Use of ocean related challenges in engineering education

To educate undergraduate and graduate students in the fundamentals of robotics focused engineering science, it is necessary to provide hands-on laboratory experiences that illuminate the theories and show their practical applications. Through a program of courses and real world applications it is possible to extend a students knowledge and expertise in areas of relevance and get students on the cutting edge of technology. In addition, the use of multiple team projects enables students to work cooperatively, creatively and to apply theory to solutions for challenging ocean problems. Also, while building the students skills, we can use these programs to help deepen their understanding of the social and environmental impacts their solutions pose. To demonstrate their knowledge and depth of understanding in engineering practice, for many students we use complex ocean platforms and problems. Depending on the scale we sometimes break these into a series of stand-alone sub-systems. Each student has to complete a capstone project and compete for awards in their specific discipline as well as an overall first place within the school of engineering. The selection process is accomplished using industrial and academic engineers as judges with a fixed set of criteria and judging rules. At a minimum to graduate each student must demonstrate design and development of functional components, systems, tests, or services that meet the agreed on specifications in the context of economic, environmental, and societal requirements assigned by the student advisor. The skills that are judged include working in a team environment, contribution of knowledge and expertise, and a demonstration of leadership in their specific field of engineering on a multi-disciplinary team. They must also communicate effectively with colleagues, customers, subordinates, and managers, demonstrate in presentations and documentation for the capstone project. The competition is expressly designed to look at how well students apply concepts of math, science, and engineering. Also, to see how effective their designs, experiments conducted, and data analysis apply to the capstone project goals. This paper uses several different examples, from both undergraduate and graduate students to demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach to engineering education.