research focuses on functional materials, soft robotics, and engineering education. ©American Society for Engineering Education, 2024 BYOE: Soft Robotic Fish ProjectAbstract. This paper presents a college-level project to develop a simplified soft robotic fish withthe end goal of creating an engaging toy for children. The project uses 3D-printed componentsand molded silicone to create a hydraulically actuated fish. The motivation for developing thisproject was to introduce students to soft robotics with an emphasis on learning the concepts ofsoft materials fabrication, 3D printing, hydraulics, buoyancy, and actuation and control. Theproposed activity was created by undergraduate engineering
of the Swalm School of Chemical Engineering, holding the Deavenport Chair in Chemical Engineering. Interests include biotechnology for renewable energy and innovation in engineering education ©American Society for Engineering Education, 2024 1 Project-based Learning in a Mul disciplinary Two-Semester First Year Experience 2 3 ABSTRACT 4 Problem-based learning not only provides a pla orm for students to learn by performing hands-on 5 projects, but also, with proper planning, it helps with development of their collabora on, 6 communica on, safety considera ons, and cri cal thinking skills. On the contrary, it involves its own set 7 of drawbacks, including the considerable me, energy, and
Paper ID #42195Multiyear Vertically Integrated Engineering Design Project: A Story of StudentSuccessDr. Nebojsa I. Jaksic, Colorado State University, Pueblo NEBOJSA I. JAKSIC earned the Dipl. Ing. (M.S.) degree in electrical engineering from Belgrade University (1984), the M.S. in electrical engineering (1988), the M.S. in industrial engineering (1992), and the Ph.D. in industrial engineering from The Ohio State University (2000). Currently, he is a Professor at Colorado State University Pueblo. Dr. Jaksic has over 100 publications and holds two patents. His interests include robotics, automation, and nanotechnology. He
Paper ID #44085A Modular Water Bench and Fountain Design Project for an UndergraduateFluid Dynamics LaboratoryDr. Blake Everett Johnson, University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign Dr. Blake Everett Johnson is a Teaching Assistant Professor and instructional laboratory manager in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research interests include experimental fluid mechanics, measurement science, engineering education, engineering leadership, and professional identity development. ©American Society for Engineering Education, 2024 A
Paper ID #43766Engaging Undergraduate Students in Experimental Learning in MaterialsScience through a Hybrid Project-Based LearningOsama Desouky, Texas A&M University at Qatar Osama Desouky is a Technical Laboratory coordinator at Texas A&M University in Qatar. Osama is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in interdisciplinary engineering from Texas A&M University at College Station. He is responsible for assisting with experimental method courses, 3D printing, mechanics of materials, material science, senior design projects, and advanced materials classes. Osama’s professional interests include manufacturing
Paper ID #42934Integrating a Design Project to Bridge Experiment for Statics learning inGeneral Engineering EducationDr. Yingxiao Song, Muskingum University Assistant Professor in Physics and Engineering Department of Muskingum University ©American Society for Engineering Education, 2024Integrating a Design Project to Bridge Experiment for Statics learning inGeneral Engineering EducationAbstractEngineering Statics, a foundational course for most engineering students, is typically undertakenearly in their academic careers. Integrating hands-on experiments, such as the classic bridgeexperiment, is essential not only for a
from Harvard University. ©American Society for Engineering Education, 2024 An Adaptive Scaffolding Approach Based on Team Dynamics in anIntegrated Masters and Undergraduate Bioengineering Capstone Design CourseIntroduction Capstone courses in undergraduate engineering programs serve useful roles for bothstudents and faculty. ABET criterion 5 essentially requires a summative project, which is oftendelivered through a capstone course [28]. For students, these courses represent an opportunity toapply their training and skills to a problem relevant to the domain of their studies. It could beargued that a capstone course is one of the most effective courses by design, given that
by mitigating this mechanism.A team of engineering students studied thrust and acoustic emission of two traditional and fourtoroidal five-inch diameter propellers. The team of students used 3D models of the propellers inComputational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to compare with real-world experimental laboratory data.Students have tested 3D-printed and off-the-shelf propellers to compare their performance.Students have used Ansys Fluent simulations and the Tyto Robotics Dynamometer Series 1585Propeller Thrust Stand and RC benchmark software to compare propeller designs. The studentsalso designed, built, and tested a safety cage that enclosed the spinning propeller, electric motor,and test stand assembly.The purpose of this project was to develop a
promising strategies that enhancestudent engagement and learning, such as flipped classrooms, online courses, field activities,hybrid or blended learning approaches, hands-on project based activities and more. These haveproven effective tools in capturing students' attention and facilitating their learning. Theselearning strategies are part of the pedagogical technique known as active learning. They helpsolidify abstract concepts and understand theoretical principles by engaging the students in activelearning. Building, testing, and observing real-world systems ignite critical thinking, betterinformation retention, troubleshooting, and improved technical competency among the students.Building educational tools or demonstration devices offer several
atMiddle Tennessee State University. Traditionally, this course covered number systems, switches,combinational and sequential logic circuits design, and FPGA programming. In recent years,there is a need to introduce microcontrollers to the students in this course. The reason is that ourprogram does not offer a microcontroller course, but microcontrollers are used very often insenior design and could also be used in the course projects of some upper division courses. Theefforts of adding Arduino to the curriculum of Digital Circuits Fundamentals started about threeyears ago. In particular, we have used a low-cost Arduino kit and redesigned two labassignments to teach students how to use Arduino and how to interface Arduino with digitaldisplays and
generallydo not gain experience in open-ended design or entrepreneurial innovation – skills which may behighly valued by future employers or graduate schools, and even in upper-level project-basedcourses such as capstone design.Biofabrication Lab is an upper-level elective laboratory course offering students hands-onexperience in advanced cell culture, computer aided design, additive manufacturing, andprototyping related to translational bioengineering. Quantitative Physiology Lab is a requiredlaboratory course in which third-year bioengineering students conduct experiments to measureand model human physiological systems, while gaining experience in data analysis andpresentation. To expand the breadth of knowledge and experience gained by students, a
scientific concepts and exciting them about the field. Students introduced to this projectwill be exposed to various topics of soft materials, magnetism, and parametric design that interplayin the design of soft robotic systems. This paper presents a “Wacky-Waving-Non-Inflatable-Arm-Flailing-Tube-Man” that undergraduate students can design, build, analyze, and test. The projectcan be tailored as a classroom activity, a laboratory exercise, or a group project. Students willdesign several tests to determine the best design to achieve a tailored flailing configuration. Thetwo major elements of their designs that students will be able to modify include: 1) a selectionamong a subset of provided silicone elastomers that they will select based on their
outcomes.Results indicated positive attitudes and their enthusiastic time investment. The at-home projectsenhanced learning, fostered critical thinking, and aligned with evolving engineering educationpriorities. In future iterations, we plan to allocate more time and extend project timelines forgreater learning experience.Keywords: Unit operations laboratory, at-home experiments, critical thinking, bridging corecourse silos.1. INTRODUCTIONIn the 2022 report, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicinerecommended an increased emphasis on experimental learning to facilitate effective connectionsamong core courses, often referred to as 'the silos' [1]. ABET also mandates that students acquirethe skills to design and conduct experiments
earlyin their academic careers. With the primary construction materials being from readily available componentsand craft supplies, the project can easily be implemented in both college and high school learningenvironments with limited resources. The completed robot design involves three main functionalchallenges; maneuverability, ability to pick up small objects, and storage of the objects. Students’ robotswill then compete in a simulated biological environment, with small objects that can be placed at differingheights to vary the task difficulty and represent food sources at multiple elevations. Each team of studentswould be tasked to strategically design their robot to optimize performance in a competition for points. Tooptimize their robots
wide variety ofapplication areas. The availability of low-cost versions of the hardware elements that form thebasis of these systems, including processor boards, sensors, and communication devices,combined with expanding software support, such as cloud based IoT resources, ensure thepopularity of IoT approaches will continue to expand further. Consequently, the inclusion of IoTconcepts and technologies is becoming an increasingly important part of many engineeringdegree programs (e.g., computer engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, andmechanical engineering).An ongoing NSF funded project at Texas A&M University-Kingsville and Texas A&MUniversity-Corpus Christi has focused on expanding the coverage of IoT concepts
projects, reflect on their social identities, and consider the broader societal contexts of their engineering work. The goals of his research are 1) to develop tools and pedagogies that support engineers in achieving the positive societal changes that they envision and 2) to address systems of oppression that exist within and are reproduced by engineering education and work environments. He earned his B.S. in Engineering Sciences from Yale University, with a double major in East Asian Studies, and earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan. He also holds a Graduate Certificate in Chinese and American Studies, jointly awarded by Johns Hopkins University and Nanjing University in China.Prof
Paper ID #43871Work-in Progress: Aligning an Engineering Hands-On Learning Programto College Strategy: Reducing Implementation Barriers to Support Faculty,Students, and Their SuccessMs. Rachel Sharpe, University of Colorado Boulder Rachel Sharpe is a Senior Engineering Projects Consultant at the Integrated Teaching and Learning Program at the University of Colorado Boulder. Rachel’s work as a senior engineer has allowed her to collaborate with faculty members across seven departments, contributing her expertise to the development and successful implementation of over thirty hands-on lab activities. Rachel has overseen the
the classroom more interactive. This helps studentssee right away if they're doing things right or wrong so they can fix mistakes as they go.In the early 1900s, a researcher named Jean Piaget found that kids understand things better whenthey do hands-on activities instead of just hearing facts [1]. And other experts like Meyers andJones agree that learning is more effective when students are actively involved, like reading,writing, talking, solving problems, or answering questions in a thoughtful way [2].Also, many studies have shown that technology and hands-on activities can help studentsunderstand how theory connects to real-life situations in engineering projects. This kind oflearning, called experimental-centric-based instructional
project- and problem-based learning (PBL). He is a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (F.ASCE), a member of the American Society for Engineering Education (M.ASEE), and a Board-Certified Environmental Engineer (BCEE) from the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists (AAEES). He is also an ABET EAC and ETAC Program Evaluation Volunteer (ABET EAC PEV) for civil engineering, environmental engineering, and environmental engineering technology programs.Dr. Youngguk Seo, Kennesaw State University Youngguk Seo is interested in the characterization of multi-phased transportation materials such as asphalt concrete, Portland cement concrete, and foundation soils. Research tools include
is throughstudent satisfaction surveys [11,12]. Bye and Osen obtained student perceptions about threenewly developed lab projects [11]. Whereas Edward [12] presents the perceptions of bothstudents and instructors on the laboratory experience and its value in their course success in theSchool of Engineering at the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland. This paper isdifferent than [12] as the data presented here is student perception about laboratory experimentsfor each individual course obtained at the end of semester through anonymous courseevaluations.This paper presents the opinions of students about laboratory courses in nearly a dozen differentcourses related to electrical and computer engineering technology. Student perceptions
built-inmicrophones). It displays an input level meter, which is helpful for setting the input gain. It hasmechanisms for setting the input and output gain and measuring the gain of a filter. It alsoincludes an indicator that alerts the user if their DSP algorithm is taking too long and is violatingthe real-time schedule. The starter code is available for free from the author.The course assignments include exploring the demonstration algorithms and writing and testingseveral real-time DSP algorithms including mono passthrough, record and playback, generatesinusoids, finite impulse response (FIR) filters, infinite impulse response (IIR) filters, andDiscrete Fourier Transform (DFT). The course also includes a project where each student selectsan
difficult lab course. The biomedical instrumentation lab course isrequired for all undergraduate bioengineering majors and is a technical elective for several otherengineering majors at a large public land grant university in the Midwest United States. Thecourse content has been challenging for many students. Additionally, some students noted otherchallenges in the lab, e.g., reading labels on parts, lights, and lab bench layout. The goal of thisproject is to reduce these challenges with the content, space, and supplies.In the first phase of the project, the research team used methods from Universal Design forLearning (UDL), human centered design, and entrepreneurial minded learning to evaluate thelaboratory space and course materials and generate
. Contrary to its importance and positive role in learning enhancement, flowvisualization is not commonly used in undergraduate fluid dynamics courses. Factors such as thecost of equipment, time-consuming setup, and limited space in wind/water tunnels have kepthands-on fluid-related projects relatively rare at undergraduate institutions.This project aims to develop a low-cost, safe, and portable flow visualization system, paired withan open-source program. This setup will be utilized for class experiments, student projects, anddemonstrations for outreach efforts.KeywordsFlow Visualization, Experiments, Classroom1 IntroductionFluid dynamics is often perceived as one of the most challenging subjects in the undergraduateengineering (Hunsu, Abdul
experience for future applications in real-world engineeringprojects. Their engagement in the practical application phase, they gain hands-on experience inVR development and deployment strategies. This experience is crucial for their academic andprofessional growth, preparing them for future roles where VR technology is utilized, such as inengineering projects or research settings. 2- user students, who are the randomly selectedstudents throughout campus with various majors that will use the haptic gloves to performpredetermined tasks within the developed virtual environment. They participate in hands-ontraining and experimentation with haptic gloves to perform predetermined tasks. This practicalexperience allows them to interact with technology and
to solve a problem than the workaround I’ve implemented. It would be beneficial if there were opportunities to explore alternative problem-solving approaches. Incorporating peer solutions into the learning process could provide valuable insights into optimizing engineering solutions.”Remote labs in driving creativity and collaboration among engineers. They emphasize howremote labs serve as collaborative tools that allow for teamwork and exploration of different skillsets, fostering creativity in engineering projects. P6: “Yes, absolutely. Like as an engineer to like help drives your creativity or like to improve on your quality you collapse with other people you work in a theme setting or like you work with
μC or μP from the second phase with a HDL,then program it as it was in the second phase. At last, design a custom-made processor or any FSM witha HDL. The innovative idea of this paper is to develop students with skills that is to utilize a commercialμC or μP to complete application design in the second phase. Furthermore, utilizing a HDL to model thelearned μC or μP so as to shorten the learning curve of designing a custom processor or digitalperipheral circuits in the third phase. The benefit of including the use of a specific μC or μP in the secondphase is to let the students immerse in the delicate design process such as programming in assemblylanguage, so students can accomplish project development in the middle of the program. After
, participants in a non-ECP group were exposedto conventional teaching methods.The keystone of this pedagogical transformation was the "Heart Rate" experiment, whereinstudents utilized a mobile application to quantify heart rate fluctuations following variousphysical activities. The study employed pre- and post-surveys to assess student engagement,while pre- and post-signature assessments were administered to gauge their understanding of theexperiment's core concepts. Project assignments were used to evaluate practical application andunderstanding.Using statistical software like SPSS and Excel, meticulous data analysis was conducted toprovide a comprehensive look at the students' performance over these three semesters.Results showed that students who
Paper ID #44537Comparative Study of Digital Electronics Learning: Using PCB versus TraditionalMethods in an Experiment-Centered Pedagogy (ECP) Approach for EngineeringStudentsMr. Ojonugwa Oluwafemi Ejiga Peter, Morgan State University Ejiga Peter Ojonugwa Oluwafemi, currently thriving as a Graduate Assistant at Morgan State University, Baltimore, is deeply engaged in the innovative ”Experiment Centered Pedagogy Project” within the Department of Engineering. His academic journey began at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, where he earned a Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science, laying a solid foundation for his
. Clarification of teachingwith blended learning [20]. methods in engineering education based on the use of technology andThe intentional design of blended learning environments digital media.using evidence-based practices has the potential to greatlyimprove learning efficiency by combining online self-study with traditional classroom teaching[21]–[23]. Blended learning has been proven to be highly advantageous for the field of engineeringeducation, specifically in cases where learning is centered around project-based activities [24]. Inthe context of chemical engineering design, the implementation of blended learning has been
courses, citing factorssuch as large class enrollments and insufficient time for providing meaningful feedback to thestudents. The survey’s respondents also did not value professional development workshops orguidance from writing consultants as desired resources. Instead, the consensus suggests thatinstructors generally comprehend the reasons and methods for integrating writing into theircourses. They seek additional support and resources, such as teaching assistants, handouts, andrubrics, to effectively implement their ideas [10].An NSF-funded project conducted by a collaborative team with both engineering and Englishprofessors produced engineering lab writing instructional guides, or the guides, developed forinstructors and undergraduates to