Incorporating 3D Printing to Bridge Two Introductory Courses in Mechanical Engineering

A course in Computer Graphics using SolidWorks™ is one of the very first courses that a Mechanical Engineering major would take within the department at Lehigh University. In this course, students learn the basics of engineering graphics with a view towards engineering design. Such a course gives students an overall view of not just the mechanics of creating engineering drawings using SolidWorks, but also one of understanding the consequences of their drawings as they affect tolerances, material selection, fabrication processes as well as the viability of their designs. The very next introductory mechanical engineering course is a laboratory dealing with engineering measurements, data acquisition and testing. This article reports on the use of a 3-D printing exercise to bridge these two somewhat very different courses with different objectives, thereby giving students an early start into understanding the process of design; from a concept to its design and fabrication, and finally, testing and analysis of data. Moreover, it gives a fundamental understanding of the use of 3-D printing that many students would end up using for their Senior Design course in their senior year.

An Integrated Engineering Agriculture STEM Program

Pre-college project-based learning programs are essential means to increase the students’ interest toward STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) disciplines and careers. Engineering-based projects have shown significant impact on the students’ interests. Therefore, developing countries are investing strategically in their emphasis to attract students to careers in STEM fields, specifically engineering and medicine. That resulted in a steady expansion of their educational pipeline in STEM; and while that emphasis remains, there is a new and urgent need for expertise in agriculture, environmental science, life sciences and sustainability to support the agriculture industry, which is working to secure independent sources of food for their population. New interventions must be devised to stimulate broader interest in STEM fields while also increasing students’ academic readiness for advanced studies in those areas. To target the requirement of increasing people’s competencies in STEM fields, various programs have been created and designed to inspire and broaden students’ inquisitiveness toward STEM. This paper presents an integrated science-engineering program, called Qatar Invents, designed to support and enhance students’ learning of science concepts while also increasing students’ understanding of global challenges in food and water security. This goes with close connection to the desire to increase in the domestic production of agricultural resources in developing countries in recent years. Qatar Invents would engage students into learning and applying fundamental engineering skills onto relatable real-world issues: namely, in the design of hydroponics systems. Qatar Invents challenges students to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills in solving modern problems through the use of the engineering design process. With hands-on challenges, modeling, and communication training, students are motivated to tackle problems related to food security where they create hydroponics projects. Qatar Invents’ learning objectives included: teamwork, using proper toolbox skills, understanding what is engineering, the process of brainstorming, creating successful innovative designs, building prototypes, and developing presentation skills. Throughout this program, the participants were equipped with hands-on knowledge and critical thinking skills that helped them achieve their objectives. Utilizing the engineering design process, the students worked in small teams to brainstorm ideas and create inventions. The topics covered during the program included the importance of an engineering notebook and documentation, principals of engineering graphics, basics of agricultural science, foundations of hydroponics, the brainstorming practice, generating a decision matrix, proof of concept, and pitching ideas. At the end of the program, the students came up with novel solutions to serious problems wherein unique hydroponics projects were produced and presented to a panel of experts. This program attempts to build bridges between developing countries’ STEM education pipeline and the new demand of talent in the agriculture sector. All pertinent details including the preparation, instructional materials, prototyping materials, and case studies are presented in this paper.

Demonstrating the Generation of Bond Graphs From 3D Assemblies

The bond graph method provides a generic and simple way to compute differential equations and dynamic responses for complex mechatronic systems. This paper will illustrate the process of automatically generating bond graphs from 3D CAD assemblies of gear-trains. Using appropriate CAD application programming interfaces (APIs), information on parts and mates within an existing assembly is extracted. The extracted information is stored as an identity graph, which also stores all geometry and mass related information of every part. Grammar rules are then used to transform the identity graph to a system graph, which is then converted to bond graph using an existing bond graph generation program. The paper will discuss the process, challenges and planned future work.

Emotional Tools Design: A Project to Increase Empathy, Engagement and Interest in Industrial Design Students

Empathy is the ability of people to identify emotional aspects of others. A fundamental aspect to teaching in design education must be empathy. This paper presents the design process of an emotional tools using emoticons or emojis for evaluated products as educational exercise. The dynamics behind of the tool is the empathy experimented during the develop of the emojis characters. The project was implemented in the second period of the second year, with an execution time of 5 weeks. A series of surveys were conducted to assess perception of aspects such as utility, novelty, sensitivity and relevance of the project, in addition to knowing the progress of empathy evoked by the students dynamic. The results revealed the following findings: The opinion of 25 students describe their wide acceptance of this project methodology. Students considered the relevance of assessment processes, their recommendation to use those processes, and invited other students to develop it. Also, student’s positive perception about utility, novelty, sensibility and relevance of project dynamics are not determined by acceptance of this type of project. The preliminary results suggest that this educational exercise has the potential to cultivate or train empathy and other skills in design and engineering students.

Student Experiential Learning Through Design and Development of a Subsurface Melting Head for NASA RASCAL-Special Edition Competition

In order for students to enhance their understanding of engineering concepts, hands-on experience proves to be essential. Incorporating the design component in undergraduate engineering education has been an immediate and pressing concern for educators, professional societies, industrial employers and agencies concerned with national productivity and competitiveness. It is crucial to enhance undergraduate design and research experiences to meet both societal needs and the growing job-market demands. The University of the District of Columbia (UDC), the District of Columbia’s only public institution of higher education, and a historically black college and university (HBCU), had recently modernized its undergraduate curricula in engineering to meet that need. This paper presents a case study of recent implementation of student experiential learning approach through undergraduate research experience course (MECH 302). This student group participated in the 2019 US National Aeronautics and Space Administration Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts – Academic Linkages (RASC-AL) Challenge, in which they will develop concepts that may provide full or partial solutions to specific design problems and challenges currently facing human space exploration.

Design Innovation Incorporating Additive Manufacturing: Creation and Assessment of a Design Tool

Additive Manufacturing (AM) offers design engineers new and advanced manufacturing processes to consider when developing new products or redesigning and evolving current products. AM includes 3D printing processes to quickly produce complex parts and prototypes, that were previously uneconomical or impossible to fabricate. Engineers and organizations have an increasing need to incorporate AM as part of product development; however, design heuristics, design methodologies, and design tools to support AM are nascent and only recently emerging. To enhance Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM), this research seeks to develop an accessible, computer-based design assistant that will aid designers in incorporating AM into their design processes. The design assistant implements a distinctive and user-centered Design Innovation (DI) process, set of methods, and set of principles based on a 4D design framework. This 4D framework encompasses the UK Design Council’s double diamond model and includes the phases of Discover, Define, Develop, and Deliver. The Discover phase entails user studies and a deep understanding and empathy for the user. The Define phase considers the reframing of design opportunities based on derived insights from the modeling users’ interactions. The Develop phase uses a variety of methods to create a large quantity of innovative ideas and concepts, and the Deliver phase implements a set of methods to prototype, test, pitch, and ultimately produce deliverables for a market or community. We demonstrate the design assistant tool for AM through the development of high-end bracket design for space applications. The design considers the Selective Laser Melting (SLM) process for productions and incorporated topology optimization approaches. This demonstrative case study shows how the tool includes design heuristics and approaches for each of the 4-Ds that assist designers in implementing AM capabilities as part of repeatable design processes. Assessment of the tool is carried out through systematic assessments performed by practicing design engineers that have knowledge of AM. Initial results show that the design assessment tool is very helpful when designers consider using AM and also in helping them use AM in effective and efficient manners.

New ABET Student Outcomes Assessment: Developing Performance Indicators and Instruments for Outcome 4

Milwaukee School of Engineering’s Mechanical Engineering Department, having successfully completed the accreditation of the ME program in 2018–19 under the prior a through k student outcomes, dedicated the program meetings during academic year 2019–20 to develop assessment instruments in transitioning to the new ABET Student Outcomes 1–7. By deliberately involving the entire faculty to participate in the development of instruments, a grassroots level discussion and creation ensued for each outcome. The process is showcased in this paper for Student Outcome 4 on ethics as a model to share with our engineering faculty and to highlight salient features in the developed instrument and associated rubrics. The details of performance indicators interwoven across the curriculum and the methods of data collection are provided in a tabular form for ease of expectation and implementation. How the readily available materials from the National Society of Professional Engineers could be incorporated at early years of the baccalaureate program while the outcome’s performance indicators could be assessed at a deeper level during junior and senior years are showcased in this paper. The periodic dialogue among all colleagues who were working on various outcomes ensured proper communication of what one outcome group is prescribing that we do and receive input from those who are involved with the courses in which the data needed to be collected and the performance indicators are to be assessed. The general structure of our standing committees on freshman courses, energy, mechanics, and controls also provided the cushion to review the assessment instruments and provide constructive feedback from the corresponding committee’s perspective. These details of a very interactive Student Outcomes Assessment process will be presented.

Distant Teaching and Learning of BTIPS: Application in Pandemic Situation

The world’s technology is developing very rapidly. To anticipate the course and results of such development is a task that is very crucial for the success of many technological undertakings and expansions. Engineering design is the branch of engineering that should predict the results of that rapid development. It should equip society with the tools for directing and controlling that development. It is a complex task that faces big challenges. The main challenge comes from society advancement and from the technology development itself. If the directing and controlling are done right the development would bring many benefits to humanity and would make human life easier and more comfortable. Doing it right however requires increased knowledge of the new features of technology and more skills in its application. In the difficult pandemic situation that knowledge and skills should be even greater because the outbreak of the disease creates additional traps and dangers. These conditions have to be taken under consideration and accepted as normal. The role of engineering design is to predict what harmful elements would be coming from both technological and social sources. The real goal however would be to exceed the expectations and not only neutralize them but change them from harmful into neutral, and then from neutral into friendly and helpful. Such actions follows recommendations of BTIPS (Brief Theory of Inventive Problem Solving) and is outlined in the BTIPS’s module “Prediction”. At the same time the developing civilization brings dangers for humans that were unknown before. These are bacterial and viruses’ attacks that limit personal relations between humans, requires new ways and new elements of communications, especially in internet contacts and in distant learning procedures. The contents of these components should be accurately predicted, well-orchestrated, well designed and precisely described. Recommendations for introducing BTIPS as a tool of engineering education in new situation should be carefully proposed and illustration examples, using new communication tools, should be developed. These should be applied in engineering theoretical courses and in practical applications during the senior design course of study and in industrial practice. This should be precise, clearly anticipating difficulties, pointing possible errors and ways of avoiding them. Teaching examples of problem solving and personal ways of communications between individual students, between groups of students, as well as between students and instructors should be further discussed. The examples of design ideas and problem solutions generated by students in design courses that were described in previous works of the author and his co-workers [1] should be related to pandemic situation. To define and formulate rules of teaching BTIPS in the pandemic situation is the necessity of our times. On every step of our lives we face the challenge of preventing harms and destruction that can be done by the contemporary surrounding world. The preventing actions can be designed by following rules of BTIPS and by apply approach recommended in its modules. The proposal of utilizing BTIPS application examples using the internet as a tool of expression is described in this paper. All of these are pointed out and some recommendations and examples are called. Adding description of corrections to the engineering curriculum is necessary in the new situation. It is an intention of the author to demonstrate a fragment of practical distant lecturing by internet during the IMECE 2020 internet sessions using the internet network and distant support from UConn computer Laboratory in Storrs, CT. Some example solutions of the idea generation are quoted in this paper. The comments coming from author’s teaching experience will be given during the presentation and practical advices for students and instructors will be passed to the audience. This paper is a companion to IMECE 2017-70438 [1]. Some original examples given in the paper 79418 are recommended for following and will be run by internet in pandemic situation of IMECE 2020.

Ten Years of Positive Feedback on Project-Based Learning From First-Year Engineering Students’ Perspective

Project-Based Learning (PBL) is an active student-centered learning methodology. Several schools (of varying degrees of education) have implemented, in different ways, PBL, having as common strands that the student learns in teams, and being challenged in the context of a case-scenario. In Portugal, a PBL methodology has been implemented, in the first year of an Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM) program, for more than 15 years. This represents a total number above 700 students of IEM enrolled in PBL during the reported timeframe. A continuous improvement process of the PBL activities was relentlessly pursued during such period. Grounded on end-of-term on-line PBL process satisfaction questionnaires, as well as on results of each PBL edition final workshops, this paper studies and reports on a number of such achievements and shortcomings. Thus, this paper presents the analysis of the results of ten academic years of PBL evaluation process, grounded on the compiled results obtained from 2009/10 to 2019/20. Also, a synthesis of the effective findings (either positive or negative), systematically pointed out by the students, will be presented. Altogether, the PBL implementation in the IEM program has been very positive for students and teachers and worth for others to follow.

The Use of Blogs in a Project-Based Learning Context for First-Year Engineering Students’ Teams

The Integrated Project of Industrial Engineering and Management 1 (IPIEM1) is a curricular unit of the first year developed in the first semester of the Integrated Masters degree of Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM11) – University of Minho, Portugal. In the 2019’s 1st semester and in the IPIEM1 previous versions, Project-Based Learning (PBL) was usually adopted as a learning methodology. In this pedagogical development context, freshman students develop a project integrating all five courses related to this current semester. To undertake this project, the students work in large teams that comprise nine to ten members. Throughout the semester, each team must accomplish the project phases and tasks. To communicate their progress and results developed during the semester, each team designed a blog. In the IPIEM1 previous editions of PBL of this year in this program, the weblog (blog) digital technology was also adopted, but it was never assessed. Thus, this paper has two main objectives: 1) to evaluate the importance of the blog for the teams; 2) to discuss teams’ engagement during its development, knowing that it would be a part of the assessment method. The survey results revealed that the teams considered the blog useful to keep an update record of the project progress and to stimulate the writing and reflection about project contents. Furthermore, some of teachers’ and students’ considerations showed the need for providing more training and experience in the development of blogs.