Implementing Human-Centered Design into an Engineering Service Course: Development and Evaluation

Michael Foster; Gary E. Spivey

Download Paper | Permalink

Conference: 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Tampa, Florida
Publication Date: June 15, 2019
Start Date: June 15, 2019
End Date: June 19, 2019
Conference Session: Perspectives on Service Learning: Challenges, Successes, and Opportunities
Tagged Division: Community Engagement Division
Page Count: 15
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--32944
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/32944
Download Count: 483

Paper Authors

biography

Michael Foster George Fox University

visit author page

Michael Foster received a B.S. in engineering from Messiah College and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from Drexel University. He is currently Professor and Chair, Dept. of Mechanical and Civil Engineering at George Fox University. His research interests include engineering education and thermal/ﬂuid science applications.

visit author page

biography

Gary E. Spivey George Fox University

visit author page

Gary Spivey received his B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Arizona in 1988 and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from University of Maryland, College Park, in 1997 and 2001, respectively. From 1988 until 1999, he served as an electronic engineer with the National Security Agency, chiefly as a special-purpose-computer and application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer. During this time, he also served as a site-support engineer for the U.S. Navy Security Group Activity station, formerly located in Edzell, Scotland. From 1999 until joining the George Fox University faculty in 2003, he was a Senior Member of the technical staff at Rincon Research Corporation, where his primary focus was FPGA development for DSP applications.

Gary Spivey earned a BS in electrical engineering from the University of Arizona in 1988 and MS and PhD degrees from the University of Maryland at College Park, in 1997 and 2002, respectively. From 1988 until 1999, Gary Spivey served as an electronic
engineer with the National Security Agency, chiefly as a special-putpose-computer and application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer. During this time, he also served as a site-suppolt engineer for the United States Navy Security Group Activity station, formerly located in Edzell, Scotland. From 1999 until joining the George Fox University faculty in 2003, he was a senior member of the technical staff at Rincon Research Corporation, where his primary focus was FPGA development for DSP applications.

While employed as a faculty member, he has spent multiple summers and a sabbatical working as a temporary senior staff electrical engineer at A-Dec Corporation in Newberg, OR. During this time, he developed infrastructure, drivers, and various applications on ARM microprocessor systems. His current research interests are microprocessors and embedded systems for rapid prototyping.

visit author page

Download Paper | Permalink

Abstract

Since 2010, George Fox University has required all engineering program graduates to complete a service-learning course. Initially, projects were identified by key faculty with a focus on clients. This process proved difficult to maintain, and students were not engaged in selecting the project. Three years ago, the program shifted to student-discovered projects. During the summer, students watched videos that provided a brief instruction on how to find a project for the course. Over the next two years, faculty determined that these student-identified projects were frequently not good matches for the course. To remedy this, faculty decided to set aside the first several weeks of the semester to walk students through a process to identify meaningful projects. This process was derived from the Human-Centered Design course developed by IDEO. During the summer, students identified areas of societal interest and were grouped during the identification stage to find a project.

In addition to describing the evolution of the program, a statistical analysis of student perceptions of the engineering design process and the influence of service experience is presented. These longitudinal data indicate that student perceptions remained consistent throughout all updates to the program.

The details of this paper will provide information to other programs in their development of similar courses. Through the discussion of ongoing areas of concern, those implementing similar programs will gain exposure to issues that are sure to arise.

Citation
Format

Foster, M., & Spivey, G. E. (2019, June), Implementing Human-Centered Design into an Engineering Service Course: Development and Evaluation Paper presented at 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Tampa, Florida. 10.18260/1-2--32944