Work in progress — Interdisciplinary international preprofessional service within the first-year engineering curriculum

Abstract

The first-year engineering curriculum of Ohio Northern University culminates in a capstone design experience where students design a device to help alleviate some effects of poverty. Student teams research an assigned population to find a suitable device that could improve the lives of those living in poverty, develop a proposal, work through a complete design process and build and demonstrate a prototype. While student groups have been very proud of their excellent designs and assessment results show the experience is valuable, the devices have yet to make it past the demonstration phase. At the same time, Ohio Northern University established a program involving pharmacy, nursing and preprofessional students who travel to the Dominican Republic on medical mission trips. One engineering faculty member attended an informational meeting of a newly established student organization called “Northern Without Borders” and then accompanied the group on a trip to investigate potential projects and opportunities to implement first-year capstone designs. An international program for first-year engineering students was born: “Freshmen Without Borders”. This paper describes the creation of an international engineering service opportunity specifically for first-year engineering students, tied to the first-year engineering curriculum. This paper will describe the first year capstone project and the changes made to integrate specific device(s) which will not only be prototyped, but implemented in an impoverished population. The integration of the mission trip into the first-year engineering curriculum, including students who did and did not participate in the group, especially in consideration of ABET engineering accreditation criteria, will be discussed. Important details of teaming with an existing international service program will be demonstrated, including integrating engineering projects and engineering student teams into existing programs. Building the program, promoting it within the engineering student body and faculty, and assessing student interest will be included. While many schools have existing “without borders” programs available for their engineering students, this paper will be of particular interest to faculty members who are ready to explore the implementation of an international, interdisciplinary service component into their curriculum.