A Freshman Engineering Design Course

Abstract

At the University of Maryland at College Park, a new freshman engineering design course introduces design through a project approach. This approach has three phases: design, manufacturing and assembly. First, students learn basic engineering concepts by designing a simple product. Next, they manufacture and/or procure the products components. Finally, they assemble the components and test the finished product. Since drawings for this product are part of the project, students must also learn entry-level computer graphics. Reaction to teaching design so early in the engineering curriculum has been extremely favorable. Students are highly motivated by the design approach and, as a result, learn engineering fundamentals, develop critical thinking skills, learn to cooperate as team members and gain practical handson experience.

Evolution of the Design Engineering Mentorship Program

“…Success depends on team dynamics along with learning how to make "good choices" in an ambiguous design process. This is where the role of a coach is pivotal in facilitating students through the challenges of a PBL environment allowing for the best probability of success [8]. As discussed above, coaching is an important competency our graduate student population lacks.…”

“…Making good decisions involves domain knowledge and experience which many students do not possess. The role of the coach is to facilitate self-directed learning as opposed to the standard academic method of dispelling factual truths as in teacher-directed learning [8]. The coach helps students make those decisions but never forces a decision onto them.…”

A Multimedia Application for Teaching Design for Manufacturing

“…Many academic programs have recently developed new curriculums that attempt to integrate more manufacturing into their engineering classes realizing that manufacturing and design are highly interdependent and that they should be integrated [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Several of these programs have received financial support from the Technology Reinvestment Project (TRP) which was initiated in 1992 to develop education and training programs that enhance U.S. manufacturing skills.…”

Training Teaching Assistants as Coaches

“…All courses depend heavily upon graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) who are increasingly called upon to coach undergraduate students as they progress through an open-ended decision making process. Success in facilitating students through these exercises depends in large part on a GTA's ability to effectively coach student teams, namely, encourage positive group dynamics, individual and team innovation, and problem solving [2].…”