Constructing a DC Brushless Motor- an Experiential Engineering Clinic Activity for Mechanical Students

The Engineering Ideas Clinic initiative at the University of Waterloo focuses on designing, developing and implementing learning activities provide students with authentic, applied and hands-on experiences which integrate their learning, and expose them to genuine applications in support of their engineering science content.This paper focuses on “Constructing a Brushless DC Motor” activity which was piloted for second year Mechanical students in their “Electromechanical Devices & Power Processing” course. The main motivation behind designing this activity is the fact that the principles of electromagnetism are often taught in an abstract way, and students can struggle to link the concepts with real life applications. Hence the authors have developed this activity to materialize these abstract concepts to the students.Students in teams of three constructed a brushless DC motor, verify its construction and test its operation. In this activity students applied the principles in an experiential fun activity, compared the performance of their motors and worked collaboratively in teams.In this paper, the authors will share their experience in developing and running this activity. They will also share their observations on the students’ reaction and learning experience, as well as some comments from colleagues