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Sustainability as a multidisciplinary concept has been introduced and developed for over twenty years, and its principles have been well recognized by engineering professionals, especially in environmental-related fields. However, it remains challenging for most engineering educators to engage students with such a concept in their traditional technical courses. It is even more challenging to prepare students for integrating the sustainability principles into their engineering design process since it requires knowledge, training and practice. In our engineering program, senior engineering students are required to prepare their senior design proposals in a fall semester and complete the project in the following spring semester. The topics of senior design projects are chosen by students, not professors. Since last year, each team is required to evaluate the project from a sustainability point of view in the final report. Accordingly, a new approach is proposed in this paper to enhance students' understanding of sustainable engineering design principles and to help them synthesize sustainability concepts already introduced in previous courses. This new process starts right after the students select the project topic and form in teams. A six-factor table proposed by Pawley et al. is introduced to the students. This framework is used to evaluate an engineering project at the early stage on six factors, i.e. systems, time, energy, modeling, people and scale. Each team uses the framework as an anchor to identify the sustainability related opportunities and potential issues with the topic the team selects. Then an integrated sustainable engineering design process is adopted which includes eight more tasks in addition to the thirteen tasks required in a traditional engineering design process. Consequently, each team is required to develop a sustainable engineering design flowchart that specifically ties to the team project. For an assessment purpose, pre-and post-anonymous student surveys are developed and implemented. The results on Likert-scale and multiple choice questions are analyzed and discussed.

The Virtual Machine Design course was developed to teach basic concepts of mechanical component design to mechatronics engineering students. The laboratory section of the course is geared towards designing electromechanical devices. Students develop prototypes of their designs in order to strengthen their design and visualization skills. The prototypes also give students the opportunity for hands-on learning. 3D printers, which can convert a CAD model to a physical product, are popular among the designers and inventors. As the printers become more affordable, 3D printing is moving from being a demo technology to being a hands on production device. These days, engineering students can successfully build physical models of their designs with low-cost 3D printers. In this paper, the applicability of 3D rapid prototyping in a virtual machine design course is investigated, and impact of this technology on student learning is also reported.The design projects were assigned to the selectively random group of students. Mechanical devices of different energy generation technologies involving both stationary and dynamic parts were designed and prototyped for a comparative study. Each team selected one of the following energy generation technologies: hydro, wind, solar, or tidal. Students identified the components of their design and built a CAD Model of those components. Based on the loading type and the nature of the structure, they were asked to analyze force and stress; and to determine the size of their structure. Students were required to design no more than ten dissimilar components and to consider industry standards, safety, and the operating environment in addition to the functional requirements of the design. Although both 3D printing and traditional manufacturing options were available, most of the students have chosen 3D printing using ABS plastics to create their components. Once the components were built and assembled the electrical systems was installed to a complete working models for electricity generation. Students built the prototypes based on their own calculation and analysis.The students were graded using a rubric that included expected design content and steps to be followed. The design task was divided into analytical work, simulation, and prototyping. Evidence of learning included a technical report, a working physical model, and a presentation. The effectiveness of this work was assessed by using a Likert scale survey at the end of the study period.Integration of 3D printing helped to improve the rigor of the course by adding prototyping capability into existing analytical and simulation based instruction. As a part of the prototyping process, students were able to acquire skills in 3D printing, which will be useful to them in future coursework, including their senior capstone project, and in professional endeavors. This integration enabled the instructor to teach mechanical design in a single course starting from basics of stress analysis to prototyping.

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Direct digital manufacturing (DDM) is a newer trend in advanced manufacturing. A CAD model could be converted into a physical product seamlessly with minimal human intervention. Additive manufacturing (AM) is a major constituent of DDM. Solid Modeling, G-code and 3D printing are the major steps in AM. AM technology that nests design and manufacturing tasks together offers many benefits but also suffers some constraints. Product design principles of AM are evolving; traditional design approach of "design for cost" and "design for manufacturing" might be relevant to AM, but not sufficient enough to live up to the new capabilities of AM.AM education is essential to support its evolution and widespread adoption. Technological aspect of 3D printing is incorporated in a DDM course offered in the Mechanical Engineering Technology Program. This new course enables students to learn the theoretical aspects as well as help them understand the technological impact of DDM to the manufacturing industry. This course prepares them to deal with the newer developments and face upcoming challenges whether they will be pursuing engineering careers of product designer, 3D printing professionals. In this course students gain hands on experience in AM processes, product designing, 3D printing, and were able to analyze the technology by using product life cycle approach.This newly developed course is successful in attracting a significant number of students. The course helps us to serve the advanced manufacturing community by preparing engineers, who are better equipped with the latest knowledge and skills. The outcome of this paper might be of relevance to anyone planning to offer similar courses in their institutions. The authors believe that this course will be a foundational one for developing future courses relevant to the field of DDM.