scholarly journals TEAM FORMATION IN ENGINEERING DESIGN COURSES

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed Galaleldin ◽  
Justine Boudreau ◽  
Hanan Anis
Keyword(s):  
Student Satisfaction ◽  
Engineering Design ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Team Composition ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Great Opportunity ◽  
Project Outcome ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Impact

Engineering design courses often include a team-based project. Project-based learning offers a great opportunity for engineering students to learn about teamwork and collaboration. It also gives students a chance to learn about themselves and improve their conflict management skills. Choosing the right team members for a specific project is not trivial, as the choice of the team often affects the project outcome and the students’ experience in the course. Moreover, there is a debate among engineering educators as to whether it is better to force team composition or not. In this paper, we investigate the impact of team composition and formation on project outcomes and student satisfaction in a second-year engineering design course at the University of Ottawa. The course is open to all engineering students and has an accessibility theme. Students work in teams with a client that has a specific accessibility need. Students meet the client three times during the semester and deliver a physical prototype by the end of the semester. For this study, students in the design course were divided into two groups. Students in the first group were allowed to pick their teams, while the instructor created the teams in the second group based on multidisciplinary composition and year of study. Both groups had the same instructor and the same course material, labs, project choices, etc. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a few teams in each group.

scholarly journals SCAFFOLDING STRATEGIES FOR TEACHING ENGINEERING DESIGN IN A COLLABORATIVE PROJECT-BASED LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed Galaleldin ◽  
Hanan Anis ◽  
Patrick Dumond ◽  
David Knox
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Team Work ◽  
Skill Assessment ◽  
Collaborative Project ◽  
The Impact

 Abstract –Collaborative Project Based Learning (CPBL) is known for enhancing deep learning, professional skills development, student engagement and motivation, cultivating interdependence in learning, thinking, problem solving, and creating interest and excitement in learning. This article describes the impact of an engineering design course on first-year engineering students. Student performance was evaluated before and after taking the course using a pre-and-post design skill assessment test, peer feedback evaluations, and thematic analysis of each student’s self-reflection of lessons learned. Initial analysis of the data indicates that a CPBL environment has a significantly positive impact on the development of engineering students’ ability to describe the engineering design process and relate it directly to real-world problems. Students also realized the importance of communication, team work, investigation and project management skills.

scholarly journals Project-based STEM-courses for engineering students

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 53-68
Author(s):  
Galyna Vasylivna Lutsenko ◽  
◽  
Oksana Mykolaivna Podolian ◽  
Lyudmyla Mikhailivna Ozhyndovych ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Students ◽  
Optimal Strategies ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Project Work ◽  
Approaches To Teaching ◽  
Stem Disciplines ◽  
National University ◽  
The Impact

One of the world-recognized practices of modern higher education is the application of problem-based and project-based approaches to teaching STEM-disciplines. In case of integration of problem-based and project-based learning, the educational process is organized around the problem to be solved by students and stimulates them to find optimal strategies for solving, and project activities are chosen as a way of organizing work. The article describes the ongoing experience of implementation of project-based STEM-courses "Hydro- and Gas Dynamics" and "Applied Mechanics and Fundamentals of Design", which is part of training of engineering students of 151 Automation and Computer-integrated technologies speciality at the Bohdan Khmelnytskyy National University of Cherkasy during 2017-2019 academic years. The impact of problem-based and project-based approaches to teaching STEM-disciplines on the formation of professional and general competencies of future engineers had been analyzed. The dynamics of changes of personal and interpersonal skills of junior students during the teamwork on mono- and multidisciplinary projects had been studied. The case study method was chosen as the general research method, which corresponds to the number of research participants and the active role of researchers in the educational process. The results of surveys developed using the 5-point Likert scale, demonstrates that students mostly positively evaluate the projects and teamwork. The possibility of self-grouping, which made possible to form teams based on common interests and promote freer and more natural communication within the team, was the important factor of positive perception of project work. The disadvantages of the implemented approaches include the difficulties that manifested itself at the stage of students' planning of the project process. One of the reasons for this is the lack of previous experience in the realization of students' team projects. The introduction of multidisciplinary projects made it possible to optimize the workload of students working simultaneously on a project in two disciplines and increase the motivation to study the disciplines of the STEM cycle.

Exploration of the Dynamics of Neuro-Cognition During TRIZ

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Milovanovic ◽  
Mo Hu ◽  
Tripp Shealy ◽  
John Gero
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Cognitive Differences ◽  
Cognitive Activation ◽  
Solution Generation ◽  
Engineering Parameters ◽  
Medial Pfc ◽  
The Right ◽  
Support Engineering ◽  
Structured Approach

Abstract The Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ) method and toolkit provides a well-structured approach to support engineering design with pre-defined steps: interpret and define the problem, search for standard engineering parameters, search for inventive principles to adapt, and generate final solutions. The research presented in this paper explores the neuro-cognitive differences of each of these steps. We measured the neuro-cognitive activation in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) of 30 engineering students. Neuro-cognitive activation was recorded while students completed an engineering design task. The results show a varying activation pattern. When interpreting and defining the problem, higher activation is found in the left PFC, generally associated with goal directed planning and making analytical. Neuro-cognitive activation shifts to the right PFC during the search process, a region usually involved in exploring the problem space. During solution generation more activation occurs in the medial PFC, a region generally related to making associations. The findings offer new insights and evidence explaining the dynamic neuro-cognitive activations when using TRIZ in engineering design.

The Impact of an Unexpected Facility Closure on a Campus Community

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-201
Author(s):  
Corinne Farneti ◽  
Denise Ditch
Keyword(s):  
Student Satisfaction ◽  
Division I ◽  
Campus Community ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Management Communication ◽  
Recreational Facility ◽  
Interview Methods ◽  
The University ◽  
The Impact

This case study examines the impact of an unexpected recreational facility closure. The university studied is a small Division I school, located in a rural area. Semi-structured interviews were used to elicit data from 22 people representing various groups around campus. Using grounded theory, the researchers coded statements and categories, resulting in six themes: socialization, performance, adaptability, management, communication and perception, and student satisfaction. The study includes an overview of the university and recreational culture, a description of the fieldhouse roof collapse, interview methods and study limitations, an analysis of stakeholder interviews, and suggestions for how to best handle a similar scenario.

The Assessment of Product Archaeology as a Platform for Contextualizing Engineering Design

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kemper Lewis ◽  
Deborah Moore-Russo ◽  
Phil Cormier ◽  
Andrew Olewnik ◽  
Gül Kremer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
National Network ◽  
Societal Context ◽  
Novel Approaches ◽  
Knowledge And Practice ◽  
Pedagogical Innovations ◽  
Global World ◽  
The Impact

Many engineering departments struggle to meet “the broad education necessary to understand the impact of engineering solutions in a global, economic, environmental, and societal context” (Outcome h) that is required for ABET. As a result, engineering students receive meaningful contextual experiences in piecemeal fashion and graduate with a lack of concrete competencies that bridge knowledge and practice in the global world in which they will live and work. By considering products as designed artifacts with a history rooted in their development, our product archaeology framework combines concepts from archaeology with advances in cyber-enhanced product dissection to implement pedagogical innovations that address the significant educational gap. In this paper, we focus on assessing elements of a sustainable and scalable foundation that can support novel approaches aimed at educating engineering students to understand the global, economic, environmental, and societal context and impact of engineering solutions. This foundation is being developed across a network of partner institutions. We present recent results from freshman, sophomore, and senior courses at two of the partners in the national network of institutions.

Enhancing Engineering Learning Experience at UTB by Freshmen iHOP

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nazmul Islam
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Real World ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Senior Design ◽  
Team Selection ◽  
Hands On ◽  
Lower Division

Most of the engineering courses focus more on theory and very little on hands-on, project-based learning in the classroom. Integration of real-world engineering problems and applications in lower division engineering courses will produce engineering students, who will be technically sound and be able to execute and manage real-world projects, when they will do senior design projects in their final year of engineering study. To overcome the engineering design challenges we have developed iHOP (Ingenieŕia Hands on Project) and integrate it with our lower division engineering courses. iHOP has been developed to emphasis the design component at the University of Texas at Brownsville (UTB) Engineering Physics curriculum and the project is now an integral part of Introduction to Engineering class. The iHOP project is one that is challenging, fun, requires teamwork, associated with the engineering material being studied, low cost, and doable in a limited amount of time. The experience from iHOP project motivates our freshman students to choose a better senior design project in senior year of their college career. The objectives of the iHOP projects are — to have students develop teamwork skills, and to teach students basic engineering design concepts in a complementary format to the traditional lecture. Various techniques related to team selection, encouraging teamwork, incorporation of engineering topics, keeping costs down, project results presentations, and gathering feedback from students will also be presented in this paper. Integrating iHOP Project with Introduction to Engineering class helped us to improve our retention effort in the engineering department.

Understanding the Impact of Engineering Through Appropriate Technology Development

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nickey Janse van Rensburg ◽  
Z. Simpson ◽  
N. Malan
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Students ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
Research Collaboration ◽  
Technology Development ◽  
Pilot Project ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Appropriate Technology ◽  
Open Market ◽  
Market Growth ◽  
The Impact

This research describes a pilot project which aimed to introduce CDIO-type (Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate), project-based learning through a community-based project in a third year Material Science module. The project formed part of an agriculture research initiative, and relied on interdisciplinary research collaboration between engineering, social sciences, management, entrepreneurship, and industrial arts. The initiative seeks to develop an agribusiness solution that will create an open-market, growth-oriented food economy. As part of the initiative, engineering students, participating in teams, worked alongside a community of urban farmers, most of whom are working poor, so as to develop appropriate, intermediate technology/ies that could support the farmers. This was informed by the need to have students demonstrate high level understanding of disciplinary content, but also to engage in human-centered design thinking and practice.

Architects and rural post-disaster housing: lessons from South India

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 206-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gertrud Tauber
Keyword(s):  
South India ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Indian Ocean Tsunami ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Post Disaster

Purpose – This research aims to examine three housing projects implemented by local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and planned by local architects after the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 in rural South India. The key to the acceptance of post-disaster houses lies in meeting the peoples’ wishes and needs, and in integrating local know-how into the course of the project process (a premise intensively discussed in theory). After the tsunami of 2004, many (NGOs) appointed architects, assuming that these professionals would be qualified to facilitate the implementation of people-oriented houses (and villages). However, the architects’ roles vary significantly, which had, as will be shown here, a considerable impact on the degree of success of the project. Design/methodology/approach – Primary data for this study were gathered through household questionnaires (110); informal interaction; participant-observation (work assignment: 2.5 years; field survey: 4 months); semi-structured interviews (NGO representatives, architects and engineers). Secondary literature was studied on post-disaster housing, building cultures and cultures of knowledge. Findings – This study reveals that, in the course of rural post-disaster reconstruction, there is a crying need to appoint the “right” personnel having, first of all, the capacity to comply with the social dynamics at project level, and, second, being able to address those aspects critical for the realization of people-oriented housing. Architects can be a valuable resource for both the NGO and the villagers. However, this paper shows that key to this is, among other considerations, a thorough understanding of the rural (building) culture, its abilities and requirements, the strategic interplay of various roles and abilities during the course of an intricate building process and the design of appropriate roles for adequately-skilled architects. Originality/value – To this date, the debate on the role of architects in the context of post-disaster housing has neglected to examine empirically the implications of appointing these professionals in rural post-disaster contexts. This paper addresses this imbalance and complements the existing corpus of work by examining the impact of different roles of architects on the degree of success of the project at village level.

The Impact of Team-Based Product Dissection on Design Novelty

2014 ◽  
Vol 136 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine A. Toh ◽  
Scarlett R. Miller ◽  
Gül E. Okudan Kremer
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Education ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Design Method ◽  
Idea Generation ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Design Concepts ◽  
Engineering Design Education ◽  
Current Design ◽  
The Impact

Although design novelty is a critical area of research in engineering design, most research in this space has focused on understanding and developing formal idea generation methods instead of focusing on the impact of current design practices. This is problematic because formal techniques are often not adopted in industry due to the burdensome steps often included in these methods, which limit the practicality and adoption of these methods. This study seeks to understand the impact of product dissection, a design method widely utilized in academia and industry, on design novelty in order to produce recommendations for the use or alterations of this method for supporting novelty in design. To investigate the impact of dissection, a study was conducted with 76 engineering students who completed a team-based dissection of an electric toothbrush and then individually generated ideas. The relationships between involvement in the dissection activity, the product dissected, the novelty and quantity of the ideas developed were investigated. The results reveal that team members who were more involved in the dissection activity generated concepts that were more novel than those who did not. In addition, the type of the dissected product also had an influence on design novelty. Finally, a positive correlation between the number of ideas generated and the novelty of the design concepts was identified. The results from this study are used to provide recommendations for leveraging product dissection for enhancing novelty in engineering design education and practice.

Do Technological Advancements Lead to Learning Enhancements?: An Exploration in Virtual Product Dissection

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth M. Starkey ◽  
Cailyn Spencer ◽  
Kevin Lesniak ◽  
Conrad Tucker ◽  
Scarlett R. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Active Learning ◽  
Student Satisfaction ◽  
Student Learning ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Learning Assessment ◽  
Immersive Virtual Reality ◽  
Engineering Programs ◽  
Educational Benefits ◽  
The Impact

Recent shifts into larger class sizes and online learning have caused engineering educators to rethink the way they integrate inductive, or active learning activities into their courses. One way engineering educators have done this is through the integration of new technological environments. However, little is known about how the type of technological environment utilized in active learning exercises impacts student learning and satisfaction. Thus, as a first step to understanding the impact of technological advancements on student learning and satisfaction, a study was conducted with 18 senior level undergraduate engineering students who were asked to perform product dissection, or the systematic disassembly of a product, using three technological interfaces (computer, iPad, immersive virtual reality). Variations in the complexity of the product dissected were also explored. The results of this study indicate that variations in technological interfaces did not impact student learning as assessed by a Student Learning Assessment (SLA). However, the complexity of the product dissected did impact learning, with students scoring significantly lower on the SLA when dissecting the most complex product. The results also indicated that students perceived learning and satisfaction were highest when using the immersive virtual reality system. These results suggest that the costs of investing in more technological advanced systems for product dissection may not yet outweigh the educational benefits. However, the increase in student satisfaction with VR environments has the potential to positively impact student retention in engineering programs.

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