Make Your Bed and Lie in It! Learning to Take the Consequences of Design Decisions in an Engineering Design Project (original) (raw)

Creating New Design-Build-Test Experiences as Outputs of Undergraduate Design-Build-Test Projects

2016

This paper describes a methodology of using individual engineering undergraduate student projects as a means of effectively and efficiently developing new Design-Build-Test (DBT) learning experiences and challenges. A key aspect of the rationale for this approach is that it benefits all parties. The student undertaking the individual project gets an authentic experience of producing a functional artefact, which has been the result of a design process that addresses conception, design, implementation and operation. The supervising faculty member benefits from live prototyping of new curriculum content and resources with a student who is at a similar level of knowledge and experience as the intended end users of the DBT outputs. The multiple students who ultimately undertake the DBT experiences / challenges benefit from the enhanced nature of a learning experience which has been "road tested" and optimised. To demonstrate the methodology the paper will describe a case study example of an individual project completed in 2015. This resulted in a DBT design challenge with a theme of designing a catapult for throwing table tennis balls, the device being made from components laser cut from medium density fibreboard (MDF). Further three different modes of operation will be described which use the same resource materials but operate over different timescales and with different learning outcomes, from an icebreaker exercise focused on developing team dynamics through to full DBT where students get an opportunity to experience the full impact of their design decisions by competing against other students with a catapult they have designed and built themselves.

Linking design, analysis, manufacture and test in the engineering student experience

2010

The modern engineer needs to have diverse skills ranging from abilities in redesign , co-design, customisation, management of resources and intellectual property, combined with technical expertise. Design education needs to prepare individuals for these requirements and manage the expectations of the students concerned. A particular challenge is the disconnect between empowered design practice, where the practitioner already has the necessary skills to explore the task, and the novice who is still learning technical and design skills. In order to develop understanding of design processes commonly experienced in industry a combination of projects using fuzzy or constrained briefs are introduced in the first and second years on the MEng in Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College. Constrained briefs defining the limits for the design activity, are sometimes criticised as limiting the creative opportunities for the people involved. Some creative techniques however focus on identifying the constraints and conflicts involved with a view to resolving them. This paper explores a constrained brief project, used for the second year, where students are required to design, manufacture and then test their design for a pump. The project encourages use and exploration of analytical skills, engineering science and form development as well as basic manufacturing skills. Students can use CNC manufacture for their impeller and volute but are required to manually machine the majority of their bearing housing and shaft arrangement. The combination of concept development within constraints, use of analysis and engineering science, development of manufacturing and assembly skills and the student experience derived from testing their designs, are described within this paper.

Enhancing the Manufacturing Knowledge of Undergraduate Engineering Students: A Case Study of a Design-Build-Test Challenge Involving Folding Bicycles

2016

Many engineers currently in professional practice will have gained a degree level qualification which involved studying a curriculum heavy with mathematics and engineering science. While this knowledge is vital to the engineering design process so also is manufacturing knowledge, if the resulting designs are to be both technically and commercially viable. The methodology advanced by the CDIO Initiative aims to improve engineering education by teaching in the context of Conceiving, Designing, Implementing and Operating products, processes or systems. A key element of this approach is the use of Design-Built-Test (DBT) projects as the core of an integrated curriculum. This approach facilitates the development of professional skills as well as the application of technical knowledge and skills developed in other parts of the degree programme. This approach also changes the role of lecturer to that of facilitator / coach in an active learning environment in which students gain concrete experiences that support their development. The case study herein describes Mechanical Engineering undergraduate student involvement in the manufacture and assembly of concept and functional prototypes of a folding bicycle.

The Engineering Design Process: An introduction to Engineering Students using the Tower Bridge Project

2024

and Instructor of the Aerospace Engineering Capstone Senior Design courses. Engineering research interests are in the science and technology at the intersection of aerodynamics, structural mechanics, energy, and smart materials. Recent works have focused on exploiting aeroelastic instabilities on piezoelectric structures for engineering applications. Educational research interests include engineering design education, developing better-equipped graduates for the workforce, bridging the core competencies gap, improving diversity and collaboration within disciplines

Using the Engineering Design Cycle to Develop Integrated Project Based Learning in Aerospace Engineering

2012

in the Netherlands has redeveloped its BSc curriculum to mimic an engineering design cycle. Each semester represents a step in the design cycle: exploration; system design; subsystem design; test, analysis & simulation; verification & validation. In the curriculum design each semester has an accompanying project allowing students to synthesize their learning. These projects are done in groups of 8-10 students to accommodate our annual intake 400+ students. All projects share a common set up in terms of having a storyline, professional roles for students, having a client for each project and being real-life and authentic. The first project has students discover the possibilities of using UAVs to explore solar systems. The second project allows students to design & manufacture an aerospace structure loaded under bending & torsion. The third project has students design a sub system of an aircraft or spacecraft and in the fourth project students analyse actual scientific test data with a view to write a (mock) scientific article. Finally, in the third year the curriculum is capped by a Design/Synthesis Exercise in which students have to complete an entire design of an aerospace related object. Integrated in the first two year are courses on technical and scientific writing as well as oral communication. This paper will report on each of the projects, their set up, the experiences of running the project and student evaluations after running a complete three year curriculum also highlighting the challenges of working with such large numbers.

Recent Experiments in Aerospace and Design Engineering Education

42nd AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit, 2004

This paper describes some recent capstone design experiences at Virginia Tech. Two new features of our design program are described. They both involve providing a hand-on experience, where the students build, test and fly concepts developed in the design class. In the first, seniors built a wind tunnel model and convinced juniors taking their lab class to test the model as part of that class in place of doing a traditional wind tunnel test. In the second, we formed a joint mechanical/aerospace engineering design team with the goal of designing, building and flying a morphing wing airplane. The seniors were notably more enthusiastic about these projects as compared to the traditional design projects. Surprising to us, the juniors were somewhat reluctant at first. They were concerned that performing a new concept test would result in a poor grade for them in their class. The combination of MEs and AEs was interesting. They each brought a different attitude to design. The MEs were more hand-on, "let's try it", whereas the AEs were more concerned with analysis. This combination was definitely better than the traditional single-major design teams normally used at Virginia Tech.

Experience the Relevance of Testing in Engineering Design Education

Engineering design education imparts students how to Conceive, Design, Implement and Operate complex engineering systems. The „Innovation Project“ at ETH Zurich is a project-based engineering design course, where 456 undergraduate students of mechanical engineering experience the CDIO activities in the freshman year in teams of 4 to 6 students. Starting from an idea, a concept and a design, the project work includes the production of several prototypes with direct manufacturing technologies and the implementation of the final system in a defined operation environment. A main finding of the project in 2013 is that systems being tested at different stages of the product development process showed higher reliability and better performance in the final contest. As a consequence, the learning effects of testing have considerable impact on the projects’ success. This paper shows how the relevance of testing can be experienced in project-based engineering design education focusing on the case study of the “Innovation Project” where testing is approached in all four CDIO activities: (1) Testing in Conceiving by the development of low-fidelity prototypes facilitates the exploration of ideas and the verification of the concept. (2) Testing in Design enables the students to identify errors such as part collisions primarily in the context of Computer Aided Design. (3) Testing the Implementation refers to testing the assembly of the parts. Finally, (4) Testing for Operation is conducted by integrating the system in the intended overall system. Based on the results, it is discussed how the relevance of testing can be experienced and imparted in project based engineering design classes.

Redesign of a Toy Project for First Year Engineering Courses

2011

Many students decide to study engineering because they like to design and build things or they like the hands-on work. However, most of the engineering programs devote the first two years of the engineering curriculum to theoretical foundations in math and science with little or no connection with the engineering majors. As a result, a big number of students are stepping out of engineering due to a lack of design and hands on experience during the first two years. This paper reports the implementation of a redesign project in two freshman engineering courses. The purpose of this project is not only to introduce the design process and professional skills such as teamwork and communication among others, but also to serve as a means to connect the students with the engineering field from the very beginning and motivate them to stay in a technical career.

Toy Story: Improvements to a First Year Engineering Design Project Based on Student Feedback

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference , 2021

This complete research paper describes changes in students' perceptions of an open ended firstyear project after Design Thinking concepts were utilized as a framework for project development. In the spring of 2019, we began a new mini-project so that students could experience the development of a prototype through 3D printing. Students were asked to design a bath toy for preschoolers which must float, be self-righting, and fit within the dimensions of 60mm x 60mm x 60 mm. 25% of their project grade consisted of the aesthetic appeal of the toy, as ranked by a panel of experts (students at the university preschool). Students worked in teams of four to design the toys. As a result of the 2019 student feedback, Designing Thinking concepts were incorporated, toy size limits were increased to 120 mm x 120 mm x 120 mm, individual student design submissions were increased, and more opportunities were included for team members to discuss designs prototypes and collaborate.

Design Education for Second Year Mechanical Engineering Students

2007

The primary aim of teaching design for mechanical engineering students is to enable the students to achieve a fundamental level of competence in design. This involves creating appropriate learning environment for the students to develop concepts, creativity and critical thinking skills. It is also necessary for the students to develop both individual and team based skills. This paper looks at the student responses based on individual and team based tasks in a second year design course. The student surveys indicate very strong support for team based projects, with a high proportion of students agreeing that they gained many learning benefits as a result: importance of simple design, practical experience of design, and importance of organisation, skills in problem solving and how to work in a team. Overall, the student feedback indicates that they have to work individually to understand the concepts and collectively on a project to achieve a high level outcome.