Conference Session

Capstone Design III

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Morshed Khandaker, University of Central Oklahoma; Peter Orono, Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis; Stephen Ekwaro-Osire, Texas Tech University

Tagged Divisions

Design in Engineering Education

academicsemesters. Each project generally involves more than two members. The final group report,presentation, and oral interview are the usual methods to evaluate each member’s contribution tothe project. Since these tools sometimes do not suffice, peer assessment questionnaires have alsobeen suggested by researchers to evaluate each student’s contribution to the project. The goal ofthis research was to evaluate each student’s participation in a team based project from the oralpresentation performance. The result will provide an additional assessment tool for an instructorto effectively evaluate each student’s performance in a group. To accomplish this, team projectdata was collected from freshman and senior level courses from two universities

Conference Session

Teams and Teamwork in Design I

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Keith Sheppard, Stevens Institute of Technology; Peter Dominick, Stevens Institute of Technology; Edward Blicharz, Stevens Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Design in Engineering Education

teaming skills through a sequence of core design courses starting inFreshman Year is discussed. In the first course in the sequence basic concepts are given foreffective teamwork and related individual behaviors. A survey is used at this point to assessstudents’ prior team and group work experience as well as their attitudes toward team-basedwork. After participation as a team member in the major design project, students are given a firstexposure to a peer feedback questionnaire in which they assess their own attitudes andperformance on the team and as well as those of their team-mates. This thread in teaming iscontinued in the second design course by revisiting the peer-feedback questionnaire at mid-semester and the use of team charters where

Conference Session

Design Communications

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

William Riddell, Rowan University; Maria Simone, Rowan University; Stephanie Farrell, Rowan University; Peter Mark Jansson, Rowan University

Tagged Divisions

Design in Engineering Education

and design has proven significantly more challenging thanintegrating writing and design. Even when public speaking deliverables are directly tiedto a design project, students often feel that the presentation is an afterthought. Indeed, inmany cases the design is completed (or a significant milestone is reached) before thepresentation is prepared. Thus, public speaking is often associated with design, but not asan integral part of designing. In this course, students give several mid-semesterpresentations as part of an ongoing design project, where they are given feedback byengineering faculty and their peers. As a result of this feedback, many students havecome to realize that this form of communication is an important part of

Conference Session

Design in Freshman and Sophomore Courses

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Susan Masten, McMaster University; Robert Fleisig, McMaster University

Tagged Divisions

Design in Engineering Education

. Table 1. Comparison of course assessments. 2005-06, 2006-2007 2007-2008 Academic Academic Years Year Number of Weighting Number of Weighting Assignments (%) Assignments (%) Technical Writing Essays 2 20 2 20 Excel Spreadsheet 1 10 - - Readiness Assessment Test 15 10 12 10 (in-class quizzes) Design Projects 2 40 1 20 Tutorial participation

Conference Session

Capstone Design III

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Greg Kremer, Ohio University-Athens; David Burnette, Ohio University

Tagged Divisions

Design in Engineering Education

and new undergraduates9. However,the categories rated by these groups were part of an existing survey. Specifically, there have beenno studies on using industry-modeled peer reviews to educate students on the professional skills,nor has there been an investigation, to our knowledge, of how student-led assessments mightaffect the educational experience in an engineering curriculum. Page 13.1349.3Developing and Assessing Professional SkillsThe study involved students participating in a year-long senior capstone design course. Typicalclass size is 50 students. Most are traditional students, and nearly 50% have some co-op orinternship experience

Conference Session

Assessing Design Coursework

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Richard Bannerot, University of Houston

Tagged Divisions

Design in Engineering Education

, and about4% “not enjoying” several aspects of the project work. Table 18 provides responses tothe same core statements for the Fall 2007 as well as to some additional responses. TheFall 2007 responses are very close to the previous average responses with the “ability”statements rated a little lower and the “enjoy” statements a little higher. From the last sixstatements for the Fall 2007 thirteen per cent of the students indicated the course was notuseful or that they didn’t learn a lot. Only two of sixty didn’t like the peer evaluations.Less than 10% indicated that their teaming experience was not good. By the last twostatements, it is clear that, despite some complaints about our emphasizing writing toomuch in the course, student do

Conference Session

Design Communications

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Stephen Ekwaro-Osire, Texas Tech University; Innocent Afuh, Texas Tech University; Peter Orono, Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis

Tagged Divisions

Design in Engineering Education

, they are inept. Forster3 argues that “The Net generation, it turns out may not beso tech savvy after all”. They rely almost exclusively on Google, Wikipedia and other such Page 13.744.2search engines as major information sources, oblivious of its credibility, reliability and validityfor research. They pay little attention to peer reviewed scholarship. Thus while they may becomputer literate, they are not necessarily information literate although the later uses skills of theformer. The set of skills needed to find, retrieve, analyze and use information is termedinformation literacy (IL). According to the Association of College and Research

Conference Session

Capstone Design II

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

James Widmann, California Polytechnic State University

Tagged Divisions

Design in Engineering Education

, sponsorsand each other.TeamingAfter the first year it was apparent that the students needed more team-work skills. An entirelecture and lab period dedicated to basic team skills along with team check up surveys have beenadded to the class. The challenge to keep students on a functioning team for twenty weeks cannotbe understated. Formal teaming knowledge, skills and attitudes are stressed and the students aretaught Tuckman’s ideas of team development based on “Forming, Storming, Norming andPerforming.”4 There is also training on communication and conflict resolution. The studentstake the CATME5 online survey several times during the project and receive peer feedback ontheir teaming performance. Finally the students are made aware of Social Styles

Conference Session

Assessing Design Coursework

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Graham Thomas, Texas Southern University; Esther Thomas, Texas Southern University

Tagged Divisions

Design in Engineering Education

write papers;and debate and critique topics during the teaching-learning process in purely academic settings;the classroom – traditional or virtual. Formal evaluations are the basis for feedback on howstudent’s felt about the course and the instructor’s approaches to teaching and organization of thecourse. Usually formal evaluations capture the basics through responses that are measured usingvarious scales and administered at the end of the semester. Most students avoid the sections onthe evaluations forms provided for additional comments on the course; many because at that timethey are anxious about course outcomes – research papers, final exams, and grades. To capturestudents’ voice on the effectiveness of teaching styles a different approach

Conference Session

Teams and Teamwork in Design I

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Rudolph Eggert, Boise State University

Tagged Divisions

Design in Engineering Education

byfollowing up with appropriate feedback instruments, on a regular basis, such as mid-term andend of term peer and self-evaluations.The paper discusses key elements of teamwork and how they relate to engineering design projectteams. Then a spreadsheet tool and results of its use is presented. The tool requires each studentto evaluate himself/herself and his/her teams mates covering 15 teamwork skills. The tool hasbeen implemented over the last year and a half in the senior design project course andincorporates advanced spreadsheet features including hot-linked graphics, protected macros,student identification numbers, passwords, hidden rows and hidden sheets.IntroductionAs we participate on engineering design projects we learn to appreciate how

Conference Session

Capstone Design III

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mark Chang, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering; Jessica Townsend, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering

Tagged Divisions

Design in Engineering Education

was to look at how other schools have run their capstone programs.Due in part to its similar mission, scale, and approach to undergraduate engineering education,an obvious model for Olin’s capstone program is the Harvey Mudd Clinic Program. The ClinicProgram is the longest running sponsored capstone program for undergraduates. For reasonsdetailed in later section, the Clinic Program became the blueprint from which the SCOPEprogram was designed.Goals of this paperIn writing this paper, the authors intend to describe through a narrative, the history and evolutionof the program over its first three years. The intention is to put the reader into the context ofdeveloping a capstone course from the ground up such that our experiences may inform

Conference Session

Capstone Design I

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Michael Plumley, US Coast Guard Academy; William Palm, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; William Simpson, U.S. Coast Guard Academy

Tagged Divisions

Design in Engineering Education

rat trap forpower, technical and progress report writing requirements, calculation requirements, and ascoring algorithm imposing trade-offs between size, weight, cost, and performance.The resulting projects satisfied individual course outcomes and created an opportunity tohighlight the benefit of understanding basic engineering concepts. The freshman versioncombined the earlier truss and stability projects into a cohesive project which encourageddiscussion on the relation among different disciplines. The senior project required the use ofmore advanced design skills practiced in earlier courses along with analytical techniques from awide variety of courses.Senior projectSeniors worked in groups of three. A detailed memorandum given to the