Teaching design and communication skills to engineering students is always a challenging and evolving process. Many design courses compromise a project in order to provide students a hands-on experience to address different aspects of design. Project selection is very important to motivate and encourage creativity in the students. It also alters the teaching efficiency significantly.Principles of Design course has been taught as a part of Engineering Science curriculum at a private Liberal Arts University since 2010. It gives engineering science students the opportunity to work on several of the steps in the engineering design process: formulation of a problem, creative approaches to solving the problem, analysis, materials selection, and economics. This course is also a Writing Unit course, where formal writing is a substantial mode of learning. Authors of this paper were co-instructors of the course and assigned different projects to the students during the first four offerings, every year improving the projects according to the observations and student feedback to better address the course's learning objectives. In spring 2013, the assigned project was the design and implementation of a Rube Goldberg machine. Based on student outcomes and course evaluations, it was decided to repeat the same concept with some technical modifications to make the Rube Goldberg machine more advanced and challenging for junior level engineering students. This paper presents the assigned Rube Goldberg projects, writing unit requirement of the course, teaching method, and an analysis of the effectiveness of the different project assignments over different offerings. Course outcomes and assessment results of the different projects are also discussed.

Prior to starting his PhD in 2004, he worked as a Design and Production Engineer for Aselsan Inc. over four years. His research interests are high pressure material science and engineering design, especially as it relate to educational environments.

This study uses electrical resistivity measurements of soils and weathered rock to perform a fast and reliable evaluation of field anisotropy. Two test sites at New Concord, Ohio were used for the study. These sites are characterized by different landform and slightly east dipping limestone and siltstone formations of Pennsylvanian age. The measured resistivity ranged from 19 Ω∙m to 100 Ω∙m, and varied with depth, landform, and season. The anisotropy was determined by a comparison of resistance values along the directions of strike and the dip. Measurements showed that the orientation of electrical anisotropy in the shallow ground may vary due to fluid connection, which is determined by the pore geometry in soil and rock, as well as by the direction of fluid movement. Results from this study indicated that a portable electrical resistivity meter is sensitive and reliable enough to be used for shallow ground fluid monitoring.

In an effort to improve oral communication skills in engineering students, Muskingum University, a traditional liberal arts institution, tested the PechaKucha presentation style. In this style, students were required to present their design and/or research projects in 6 minutes and forty seconds. The presentation included 20 slides with duration of 20 seconds each. This style was used in two different courses with different kinds of projects. Senior students presented their research project for the Electromagnetics course, and sophomore students used the style to present their design projects in Statics and Dynamics course. After the presentations, students were required to answer a questionnaire were they compared their experience using PechaKucha style with traditional Power Point presentations. Details of the assessment tool and results of the student's questionnaire are presented and explained in detail.