Abstract
The design experience of 3rd year undergraduates in Mechanical Engineering at Ryerson University, and the assessment of student design work, was found to be disjointed and highly variable across the program. To attempt to address this, the authors are constructing courseware to help instructors of non-design engineering courses embed rich and consistent design projects into their courses. A “lightweight” Fast-Design process wasdeveloped. Course-specific design project examples of the process are being developed for five 3rd year courses using his design process. Current versions of all courseware are freely available. This paper details the nature of the courseware and how it was designed, developed, and deployed for the project. To date, one case has been deployed, two developed, and two more are under development. While results are so far only anecdotal, there is reason to believe that our approach can noticeablyimprove the design experience of students in nondesign engineering courses.
Highlights
Over the last several years, the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at Ryerson University has gradually adjusted its undergraduate Mechanical Engineering (ME) curriculum to accommodate changes to CEAB regulations on design
We realized the 3rd year design projects we were targeting were smaller-scaled and more field-specific than the ones to which we were accustomed in our own semester-long design courses, which takes a more holistic view of the engineering design task
The instructor remained interested in participating in the project and understood its potential benefits to his students. He shared with us sample design projects and student reports from previous years; these would inform our development of the blender example problem statement
Summary
Several 3rd year courses include substantive topically specific design projects in non-design engineering courses (e.g., Machine Design[1], Vibrations, Mechanics of Machines, Control Systems, etc.). Anything needed to be done to assist instructors using design projects in those courses. The authors, who both teach “100% design” courses, investigated the matter and discovered what could be perceived to be shortcomings in how those 3rd year design projects were being delivered: instructors with little design background or training were uncomfortable teaching design; design experiences and approaches were heterogeneous; and instructor expectations and assessments of student work were extremely variable. To provide a more consistent design experience, the authors have undertaken, with the approval of our Department and support from the faculty, a pilot project to develop courseware for design projects in non-design engineering courses
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