Conference Session

Capstone Design Projects in Mechanical Engineering

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kelley Racicot, Washington State University; Charles Pezeshki, Washington State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

uses of web-based group platforms, such as wikis and weblogs in industryand education, have been adopted for project management, to support “folio thinking”1,to encourage reflective practice and to build communities of practice. This qualitativeand quantitative study looks at the pilot semester of using social software in a well-established senior capstone design course to support collaborative knowledgemanagement and group assessment. We want to answer the question: How do we assessteam or group learning?From this research question, we developed three project goals: 1. Leverage the group-editing capabilities of WSU Wiki to facilitate a new course dimension: collaborative knowledge management. 2. Pilot the use of social software as a

Conference Session

Capstone Design Projects in Mechanical Engineering

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

William Janna, University of Memphis; John Hochstein, University of Memphis

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

Pennsylvania State University (1979), and a Ph.D. from The University of Akron (1984). Page 11.328.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2006 COLLABORATION OF FRESHMAN WITH SENIORS IN A CAPSTONE DESIGN COURSEAbstractAn innovative capstone design course titled “Design of Fluid Thermal Systems,” involves groupsof seniors working on various semester-long design projects. Groups are composed of 3, 4 or 5members that bid competitively on various projects. Once projects are awarded, freshmenenrolled in the “Introduction to Mechanical Engineering” course are assigned

Conference Session

Capstone Design Projects in Mechanical Engineering

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Wesner, Carnegie Mellon University; Richard Hoff, Carnegie MellonUniversity; Cristina Amon, Carnegie Mellon University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

2006-598: IDENTIFYING AND IMPLEMENTING PROJECTS FOR AMULTIDISCIPLINARY ENGINEERING DESIGN PROJECTS COURSE ATCARNEGIE MELLONCristina Amon, Carnegie Mellon UniversityJohn Wesner, Carnegie Mellon UniversityRichard Hoff, Carnegie MellonUniversity Page 11.712.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2006 Identifying and Implementing Projects for a Multidisciplinary Engineering Design Projects Course at Carnegie MellonAbstractThis paper describes the process of identifying, selecting, and implementing sponsored projectsin a multidisciplinary Engineering Design Projects Course at Carnegie Mellon University. Inorder for the course to be most effective, the

Conference Session

Capstone Design Projects in Mechanical Engineering

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Burkhardt, U.S. Naval Academy

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

DesignIntroduction A senior level project requiring the design, fabrication and testing of an idealized lifthook is discussed. The primary objective of the project is to address the issue of solutionaccuracy1 and its importance in computer aided design (CAD). Secondary objectives of theproject are to reinforce the CAD process, introduce the computer numerically controlled (CNC)machining process, and to provide some of the tools and skill helpful to students during theirsenior capstone design projects. The primary CAD tools used in the completion of the project are solid modeling and thefinite element method (FEM). Critical to the successful application of the FEM, under allcircumstances, is the generation of an accurate solution. As defined

Conference Session

Capstone Design Projects in Mechanical Engineering

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Edwin Odom, University of Idaho; Russ Porter, University of Idaho; Steven Beyerlein, University of Idaho; Adrian Gomez, University of Idaho; Lloyd Gallup, University of Idaho

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

2006-1497: LIBRARY OF STUDENT-AUTHORED INTERNET VIDEOS FORJUST-IN-TIME LEARNING IN SUPPORT OF THE CAPSTONE DESIGNEXPERIENCEEdwin Odom, University of Idaho Edwin Odom is professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Idaho where he has been instrumental in expanding design infrastructure in the ME Machine Shop and CAD labs that support major design projects. Dr. Odom maintains an avid interest in the literature of creativity and management and is especially well-versed on the subjects of engineering mechanics and machine design. He was recognized for his role in development of the Idaho Engineering Works by a university teaching award in 1998.Steven Beyerlein, University of Idaho

Conference Session

Incorporating Projects into the Curriculum

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Robert Choate, Western Kentucky University; Kevin Schmaltz, Western Kentucky University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

2006-1533: INDUSTRY-BASED DESIGN PROJECTS IN THE JUNIOR YEAR:MAKING THE TRANSITION TO SENIOR PROJECTSRobert Choate, Western Kentucky University Robert Choate teaches thermo-fluid and professional component courses in Mechanical Engineering, including the Sophomore Design, Junior Design, the Senior ME Lab I and the ME Senior Project Design course sequence. Prior to teaching at WKU, he was a principal engineer for CMAC Design Corporation, designing and verifying thermal management solutions for telecommunication, data communication and information technology equipment.Kevin Schmaltz, Western Kentucky University Kevin Schmaltz teaches thermo-fluid and professional component courses in Mechanical

Conference Session

Incorporating Projects into the Curriculum

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Joshua Vaughan, Georgia Institute of Technology; William Singhose, Georgia Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

Page 11.230.4to teach mechanical design and ends in a competition between student built mechatronic Figure 3: The Year One CanSat Class Entrydevices4 . As a result, the students are exposed to basic mechatronic concepts. During thespring term, the students worked on developing design specifications and preliminary designembodiments. The project was then used in the summer session as a senior, capstone designproject. The senior design students did much of the initial prototyping on the project, andseveral remained active in the project through the fall semester. The project also involveda high school student during the summer as part of the NASA sponsored SHARP program.During this first year, the Georgia Tech team competed

Conference Session

Incorporating Projects into the Curriculum

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Louis Everett, University of Texas-El Paso

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

, Vibration and Design. In a very real sense, thecontrols class serves as a “mini” capstone course. Projects in the class can require the students toexercise the knowledge they have gained in all these subjects. According to the most recent ABET report, the concepts covered in the prerequisite courseare: 1. Free vibration, harmonic motion, viscous damping, modeling and energy methods, stiffness, measurement, and stability. 2. Harmonic excitation of undamped and damped systems, alternative representations, base excitation, rotating unbalance, and measurement. 3. Impulse response function, response to an arbitrary input, response to an arbitrary periodic input, transfer methods, shock spectrum, and

Conference Session

Incorporating Projects into the Curriculum

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Shanzhong (Shawn) Duan, South Dakota State University; Li Qian, South Dakota State University; Teresa Hall, South Dakota State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition. Portland,OR.10. Kane, T.R. and Levinson, D.A. (1985). Dynamics: Theory and Application. New York: McGraw-Hill.11. Kane, T.R. and Levinson, D.A. (2000). Dynamics Online: Theory and Application with Autolev. OnlineDynamics, Inc.12. LaCourse, D. (2003). Virtual Prototyping Pays Off. Cadalys Manufacturingt, May 1.13. McPhee, J. (2006). http://real.uwaterloo.ca/%7embody/#Software.14. Mitiguy, P. and Reckdahl, K. (2005). Autolev Tutorial version 4. Online Dynamics, Inc.15. Muci-Kuchler, K. H. and Weaver, J. M. (2005). Using Industry-Like Product Development Projects inMechanical Engineering Capstone Design Courses. Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for

Conference Session

What's New in Dynamics?

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Peter Avitabile, University of Massachusetts-Lowell; Tracy Van Zandt, University of Massachusetts-Lowell; Jeffrey Hodgkins, University of Massachusetts-Lowell; Nels Wirkkala, University of Massachusetts-Lowell

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

in their educational career.Real engineering problems are rarely solved by “looking up answers at the back of the book”.Yet many engineering courses are taught this way and students feel that they can push the “resetbutton” after each class since they do not see the integration of all the material until late in theirundergraduate career through the capstone experience. This is too late for them to realize theimportance of earlier course material.A Dynamic Systems laboratory-based, hands-on project has been implemented which attempts toaddress many of the issues identified above. This series of projects is described in the followingsections

Conference Session

Meeting ABET Requirements

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sarah Freeman, Tufts University; Douglas Matson, Tufts University; Grant Sharpe, Tufts University; Chris Swan, Tufts University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

provide university oversight. The design team included faculty from boththe Mechanical Engineering Department and the Civil and Environmental EngineeringDepartment based on the needs of the community. The current project has been successfullyintegrated into the curriculum of the Mechanical and Civil & Environmental EngineeringDepartments through senior capstone design coursework, senior thesis credit, and underclassspecial topics courses. Students from the School of Arts and Sciences can obtain elective creditfor research conducted in the School of Engineering. The role of the students was to develop the team organization and personal leadershipskills necessary to support the ambitious tasks associated with implementation of an

Conference Session

Introducing Active Learning into ME Courses

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Pedro Orta, ITESM Monterrey; Ricardo Ramirez Medoza, Institute Tecnologico De Monterrey; Hugo Elizalde, Monterrey Tech; David Guerra, Monterrey Tech

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

project were as follows: • Mechanical or Mecatronics Engineering Students (third year and up) Page 11.554.6 • Interest in how various mechanical devices or principles operate, • Technical skills (inspecting, repairing, installing, troubleshooting, machine tools, etc.). • Good communication and team work skills. • Good technical background in analytical and experimental subjects, in particular for those students who are enrolled on Aerodynamics and Structural Analysis problems. Although the RV-10 project is a capstone, it will gather experience and knowledgeaimed at establishing

Conference Session

Improving ME education: Broad Topics

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Peter Schuster, California Polytechnic State University; Andrew Davol, California Polytechnic State University; Joseph Mello, California Polytechnic State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

besteducational results for the students while alleviating safety concerns.The advisor can influence the scope of the design, the project management, and other details.How much they influence the design can have a significant influence not only on the results atcompetition, but also on the experience gained by the students. In addition to directly advisingthe team, institutional changes may also be necessary. For example, to reduce the load on anindividual advisor, we are experimenting with two-year design cycles and subsystemdevelopment using our senior capstone design class. Time will tell what improvements result.The competition organizers establish the allowable development time, event timing, and designassessments. They may also want to consider

Conference Session

Thermodynamics and Fluid Mechanics Instruction

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Donald Mueller, Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

such as EES, TK Solver,CyclePad and FEHT.Students in this course were encouraged to use software to solve many of homework problems,as well as the projects. The approach used in this course was to present examples and solutionsin MATLAB and EXCEL because these packages are taught to students in our program in a“computer-tools” class. However, students were allowed to use any software package that theydesire. During one seventy-five minute lecture, two example problems were worked in detailusing the thermodynamic cycle analysis software CyclePad.6 A screenshot of the CyclePadinterface is shown in Fig. 1. Page 11.81.4 Figure 1. Screen

Conference Session

Meeting ABET Requirements

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Craig Gunn, Michigan State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

Laboratory Experiment Written Reports (2 Reports (2 Formal Reports, Formal Reports, Individual); Abstract, Individual); Abstract, Nomenclature, Nomenclature, Introduction, Analysis, Results, Introduction, Analysis, Results, Discussion, and Conclusions – Teamwork (3-5 Discussion, and Conclusions – students/team), 9 short form reports, individual Teamwork (3-5 students/team), 9 Tools: MS Word, Excel, Matlab short form reports, individual Tools: MS Word ME – 471 Machine Design II ME 481 – Senior Capstone Design Design Project Documentation: Problem Definition, Progress report, Formal Design Reports

Conference Session

Meeting ABET Requirements

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Richard Bannerot, University of Houston

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

2006-831: CONTENT ASSESSMENT AT THE COURSE LEVELRichard Bannerot, University of Houston Richard Bannerot is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Houston. His research interests are in the thermal sciences and in engineering design education. For the past fifteen years he has taught the required "Introduction to Design" course at the sophomore level and has been involved in the teaching of the department's capstone design course. He is a registered professional engineer in the State of Texas. Page 11.356.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 20062006-831: CONTENT

Conference Session

Improving ME instructional laboratories

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Chastain, Clemson University; Harvin Smith, Clemson University; Mason Morehead, Clemson University; David Moline, Clemson University; John Wagner, Clemson University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

. Presentation of fundamentals of instrumentation, calibration techniques, data analysis, and report writing in the context of laboratory experiments.A brief literature review will now be presented on mechanical engineering laboratories. Schmaltzet al.1 reported on the senior mechanical engineering capstone laboratory at Western KentuckyUniversity that focuses on students undertaking mechanical, materials, and thermal/fluidexperiments. Important activities are the definition of requirements, design of methods andequipment, execution of test plan, analysis of results, and reporting. To ensure topical coverage,a design of experiments plan was created to implement, assess, and adjust the laboratoryexperience. Layton et al.2 discussed the need to identify

Conference Session

Software and e-learning in the ME curriculum

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Frank Fisher, Stevens Institute of Technology; Constantin Chassapis, Stevens Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

engineering problem-solving is for the most partpostponed until Term VI, where it is the primary focus of the Modeling and Simulation (ME345)course. The reasoning behind such placement within the curriculum is that students first musthave a thorough grounding in (mechanical) engineering fundamentals before such software canbe adequately presented to the students. In addition, coverage during Term VI prepares thestudents to use such tools on subsequent internship/co-op assignments and the capstone SeniorDesign project, as well as provide the relevant modeling skills desired by industry upongraduation.As envisioned, the proposed library of CAE learning modules will change our current coverageof CAE software by enabling such tools to be incorporated

Conference Session

Improving ME instructional laboratories

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ralph Volino, U.S. Naval Academy; Andrew Smith, U.S. Naval Academy

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

projects provide this in a significant way, but a capstone course provides onlyone experience with a particular project. It is valuable to introduce the idea in smaller ways,when possible. Reciprocating engines provide a good vehicle for tying together manyengineering concepts. All students are familiar, at least as users, with piston engines. Theirpracticality is therefore obvious. Thermodynamics, heat transfer, combustion, fluid mechanics,mechanism design, material science, strength of materials, and electrical circuits are all needed toproduce an operating engine. Seeing this connection directly can provide motivation for study ofthe individual subjects, and a realization that required courses are not completely unrelated.Goals and Integration