Conference Session

Teams and Teamwork in Design I

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Janice Miller-Young, Mount Royal College; Sean Maw, Mount Royal College

Tagged Divisions

Design in Engineering Education

; • Increase student retention in engineering programs10-11.However there are many “soft skills” required in learning design and no consensus on which aremost important for first year students, nor which is the best way way to teach them. Someinstitutions focus on design methods and team dynamics [eg. Harvey Mudd], others on designand writing [eg. Northwestern], and others combine design with graphics [eg. Penn State].Mount Royal College offers a University transfer engineering program. Thus, our courses mustconform with the local University to which most of our students transfer. In design terms, theconstraints imposed by the University are that there are two sequential first-year courses, eachwith 1 hour of lecture time per week, and 4.5 hours of

Conference Session

Assessing Design Coursework I

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Nirmala Gnanapragasam, Seattle University

Tagged Divisions

Design in Engineering Education

thegraduates as well as the program. They have aided us educate better preparedgraduates with strong technical and soft skills. Bringing the diverse constituentsinto the assessment process has strengthened the program. In the current globalmarket to stay competitive we have continuously reviewed the assessment tools,the process, and the results and have made appropriate changes to improve theprogram.ConclusionsProject based senior design capstone experience effectively satisfies both, ABET2000 criterion 4 (that students participate in a major design experience) and mostcriterion 3 (a-k) program outcomes. Seattle University’s 20-year old seniordesign program has evolved over the years to meet many, if not all, of the

Conference Session

Design Projects

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Frederick Berry, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Patricia Carlson, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; William Eccles, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Bruce Ferguson, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Daniel Moore, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Mihaela Radu, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Terry Schumacher, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; David Voltmer, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Mark Yoder, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Edward Wheeler, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Design in Engineering Education

increased student responsibilities in the latter two courses. Students provide thecritiques of many of their colleagues’ first drafts of written documentation; this frees the faculty to focus on thedesign process and to help teams hone their later drafts. No formal data has been collected, but anecdotal dataindicates strong faculty support for the revised design sequence—both from an educational point of view and from aworkload point of view.Though faculty support for the course is strong and widespread throughout the ECE department, not all facultymembers are willing or qualified to teach the design courses. The teaching of “soft skills” associated with designcourses makes many faculty members uncomfortable; they prefer the mathematically-based