Title :
Introducing engineering design into the first year curriculum
Author :
Angelov, Mark A. ; Friedman, Morton B. ; Renshaw, Anthony A.
Author_Institution :
Fu Found. Sch. of Eng. & Appl. Sci., Columbia Univ., New York, NY, USA
Abstract :
This paper describes the introduction of engineering design into a freshman level course using projects in toy design. Toy design was chosen because the course must motivate and educate students with limited technical backgrounds and diverse interests. Real-world, hands-on toy design projects aim at simulating a professional design environment. To familiarize students with concept generation and evaluation, on-line peer evaluations were conducted several times throughout the semester, which also encouraged students to share ideas and improve their own design concepts. To further interest students, the course was developed as a paperless studio, with everything from lecture notes to projects and evaluations performed and accessible on-line. This approach is highly portable, cost-effective, and emphasizes written communication and presentation skills. Overall, the course was a success in a number of ways: (a) since its introduction as a toy design course, it has attracted enrollment from many students with nontechnical majors who otherwise would be unable to participate in traditional engineering design courses; (b) student participation improved significantly as a result of peer evaluations; and (c) professional toy designers who reviewed student work were impressed with the quality of student projects. Further improvements are underway to randomize the peer evaluation process to reduce possible student bias, increase the number of design iterations, and improve online course material.
Keywords :
computer aided instruction; design engineering; educational courses; engineering education; concept evaluation; concept generation; design iterations increase; engineering design; first year curriculum; freshman level course; hands-on toy design projects; lecture notes; nontechnical majors students; on-line peer evaluations; online course material improvement; paperless studio; professional design environment simulation; projects; student bias reduction; student education; student motivation; student participation; toy design projects; written communication skills; written presentation skills; Computational Intelligence Society; Design engineering; Design methodology; Home computing; Knowledge engineering; Mathematics; Performance evaluation; Washing machines;
Conference_Titel :
Frontiers in Education Conference, 1999. FIE '99. 29th Annual
Conference_Location :
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-5643-8
DOI :
10.1109/FIE.1999.839280