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BackgroundThe rapidly evolving discipline of biological and biomedical engineering requires adaptive instructional approaches that teach students to target and solve multi-pronged and ill-structured problems at the cutting edge of scientific research. Here we present a modular approach to designing a lab-based course in the emerging field of biofabrication and biological design, leading to a final capstone design project that requires students to formulate and test a hypothesis using the scientific method.ResultsStudents were assessed on a range of metrics designed to evaluate the format of the course, the efficacy of the format for teaching new topics and concepts, and the depth of the contribution this course made to students training for biological engineering careers. The evaluation showed that the problem-based format of the course was well suited to teaching students how to use the scientific method to investigate and uncover the fundamental biological design rules that govern the field of biofabrication.ConclusionsWe show that this approach is an efficient and effective method of translating emergent scientific principles from the lab bench to the classroom and training the next generation of biological and biomedical engineers for careers as researchers and industry practicians.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13036-016-0032-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

This paper presents an effort to revitalize a large introductory engineering course for incoming freshman students that teaches them analytical design through a project-based curriculum. This course was completely transformed from a seminar-based to a project-based course that integrates hands-on experimentation with analytical work. The project is centered on a reconfigurable trebuchet kit that student groups assemble and work to identify design decisions that will maximize projectile launch distance. Challenges include streamlining the project experience for the large enrollment (up to 148 students) with limited contact hours, and helping students fuse hands-on experiences with quantitative engineering analysis. A mixed-methods approach supported the claim that the curriculum improved the students' engineering judgment and demonstrated to students the value of engineering analysis and mathematical models in practical engineering design. A rigorous statistical analysis of student trebuchet launch performance at different course stages is included. A qualitative assessment of student learning is derived through students' reflection of their course experience. Comprehensive results comparing students' design iterations versus algorithmic design optimization iterations provide important insights into student design intuition, paving the way for hybrid design education models that teach students how to combine human design intuition with quantitative design tools to design superior systems.

This article presents the development, deployment, and assessment of a hands-on curriculum module for a senior-level course in component design at the Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In this course students learn how to design engineering systems using gears, bearings, springs, steel structures, and other components. The course has traditionally included a semester group project where students apply their component design knowledge to a realistic design application, helping to further solidify and integrate their design knowledge. In recent years the project has centered on the design of a trailing arm automotive suspension system with components that interact in complicated ways. Students are expected to follow a rigorous engineering design process and support their design decisions with thorough engineering analysis. Until recently this project was limited to virtual analyses and design solutions; the connection between these design solutions and physical realization was an obvious gap in the project experience. This project was revised to incorporate a targeted hands-on curriculum module, which was introduced in fall 2014. Objectives of this module include helping students gain experience with the ‘media’ of engineering design, and to help students connect analytical and simulation-based studies with the corresponding physical system. The implemented module is a two-part activity in which students design a suspension system using model-based design techniques (in Matlab), followed by physical testing and further analysis using a specially built physically reconfigurable suspension testbed. This testbed allows students to test unique designs rapidly, observe real-time dynamic system performance, and to analyze the difference between simulated and physical test results. Through this activity we gauge students’ attitudes towards traditional theoretical and paper-based design activities versus the hands-on module. We also work to answer the question: “to what extent does a project-based curriculum module influence student experiences and conceptual understanding of engineering design?” through systematic student surveys designed around this new hands-on curriculum module.

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