Design Of A Cad Integrated Physical Model Rotator

Abstract

Increasing the number of engineers is crucial to keep pace with the current demands for a high tech workforce. There are two critical concerns related to the shortage of engineers, retention of students in engineering disciplines and attraction of students into engineering fields. While not the only factor that influences retention and recruitment issues (others include peer support and mentoring), poor spatial ability skills may play a significant role. For example, the ability to correctly visualize three dimensional objects when they are represented in two dimensions, such as in Computer-Aided Design (CAD) software or in a detailed part drawing, is essential for engineers. Not surprisingly, due to self selection, engineering students typically score higher on spatial ability tests than their non-engineering counterparts. Research has shown that the spatial ability of engineering students will improve during a semester long CAD based design course and also that students prefer working with actual physical objects when developing these skills during a drafting course. However, whether the integration of an actual physical model with the CAD software can generate even greater improvement in spatial ability in both engineering and non-engineering students has not been investigated. In this paper, a CAD integrated Physical Model Rotator is proposed and details are provided with respect to its design and implementation. Future experiments are also discussed which will investigate the effectiveness of this educational tool to improve the spatial ability skills of a diverse population.