodology described here, including a more explicit framework for identifying and assessing creativity in engineering design.

scholarly journals Lessons Learned from Teaching a Pilot Multidisciplinary Entrepreneurial 4th Year Capstone Design Course

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Maw
Keyword(s):  
Group Dynamics ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Peer Assessment ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Multidisciplinary Teams ◽  
Computer Engineering ◽  
Student Work ◽  
Capstone Course ◽  
Capstone Projects ◽  
Capstone Design

During the 2015/16 academic year, a pilot course at the University of Saskatchewan was offered to senior engineering students. The pilot course was meant to offer an entrepreneurial version of the standard 4th year capstone design course. It also created an opportunity for students to work with students from engineering disciplines other than their own. Two design groups, each consisting of four students, were formed. This paper describes the structure of the course, how the entrepreneurial content and multidisciplinary aspects were handled, and a variety of lessons that were learned that may be of value to other institutions considering similar ventures.The College’s capstone design courses had the weightings of two regular 3-credit courses, running from the start of the Fall term to the end of the Winter term. The most fundamental differences between this course and the standard 4th year capstone course were i) the students identified their own design problem, and ii) they formed multidisciplinary teams to solve their problem. Both of these differences created significant challenges in terms of organizing and running the course. Students from Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, and Engineering Physics were full participants in the course. Students from Mechanical Engineering were given the opportunity to participate on a one course credit basis i.e. they still had to take the standard 4th year design course in addition to the entrepreneurial version.Many lessons have been learned from the experience of developing and teaching this course. Issues that will be discussed in the paper include, but will not be limited to: integrating the different learning outcome needs of the different departments involved, managing the uncertainty of the design problems undertaken, integrating entrepreneurship into the design course, talking about design to students from different disciplines, managing “sub-contractor” students in capstone projects, evaluation, scheduling of classes, multidisciplinary supervision, client interaction and evaluation of student work, peer assessment, and student group dynamics.

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