Solutions of the 21st Century – Teaching Computer-Aided Conceptual Design

Abstract

AbstractIn this paper the authors share some experience from the seven years of offering Computer-Aided Design tutorials to selected top high school students in the scope of the UConn Mentor Connection program at the University of Connecticut. UConn Mentor Connection is a three-week, residential, summer enrichment program for young people entering the last two years of high school. The program has been designed to provide rising high school juniors and seniors with opportunities to participate in cutting-edge research investigations and creative projects under the supervision of university mentors. This paper describes “Design Site” activities. In the first part of these activities students have learned the method of solving conflicting problems with BTIPS (Brief Theory of Inventing Problem Solving). The method is used with IM (Invention MachineTM) and TO (TechOptimazerTM) software packages. Using these two packages the students have to solve three problems and learn Computer-Aided Report Generation. In t...