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This work in progress paper details the development of a multidisciplinary project-based course focusing on an assistive technology device. The project started as a joint research effort between the school of medicine's rehabilitation center and the school of engineering's makerspace in spring of 2016 to develop custom-fit, affordable orthotics for children with cerebral palsy (CP). To facilitate additional students joining the project and develop a self-sustaining research team, the project became a Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Program course in spring 2018. The course is structured as weekly team meetings with the faculty or graduate student lead and additional consultations and patient fittings coordinated with the medical team. Additional meetings with the medical team to provide medical insight for each design iteration, as well as allow the students to personally meet with and fit the brace onto the patients. This continuous collaboration allows for the engineering students and the medical team to develop common language and tools that are understandable and encourage the intrinsic motivation to work on real-world medical applications many of the students cite as inspiration for their participation.To develop the brace itself, the team uses 3D scanning to create an accurately sized brace. The brace is then 3D printed and tested with the patient. Students practice design iteration and human-centered design principles as they focus on input from each of the various stakeholders: OTs, doctors, patients, and the graduate student and faculty leads. Future work includes development and assessment of student design and soft skills workshops for this non-traditional course. The VIP program director at the university is piloting a series of workshops to build presentation, problem definition, entrepreneurship, and interviewing skills. As students participate in this course and are encouraged to attend the soft skills workshops, the goal is for them to progress as leaders within their sub-team and mentor new students.

This evaluation paper discusses the design of a new six week course in the Cooper Union Summer science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) Program for high school students. Existing courses in the program focused on a single engineering discipline (electrical, chemical, mechanical, or civil) with well-defined projects chosen by the professor. The new course focused on open-ended engineering design and multidisciplinary entrepreneurship. Most courses at the high school level utilize a clear design goal so that students can spend their time in design of a solution and construction. However, there are clear advantages to introducing open ended design to students earlier, including addressing the ABET Criteria parts e) an ability to identify, formulate, and solve engineering problems and h) the broad education necessary to understand the impact of engineering solutions in a global, economic, environmental, and societal context. It has also been shown that students' intrinsic motivations in the design of a project can inspire further engagement in engineering. The procedure for creating the course materials and methods of instruction are discussed, as well as student project results and a qualitative and quantitative assessment of the course.

All students in the first-year course, Introduction to Engineering and Design, are required to attend the makerspace orientation training, which includes a tour, safety information, and training to operate the entry level 3D printers. Attendance at this training is required before participating in any other machine training sessions for all students. The training structure for first-year students has gone through several iterations. When the makerspace first opened, faculty from the first-year program worked with the makerspace manager to require training during one of the regular lab sessions. These lab sessions are three hours long, offered once per week for each class section of 12-18 students, and three of the sections have lab concurrently. This method continued throughout Fall 2016 -Fall 2018, but several issues arose with negotiating time for the rest of the lab activities and consistent quality across all training sessions with large groups attending at once. Over the past academic year, faculty, staff, and TAs experimented with the structure of lab activities and now require this training as part of a pre-lab assignment.Based on feedback from makerspace student staff and first-year students, the size of these prelab training sessions has been limited and they are available to first-year students only. This allows students to participate with others in their cohort, and makerspace student staff also emphasize opportunities for use of the space, machines, and that technical and design workshops are available through the space. A survey has been developed and was sent out to the Fall 2019 first-year cohort to assess student confidence in their training experience, whether they have participated in any additional training or follow up events, as well as two open ended response questions. Survey data from Fall 2019 is presented and further iterations for the Spring 2020 semester discussed.