DOI

10.5703/1288284316894

Keywords

Senior design, Design experience, Ethics in design

Abstract

This poster advances a new framework for the senior design course in order to deepen engineering design experience for engineering students. The proposed framework for the new senior design course while retains the traditional topics such as problem identification, conceptual design and analysis, prototyping and the preparation of a work schedule required to carry out the project, it fosters an early in the cycle start, typically after week 6, towards the design conceptualization and prototyping in the first academic semester. This is in stark contrast with traditional practices where the design conceptualization and prototyping largely takes place in the second academic semester for a two- semester long typical senior design course. In addition, the new framework will involve the implementation of a variety of design topics including: design and/or programming of a device, mechanical system, electrical system, process, or algorithm. It will also focus on aspects of the overall engineering design process including: working on teams, project planning and scheduling (e.g., timelines), technical report writing, oral presentations, ethics in design, safety, liability, impact of economic constraints, environmental considerations, manufacturing and marketing. Moreover, the proposed framework requires that each project will be designed, developed, and constructed by a student team, where each student team selects a project that is either a facultysponsored project or an industry-sponsored project. Students will also be able to propose their own team project. However, student-proposed projects will need to be approved by the lead course instructor before they are allowed to be undertaken. Student teams, consisting of at most three students, will be created from the students enrolled in the class. Students will be allowed to select teammates to ensure balance among capabilities in order to create a team that is multidisciplinary in nature for successfully completion of the project. The framework calls for student team to not only propose an optimal design solution for their client with appropriate justification and analysis, they also need to disclose alternative designs (a minimum of three) with a feasibility study on each. Students teams also need to create design plans on paper, with extensive modeling and/or computer analysis. Upon implementation of the proposed framework, student teams will have: (a) Created mechanisms, hardware, or software involving (i.e., designing and fabricating) a mechanical device or system, along with an electronics and software system; (b) Used Autodesk Inventor or SolidWorks (i.e., CAD), finite element analysis (FEA), computational fluid dynamics, or numerical modeling to design, analyze, and/or troubleshoot a mechanical and/or mechatronic device or system; (c) Created and designed a user interface for any type of signal or display and incorporate the use of appropriate process to change signal information, possibly using a software for client interface; (d) Programmed and used an embedded microcontroller system as appropriate; and (e) Implemented safety and environmental and marketing considerations in the design process.

ASEE-IL-IN-32x40.pdf (246 kB)
Poster

Share

COinS
 

(POSTER) Deepening Engineering Design Experience: A Novel Approach to Senior Design

This poster advances a new framework for the senior design course in order to deepen engineering design experience for engineering students. The proposed framework for the new senior design course while retains the traditional topics such as problem identification, conceptual design and analysis, prototyping and the preparation of a work schedule required to carry out the project, it fosters an early in the cycle start, typically after week 6, towards the design conceptualization and prototyping in the first academic semester. This is in stark contrast with traditional practices where the design conceptualization and prototyping largely takes place in the second academic semester for a two- semester long typical senior design course. In addition, the new framework will involve the implementation of a variety of design topics including: design and/or programming of a device, mechanical system, electrical system, process, or algorithm. It will also focus on aspects of the overall engineering design process including: working on teams, project planning and scheduling (e.g., timelines), technical report writing, oral presentations, ethics in design, safety, liability, impact of economic constraints, environmental considerations, manufacturing and marketing. Moreover, the proposed framework requires that each project will be designed, developed, and constructed by a student team, where each student team selects a project that is either a facultysponsored project or an industry-sponsored project. Students will also be able to propose their own team project. However, student-proposed projects will need to be approved by the lead course instructor before they are allowed to be undertaken. Student teams, consisting of at most three students, will be created from the students enrolled in the class. Students will be allowed to select teammates to ensure balance among capabilities in order to create a team that is multidisciplinary in nature for successfully completion of the project. The framework calls for student team to not only propose an optimal design solution for their client with appropriate justification and analysis, they also need to disclose alternative designs (a minimum of three) with a feasibility study on each. Students teams also need to create design plans on paper, with extensive modeling and/or computer analysis. Upon implementation of the proposed framework, student teams will have: (a) Created mechanisms, hardware, or software involving (i.e., designing and fabricating) a mechanical device or system, along with an electronics and software system; (b) Used Autodesk Inventor or SolidWorks (i.e., CAD), finite element analysis (FEA), computational fluid dynamics, or numerical modeling to design, analyze, and/or troubleshoot a mechanical and/or mechatronic device or system; (c) Created and designed a user interface for any type of signal or display and incorporate the use of appropriate process to change signal information, possibly using a software for client interface; (d) Programmed and used an embedded microcontroller system as appropriate; and (e) Implemented safety and environmental and marketing considerations in the design process.