Conference Session

Design Project Based Learning

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Charles Forsberg, Hofstra University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

Capstone Design ProjectI. IntroductionThe Hofstra University mechanical engineering program requires students to take twocapstone design courses – one in the mechanics area; the other in the thermal/fluids area.This paper discusses a Spring 2007 design project in the latter area; in particular, aproject dealing with design of a ventilation system for a room.Over the past four years, our department has experienced an increase in enrollment in themechanical engineering program. We are not completely sure as to the reason for this.Perhaps the increase is due to the students’ perception of an improved job market in theME discipline. It may also be due to the mechanical faculty’s emphasis on teaching andinteraction with students rather than research

Conference Session

Design Project Based Learning

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

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

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

. Page 13.282.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2008 Centrifugal Pump Test Bed: A Senior Capstone ProjectAbstractA centrifugal pump test bed was designed, built and tested for the undergraduate mechanicalengineering thermal fluids laboratory at Western Kentucky University. This project was fundedthrough the Undergraduate Senior Project Grant Program sponsored by the American Society ofHeating, Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning Engineers, Inc. (ASHRAE) and is primarilyintended for instructional situations.The project was executed over a two-semester Mechanical Engineering Senior Project designsequence, with a three-member student team planning the project design during the fall semesterand executing the project

Conference Session

Design Project Based Learning

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Vernon Ulrich, Grove City College

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

designprojects for all students. Assessing a team’s project results is usually a relatively easy task.However, fairly assessing the performance of individual students within the team is much moredifficult. The complexity of the assessment task is compounded by the wide range of subjects,difficulty, and engineering tasks involved in differing projects. Assessing engineeringperformance across a variety of projects is also a common problem for most industrialemployers. Many companies that employ engineers use a management-by-objective (MBO)assessment system for their professional employees. Grove City College capstone designstudents are now being assessed with a MBO system similar to industrial employers. Adescription of the Grove City College rating

Conference Session

Mechanical Engineering Poster Session

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kevin Schmaltz, Western Kentucky University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

less Page 13.1107.2expensive than conventional heating was desired. The Agriculture Department hopes toincrease revenue to the school by using a non-conventional source of heat to lengthen thegrowing season, and also to provide a model for local farmers to replicate this heatingsystem.In 2006 – 2007 a team of four ME seniors began the project investigation andaccomplished design, selection and acquisition of major project components during theiryear-long capstone design course sequence. The team performed preliminary tests todetermine leaf pile temperatures and the duration of heating that would be expected.Concurrently, the team gathered historical

Conference Session

Mechanics of Materials

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Vince Prantil, Milwaukee School of Engineering; William Howard, East Carolina University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

] compiled a subjective assessment of common mistakesin finite element analysis routinely performed in many industrial sectors. After 5 years ofcollecting anecdotal evidence in both teaching undergraduates and advising capstonedesign projects, we found this list to be nearly inclusive of the most common and moreserious errors encountered by novice users of the finite element method. Here, we addseveral additional mistakes commonly observed in the classroom and in capstone designnumerical analyses and present the augmented list in Table 1. While it may come as nosurprise that novice users commit many, if not all, of these errors, they appear toroutinely and repeatedly encounter a particular subset of them. TABLE 1. COMMON MISTAKES IN

Conference Session

Accreditation Issues

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kenneth Van Treuren, Baylor University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

world news. More specifically, if contemporary issues pertain to thediscipline of engineering, students will do little to maintain their knowledge apart from what isdiscussed in the classroom context. In reality, this topic must be more intentionally interjectedinto the curriculum to show application of engineering principles.Two categories of courses come to mind that should adequately support “soft” outcomes. Onesuch course would be a senior capstone design course. Berg and Nasr discuss such a course.1 Itis true that the capstone design course should be the pinnacle of an engineering program, wherestudents are able to integrate all aspects of their education into a challenging project. It is anatural place to discuss topics in the

Conference Session

Accreditation Issues

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Hakan Gurocak, Washington State University-Vancouver

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

studentperformance in meeting a specific outcome. Although the ABET criteria do not specify anyassessment methods, using direct measures provides stronger evidence of student learningattributed to the program effectiveness2. Typical direct measure opportunities include end-of-course assessment, targeted assignments, capstone experience, capstone examination andportfolios3-9.The mechanical engineering program at Washington State University Vancouver hasimplemented an ABET assessment system where course outcomes are tied to program outcomesthrough a set of program-level performance criteria. Performance criteria (PC) are measurableattributes identifying the performance required to meet an outcome and are confirmable throughevidence. A mapping of these PCs to

Conference Session

Mechanical Engineering Poster Session

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

James Smith, University of Southern Maine

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

manufacturing cell. • One department of engineering housing both programs with flexible faculty, some teaching both mechanical and electrical engineering courses, as appropriate. • The existing faculty teach the foundational courses. In the implementation stage a number of the upper-level and elective courses are taught by adjuncts. This allows the program to develop and to be “tweaked” before commitments are made to full-time, tenure-track faculty. • The new program focuses on just two areas, materials and electromechanical systems. These two areas aligned well both with the existing skill sets in the department and with the needs of local industry. • The senior design project, the capstone project

Conference Session

Approaches to Active Learning

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mark Yim, University of Pennsylvania; Katherine Kuchenbecker, University of Pennsylvania; Paulo Arratia, University of Pennsylvania; Vijay Kumar, University of Pennsylvania; John Bassani, University of Pennsylvania; Jonathan Fiene, University of Pennsylvania; Jennifer Lukes, University of Pennsylvania

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

to interactive games and the Internet. They are accustomed tochoosing what they want to see, and they “pull” whatever content they desire. Teachers can bemore effective for a broader set of students by employing a modality with which students arealready very familiar.In addition to the rapid pace of technological change, engineering is also becoming increasinglyinterdisciplinary. While exercises and problem sets work well to test a student’s grasp ofindividual ideas, we believe that the integration and application of multiple concepts is bestapplied in larger project or lab settings. Traditionally, undergraduate curricula in mechanicalengineering include a capstone design project that occurs during the senior year. Students inengineering at

Conference Session

Thermodynamics, Fluids and Heat Transfer - II

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Andrew Gerhart, Lawrence Technological University; Philip Gerhart, University of Evansville; Robert Fletcher, Lawrence Technological University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

the student, since fluid mechanics student outcomes are necessary for subsequentcoursework (e.g., heat transfer), laboratory work, and capstone projects.3. Actual Course Content ComparisonThermodynamicsThree sections of three-credit hour thermodynamics were taught at LTU during the Fall 2007semester by three separate instructors. One section of four-credit hour thermodynamics wastaught at UE during the Fall 2007 semester.For each of the four thermodynamics sections, the course content and number of classroom hoursspent on each broad topic are shown in Table 1. Nearly all the same material is coveredregardless of the number of classroom hours allotted for the course. LTU Section 1 barelycovered two-phase flow, LTU Section 2 did not cover two