Teaching Aircraft Design:a Case Study on an Alternative Engineering Undergraduate Capstone Final Year Project

Abstract

– The effectiveness of aerospace design engineering education has received a great deal of anecdotal feedback from its stakeholders. The aerospace industry, the Canadian government, the University, and the enrolled engineering students have expressed customer needs and expectations of design engineering training. While numerous curriculum reform initiatives have been developed and implemented, their impact has not yet beenstudied quantitatively. This paper proposes to use a theoretical model on design creativity, the statistical Q methodology, and an aerospace undergraduate capstone team case study to develop a tool for the quantitative evaluation for the effectiveness of aerospace design engineering education.