Designing Across The Curriculum: Linking Sophomores To Mechanical Engineering

The sophomore year in traditional engineering programs rarely includes formal course work in engineering design. Considering the broader philosophy of Design Across the Curriculum (DAC), the sophomore year, however, can be used to reinforce meaningful design activities experienced as a freshman, and to prepare students for upper level design course work and eventual practice. In preparing its curriculum, as a newly chartered program in Idaho, the Mechanical Engineering faculty at Boise State University has incorporated a three credit hour course entitled Mechanical Engineering Design in the sophomore year. Blending considerations of design theory, design methods, design automation, materials & manufacturing, the faculty team has prepared and has executed the 16 week curriculum during the 1997 spring semester. This paper describes course details including: objectives, topics covered, team teaching approach, weekly class format, prerequisites, activities pursued, student grading, infrastructure, resources, faculty team planning, outcomes assessment techniques and results. 1.0 Design Across the Curriculum BSU’s ME program was recently chartered by the state of Idaho (1995). During the Spring of 1996 the faculty designed the 131 semester credit hour, four year curriculum. A variety of considerations included the proportion of courses in mathematics, sciences, humanities, arts, and social sciences. The existing and future demand for engineers in Boise, Southwest Idaho, and the Northwest region was deliberated as well as the quality of education to be delivered. While ABET specifies minimum criteria for four year engineering programs, it is the desire of Mechanical Engineering faculty to meet and exceed these requirements. Namely, to develop & deliver appropriate, high quality and comprehensive course work and at the same time, exceed the minimum requirements for ABET accreditation. Design, being central to the practice of engineering, was given significant consideration, especially how to integrate design across the curriculum (DAC). The essence of DAC is somewhat captured in the following phrase: “…Design cannot be taught in one course; it is an experience that must grow with the student’s development.” ( 1996/97 Criteria for Accrediting Programs in Engineering in the United States , section IV.C.3.d.(3)(d), ABET, Inc.) A draft policy on Design Across the Curriculum was prepared and distributed to the faculty in August 1996. A revised draft, specific to the ME program, is currently under review for P ge 393.1 adoption. In it, the underpinning design philosophy encourages design throughout the ME curriculum and involves an appropriate breadth & depth of design knowledge, methods, and skills, to be taught in most of the required ME courses as presented in Table 1. To help us develop course content, a list of expected design skills for graduating ME students was prepared and is presented in Table 2, Mechanical Engineering Design Skills. It is anticipated that we will be able to help students learn these skills by endeavoring to incorporate appropriate design activities, homework, projects, and other learning modules in each course. By using the progressive breadth & depth approach, we are, in effect, using just-in-time learning, wherein each student is introduced to the right topic or tool at the right time, that “grow(s) with the student’s development” (ibid). Design Courses in Mechanical Engineering Most, if not all, ME courses will ultimately incorporate appropriate design aspects. Some courses, however, have significant design content, and are listed in Table 3. The freshman course, entitled Engineering Fundamentals, Analysis & Design (EN180), includes two-hour labs and one lecture hour each week. One lab is for computer applications & problem solving and the other for design activities. The course culminates with a four week design contest, in which groups design and build a small remotely controlled machine to compete against other teams. The junior courses relate to component design. The Senior course, entitled Thermal & Fluid Systems Design MX424) deals with thermal component design & process design. The Senior Design Project is the capstone design experience typically implemented in small teams with local industrial sponsors. The sophomore Mechanical Engineering Design (MX280), is somewhat new, however, when compared to traditional Mechanical Engineering curricula. Note that it fits snugly between the Freshman & Junior years, developing design topics, fully within the skill mix of entering students. Professors Bunnell, Eggert & Tennyson met weekly during the fall of 1996 to design the details of the course namely we prepared detailed learning objectives, lecture topics, laboratory activities, homework, projects, computer software, textbooks and grading schemes, to arrive at our first cut at a syllabus for Spring 1997. These and other details of the course are presented in the next sections. 2.0 Designing the Course: 2.1 Design Specifications for MX280 Design can be defined as a decision making process , to determine the shape, configuration, size, types of materials and manufacturing processes used for typical machine elements and assemblies. By equipping sophomore engineering students with an appropriate mix of design skills and tools, they should be able to make better decisions in their engineering practice as well as in their follow-on courses required in the undergraduate degree. We, therefore, set out to interweave three main threads into MX280: 1.)design methodology, P ge 393.2 2.)design automation, and 3.)materials & manufacturing processes. We developed related specific and detailed objectives for each as shown in Table 4. Specific Objectives for MX280 Mechanical Engineering Design. These became our design specifications or “functional requirements”, that the course would fulfill. As Steve Tennyson puts it, “after completing the course, the student should, at least, have a general idea what mechanical engineering design is about.” Entering student skill mix can be assessed, somewhat, by examining the prerequisite courses which are: EN180 Engineering Fundamentals, Analysis & Design; EN108 Engineering Graphics; Math 205 Calculus & Analytical Geometry (calc II); and PH211/212 Physics I. Note that although desirable, Materials Science & engineering Statics are not prerequisites. 2.2 Course Concepts, Configurations, & Parameters Many, many alternative concepts, configurations and parameters were deliberated during the planning stage. We ultimately decided upon the following: Configuration: The following time & day configuration was selected to approximate the proportion of desired lab and lecture time needed to achieve our objectives. The course bears three semester credit hours. Monday 50 min lecture, Wednesday 2 hr 50 min lab, and Friday 50 min lecture. Texts: The backbone, or fundamental resource material, of any course is its textbook. We selected Engineering Design and Design for Manufacturing, by Dixon and Poli as our design methods text and AutoCAD Release 13 for Windows, by Shawn Lockart, as our CAD reference. While Dixon’s book is conventionally used at the Junior year or above, chapters can be judiciously selected. We assigned chapters 1-10, 13, 14, 17, 18, 22 & 23, out of 24 total, leaving the specialized chapters on design for manufacturing for later courses. Lecture Topics: The lecture topics dovetailed with the assigned reading. Dixon’s book comprehensively discusses contemporary design theory & methodology using well illustrated figures and many examples. In-class, collaborative learning group exercises and standard lectures were used in the 50 minute class periods covering the following topics