Mechanical Engineering Design Course Research Articles

Enhancing the Outcome of Mechanical Engineering Design Course with the SCAMPER Methodology Framework

Methodology frameworks in engineering education are structured approaches or models used to design, implement, and evaluate educational practices in engineering disciplines. These frameworks provide a systematic way to organize and optimize the teaching and learning process, ensuring that engineering students receive a comprehensive and effective education. SCAMPER is a creative thinking technique used to generate new ideas and approaches for problem-solving or project development. Each letter in SCAMPER stands for a different prompt to enhance the process targeted. These prompts stand for the substitute, combine, adapt, modify, put to another use, eliminate, and reverse. Evolving SCAMPER as a methodology framework for Mechanical Engineering education involves adapting its principles and prompts to cater specifically to the needs and challenges of engineering students. This study presents the use of SCAMPER methodology as an educational framework for mechanical engineering and application to the Mechanical Engineering Design course given for senior year students with proposed examples based on experiences collected from previous classes thought.

Using transformative learning theory to explore student points of view in a second-year mechanical engineering design course: A collaborative action research approach

ABSTRACT The goal of this work was to explore ways, within an existing engineering curriculum, to address the culture of disengagement by challenging the dominant engineering mindset. We conducted Collaborative Action Research to explore the implementation of Transformative Learning pedagogies in a Human-Centered Design context to understand how students make meaning of engineering contexts that involve unique sociotechnical considerations. Findings suggest that introducing students to such contexts allows them to use other points of view which can challenge the dominant engineering mindset and promote openness to the social nature of engineering, resulting in a more informed understanding of the nature of engineering overall. Furthermore, adopting Transformative Learning Theory as a framework for understanding and interpreting how the points of view students utilize can address the culture of disengagement by challenging the dominant engineering mindset. A framework connecting students’ points of view to their understanding of the nature of engineering is provided.

Motorcycle Child Seat for Child with Special needs: Its Design Process and Problem-based Learning

Most of child safety seats for motorcycle available in Indonesian market do not provide enough safety for the children passenger, especially for special needs child. This makes a special needs child cannot ride a motorcycle and prefer to use an automobile for their transportation means. However, it becomes a problem for a low-income family that can only afford a motorcycle. To address this problem, the present work aims to i) design a portable child safety seat for those with special needs that can be placed at the back side of the motorcycle, ii) provide safety feeling to the child by making a capsule-like shape for overall protection, iii) demonstrate an education case-study for mechanical design course. Discussion on how to determine the specification based on problem definition as well as the explanation on the design process of seat’s frame and body are provided. This work can be also used a reference for problem-based learning in mechanical engineering design course.

Between Worlds: Exploring the Links Between the Tangible and Intangible Costs of Prototypes

Abstract Prototyping is an important part of the design process, but researchers currently have a limited understanding of how the resources invested in a prototype or designer teams’ intent for a prototype influence decision-making and perceptions of a prototype’s value. Prior work has shown that significant investment of time or money in design tasks can lead to design fixation, but little work has explored how these factors might impact design teams’ perceived value of prototypes with respect to the design process. Likewise, it is unclear how resource allocation and prototype intention effects the evolution of design team knowledge and subsequent design actions. To explore these relationships, an in situ study of prototyping tendencies was performed across two mechanical engineering design courses. Results suggest that effective design teams leveraged prototypes to uncover new design knowledge and limit uncertainty early in the design process. Importantly, this study did not find any significant relationships between the cost of a prototype in terms of money and time, and the perceived value of that prototype. Nor were any significant relationships found between costs and final design outcomes. Findings suggest that the true cost and value of a prototype with respect to design outcomes are challenging to explicitly quantify.

ONLINE INTERACTION TOOLS: IMPACTS ON STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION AND LEARNING

Shyness, low self-esteem, and fear of peer/instructor’s judgment are among the common factors hindering students’ participation (e.g., asking/answering questions) in classrooms. In this regard, anonymous response systems such as iClickers have been used to improve students’ engagement in classroom activities. Although iClickers can enhance students’ participation, they promote one-way interactions only (i.e., students answering questions). Online interaction platforms are alternatives to traditional clickers that provide more flexibility for students and allow them to answer/ask questions in real-time. In this study, we investigated the use of an online tool that allows for real-time presentation of the lecture’s slides integrated with an audience interaction platform for anonymous classroom participation. The findings of our study provide evidence regarding the positive impacts of using this tool (e.g., improved classroom participation through asking questions and voting in polls) in an undergraduate Mechanical Engineering Design course. We discuss the potential improvements that can be made to the implementation of this approach in future courses to enhance students engagement when using this interactive tool.

Teaching Design Freedom: Understanding the Effects of Variations in Design for Additive Manufacturing Education on Students’ Creativity

Abstract Additive manufacturing (AM) processes offer unique capabilities (i.e., opportunities) yet inherent limitations (i.e., restrictions) due to the layer-by-layer fabrication of parts. Despite the newfound design freedom and increased use of AM, limited research has investigated how knowledge of the AM processes affects the creativity of students’ ideas after being exposed to AM. This study investigates this gap through an experimental study with 343 participants recruited from a junior-level mechanical engineering design course. The participants were exposed to three variations in design for additive manufacturing (DfAM) education: (1) no DfAM, (2) restrictive DfAM, and (3) opportunistic and restrictive (dual) DfAM education. The effects of these three interventions were measured through differences in (1) participants’ self-reported use of DfAM in a design challenge and (2) expert assessment of the creativity of the outcomes from the said design challenge. The results of the study indicated that variations in DfAM content did not result in differences in the participants’ self-reported use of either opportunistic or restrictive DfAM, with all three groups reporting similar levels of emphasis. Further, participants from all three groups reported higher use of restrictive DfAM techniques, compared with opportunistic DfAM. Moreover, while variations in the content had no effect on the creativity (uniqueness and usefulness) of the participants’ design outcomes, teaching both opportunistic and restrictive DfAM did result in the generation of designs with greater AM technical goodness—a novel and significant finding in our study. The results of this study highlight the need for DfAM educational interventions that encourage students to not only learn about but also integrate both opportunistic and restrictive concepts effectively into their creative design process. This would result in the generation of innovative products that leverage the design freedom enabled by AM, yet addressing the limitations inherent in the process.

Project-based learning in an engineering-design course – developing mechanical- engineering graduates for the world of work

This paper explores the use of project-based learning as an effective pedagogy to integrate institutional curriculum in a mechanical engineering design course and the skills demands for the world of work. Current engineering education institutions produce engineers who are great scientists – knowledgeable in engineering science, mathematics and analytical techniques, and research, but are nonetheless mediocre in the design of components, processes, or systems. In this paper we argue that the engineering education design curriculum, through project-based learning, offers students the opportunities to experience engineering design the way it is practiced and simulated in industry. Data for the study constitutes analyses, using three categories: knowledge, skills, and values, of the students’ performance in a mechanical engineering product design course. Students were required to: Design a 21/2 axis Basic SCARA ROBOT (Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm) for a given application. A survey from graduate students working in industry shows that that project-based learning, enabled them to effectively function in an industrial atmosphere where designing products were the mainstay. In addition, a one-way ANOVA test shows that there were strong associations observed in the development of skills between: knowledge and skills (p = 0.001); and skills and values (p = 0.0008).

Developments Based on QFD and TRIZ in a Mechanical Engineering Design Course

Developments Based on QFD and TRIZ in a Mechanical Engineering Design Course

Mechanical engineering and issues on teaching mechanical engineering design in Turkey

Students with relatively low affinity and/or weak ability for science and mathematics have been presently acknowledged into Mechanical Engineering (ME) departments around the world. This has resulted in apparent lowering of fully competent graduate engineers, due to insufficient comprehension and its concomitant cognitive issues. Now, the complexity and the demand of ME education have been extremely unbalanced with recruited students. This conflict between the education process and less knowledgeable students has been adequately acknowledged, but remedies for this global issue are not yet available. This is no longer sustainable. The paper gives insight into (individual and combined) plausible reasons for fewer fully competent graduate engineers, taking the specific case study in Turkey. It proposes a generic approach, which can be extended to courses of any university/degree subject. Findings on student learning are provided using a hierarchical decomposition. A proposed remedy for this issue has been thoroughly evaluated, and accountability measures, qualitative data and a survey has been conducted for the ME design course taught in Turkey. The findings indicate that the new recruits are not fully to blame for the conflict, because there have also been other reasons for the issues within teaching. It identified multiple instances of the reasons such as unnecessary complexity of textbooks, unsolved contradictions even between the technical component design standards and etc. If these are considered by educators, this will help to reduce the perceived degree of teaching difficulty, and have a positive effect on the quality of graduates. It may even assist in attracting higher ability students into ME.

Inferential reasoning in design: Relations between material product and specialised disciplinary knowledge

This study investigated how students use knowledge in a mechanical engineering design course. The findings suggest that the structural relations that students construct between the designed artefact and the knowledge recruited are more important than just the content knowledge. Using the semantics dimension of Legitimation Code Theory, LCT (Semantics), as the analytical lens, the findings suggests that students need to be able to shift fluently up and down a range of relative abstraction and concretisation, but always rooted in the concrete. In design, when the evaluation often lies in the performance of the artefact, an increase in the technical and functional requirements of the artefact drive the requirement for a more abstract and integrated use of the knowledge recruited.

Prototypes and the politics of the artefact: visual explorations of design interactions in teaching spaces

This study investigates how design artefacts shape interactions among student designers and design reviewers to mediate design and design learning. By analysing data collected from two design courses in mechanical engineering and industrial design courses, this study draws on Winner’s concept of politics of the artefact and Gee’s discourse analysis to explore the ways in which design artefacts help structure social relationships and power dynamics between reviewers and students in design learning settings. We use this exploration to examine how student designers work with reviewers to negotiate meaning as they shift from student to collaborator. Our results indicate that functional and well-developed design artefacts allowed students to position themselves as experts of their designs; engage in collaborative, innovative discussion with design reviewers; and elicit constructive feedback from reviewers. In contrast, students who developed incomplete or inaccurate design artefacts experienced limited dialogue with reviewers and reinforced the power distance between them.

Effects of a mechanical engineering design course on students’ motivational features

Diverse learning opportunities and deep engagement are needed to support development of engineering competencies and expertise. Deep engagement evolves from productive and high-quality motivation that derives from both internal and external sources. Motivation to learn is lacking in many fields, like engineering, because it is too often assumed or ignored, rather than explicitly built into course instruction. While the lack of motivation in engineering education is clear in data-like attrition, there is little relevant research that informs the necessary changes for the field. The purpose of this study is to present a systematic approach that explicitly considers motivational elements in engineering courses. First a comprehensive set of motivational characteristics and the interrelationships for productive motivation of mechanical engineering students are identified. Students’ motivational characteristics and profiles of change over time are assessed using a multipoint predictive correlational design. This information is then used to strategically redesign motivational elements of a senior-level mechanical engineering design course. The SUCCESS framework has been used to redesign motivational features of the existing course. This paper reports results of the study, including implications for redesign of other engineering courses. Analysis of the data demonstrates the complexity of motivation in the engineering classroom, which includes addressing implicit and explicit, intrinsic and extrinsic, individual and team interaction and instruction. These elements extend not only to direct communication and interactions of instructor with students but into the full scope of the learning environment, peer-to-peer interactions, grading, (a)synchronous activities, face to face, and virtual communications. Key features of engineering students’ productive (learning and engagement-related) motivational profiles consisted of clusters of perceptual and experiential variables that were strongly correlated with motivational and learning outcomes. Tracking these factors demonstrated that they changed over time. These changes corresponded to perceptions of instructor and peer interactions, which were amenable to instructional intervention and responsive to social modeling. This study also revealed links among engineering students’ perceptions of their field of study, their own development of self-efficacy, and success expectations in both the design course and for their careers. This work revealed important distinctions between engineering students’ self-efficacy for, and engagement in, the course generally and for group tasks more specifically. These newly revealed relationships offer the opportunity to improve engineering instruction and the design of dynamic learning environments that support adaptive skill development.

THE INFLUENCE OF PERSONALITY TYPE ON TEAMWORK IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION

The influence of personality type on various factors relating to engineering education is examined. Personality type was described according to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Data from a total of sevencohorts (2007 to 2013) in a second year mechanical engineering design course have been analyzed. Decision making on team tests was examined in terms of the MBTI Introversion / Extraversion domain and peer evaluation scores received were examined across all four MBTI domains. Measured differences between students with a preference for Introversion and those with a preference for Extraversion on the level of influence on team decision making was found. A small but statistically significant correlation has also been noted between peer evaluation scores received and a student’s preference onthe MBTI Judging / Perceiving domain. This is believed to relate to possible perceptions (or misperceptions) that in delaying action or decision making a person with a preference for Perceiving is lazy or disengaged. Differences in peer evaluation scores were not observed for the other three MBTI domains. The results suggest that even with student awareness (through readings) and interventions (through workshops) possible effects of the difference in personality type persist in engineering student teams. The lack of relationship between peer evaluation scores and the remaining three MBTI domains is a favourable outcome in terms of the objectivity of the peer evaluation tools.

THE USE OF "SUPERGROUPS" IN INTRODUCTORY DESIGN COURSES AS A MOTIVATIONAL AND TEACHING TOOL

The author reviews the structure of an introductory mechanical engineering design course. Guidelines are laid out for the framing of design projects. A new scheme of project organization is described which incorporates large numbers of students in “Supergroups”

ASSESSING PEER EVALUATION: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PEER EVALUATION METHODS USED IN AN ENGINEERING DESIGN COURSE

Peer evaluation is one way to address group issues in undergraduate teams while at the same time providing feedback and assessment. Two common evaluation methods (point- and rubric-based peer evaluation) are examined and compared in terms of student perception within a University of British Columbia second year mechanical engineering design course. As part of normal course requirements, 118 students in 20 teams completed two full-time multi-week design projects with six regularly-spaced peer evaluations. Student feedback was gathered through two online surveys. Students expressed a slight preference for the rubric style evaluation, citing increased fairness and helpfulness in the feedback. Regardless of evaluation approach, student perceptions of peer evaluation were statistically unrelated to external factors including GPA, gender, and Myers-Briggs personality type. The findings suggest, at least in the student mind, that the use of peer evaluation as a design project assessment tool is fair and unbiased. Additional survey data show students see peer evaluation as a useful tool in undergraduate team design projects and that they feel more comfortable with the prospect of engaging in peer evaluation in the workplace in future as a result.

On the influence of solid modeling on design innovation in junior mechanical engineering design courses

Modern computerized tools are now regularly used across all scales of industry. In mechanical design, solid modelling not only allows virtual building of a component but also analysis and optimisation. In teaching design to undergraduates, an opportunity is now available to allow students to innovate on an unprecedented level using solid modeling. This paper discusses the interaction between two second year courses teaching introducing mechanical design and graphical communication and how providing students with these tools at the correct time can lead to innovation and high levels of student enthusiasm.

Using Research and Applied Projects to Enhance Learning in Mechanical Engineering Design Courses

Using Research and Applied Projects to Enhance Learning in Mechanical Engineering Design Courses

Of green monkeys and failed affordances: A case study of a mechanical engineering design course

This article reports on an ethnographic study of a mechanical engineering design class. The findings are based on participant observation of one student design team of three students as they designed, tested and built an engineered solution to a problem over a period of ten weeks. The paper describes the curricular efforts to provide social and material affordances both for learning and doing design, and the failure of students on the observed team to take up those affordances. It offers explanations for failure within a framework of conflicting classroom views and pedagogic issues. It discusses the implications of the observed student behavior for design education in general, and mechanical engineering design, in particular.

The Use of a Hypermedia System to Develop Confidence in Engineering Design

A novel, open-ended hypermedia exercise has been used successfully in the mechanical engineering design course at Southampton University. The exercise is implemented using the Microcosm hypermedia system and student evaluation has shown that students' confidence in their design skills increases through their use of the package.

Librarians as Teaching Team Members in a Mechanical Engineering Senior Design Course

Librarians have become a key component in the capstone mechanical engineering design course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The design process was taught using a team based appraoch. A librarian was a member of each E-team (the "E" stands for Excellence and Entrepeneuriship as defined by the Lemelson Foundation, one of the sponsors of the course), attended lectures and acted as an information agent. One particularly startling discovery was that the students were apparently overwhelmed by the data gathered and were not familiar with analytic techniques for making effective use of it. This paper gives a contextual outline of the course, illustrates the librarian's role, discusses what was learned as a result of their invovlement and presents plans for the future.