In using projects to teach engineering design, the instructor faces the question of how to structure the process to insure an effective learning environment without compromising the independence and open-ended nature of the student's experience. The instructor faces the problems of student time scallop (the tendency to increase effort exponentially as the final deadline approaches), of potential laggards in a group (students doing little work and getting credit for the group's results) and of students learning appropriate work documentation habits.All of these problems are project management issues and project management tools can be used to solve them. This includes both the instructor's and the student's use of project management tools. In our process, students use three key techniques to address these issues: 1. a milestone schedule, 2. regular project review meetings and memos and 3. design memos which document each design task as the project progresses. Greatest success results when students utilize all three of these tasks.Both students and instructors have experienced reduced time scallop. A memo portfolio provides a measure of individual student performance. Students turn in improved projects, learn some basic project management tools, and gain experience at regular documentation of their work.

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Inexpensive and flexible process control kits were developed that allow students to design, implement, and test control systems in the classroom. Students can construct a variety of flow processes using 3 =8 in. tubing with ''instant'' connectors that allow process components to be snapped together quickly. The kits include a submersible pump, two tanks of different diameter, a static mixer, a relay switch box, and a control valve plus a variety of tubing, fittings, supports, and sensors. At the heart of the control system is the LEGO 1 NXT brick running RoboLAB software. This brick acts as an inexpensive A/D system that grabs student interest. The control system is then implemented on a PC using LabVIEW software. These hardware and software components allow students to conduct a variety of level, flow, and temperature control experiments. The software includes selection for active or passive sensors, linear calibration, and square root extraction allowing it to be easily adapted to a range of other LEGO sensors and systems. These kits have been used for both regular class experiments and for student open-ended projects. Kits were evaluated based on an anonymous student survey, instructors' observations of student activities, and student performance. Student response to the Lego kit has been positive and instructors observed a high level of student engagement when using the kits. ß

Providing first-year students with a realistic engineering design experience is both difficult and desirable. The benefits of hands-on projects to student learning and to student interest are well documented. However, it is a challenge to pose simple design problems that include both engineering analysis and engineering synthesis. The construction of a wind chime provides an excellent and yet quick engineering design problem for first-year students. This project can be completed with inexpensive and readily available tools and materials. It provides opportunities for the students to use good engineering analysis in their designs and opportunities for students to exercise creativity.Wind chimes have been proposed and used as a project or laboratory in a number of physics and mathematics courses. In this paper I review the approach and results of using a wind chime design in a first-year "Introduction to Engineering Design" course. In a portion of this course students are asked to design, construct and test a wind chime. They are provided with an equation to predict the frequency of their chimes that is based on a solution to the fourth-order wave equation. Students select their desired chime notes and use the equation to design their chimes. Using this equation requires simple calculation, care with units and the use of physical property data. They can vary the material, shape and size of their chimes.

Students often find introductory programming a difficult new world. To help motivate students there are many examples of courses using robotics or graphics to provide a more concrete result for programming exercises. MATLAB's ability to output a time series to the sound card of a PC provides an opportunity for problems that create sounds and music instead of numbers. This approach requires little or no equipment to implement. Project challenges involving the creation and analysis of sound were developed to illustrate engineering and programming concepts in an introductory Engineering Computer Tools Course. Easily implemented in MATLAB by first-year students, these challenges include structured programming, graphing, file manipulation, and simple analysis of sound waves. Problems where developed that illustrate almost all aspects of the course from a script that plays a very simple tune through a general song player that reads a data file containing the note names, durations, and amplitudes. This player requires the use of different data types, loops, conditionals, and sub-functions. In addition to developing students understanding of computer manipulations they are introduced to a range of important engineering topics including: waves, sampling, digital representation of analog phenomenon, sound, signal processing, analog/digital conversion, and bit resolution. These projects have added an interesting and memorable variation into the course. The students have found these projects challenging and it has been important to develop aids for them working with sound. Particularly important is providing materials to help students who have little or no musical training. ß