Exploring Innovative Teaching of Engineering Design Course for Industrial Design Students

Teachers have driven to explore new ways to optimize the results they dedicate to their students. The attempt toward developing an innovative teaching was conducted first year at the industrial design department of Chang Gung University, Taiwan. To explore integrated teaching methods for the course of engineering design, students were asked to design, build and test automata (one kind of mechanical toy) through the engineering design process. This paper investigates the course that integrates the study of design methods, engineering design process, subject matter knowledge, and teamwork through the design and development of automata using mechanisms to create movements. Our preliminary observation on the development of such course shows its potential to teach students that have no prior exposure to the vocabulary of engineering and mechanisms with less formal engineering background.