Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Andrew Wilhelm; Edmund Tsang

University of South Alabama(USA) began, in Fall 1993, an evaluation of the undergraduate program to meet the challenge ofengineering education for the 21st Century. Restructuring of the mechanical engineering curriculum atUSA is also prompted by the changing ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology)requirements for design. Under the current criteria, design is defined as "an experience that must grow withthe student's development," and "the design experience is developed and integrated throughout thecurriculum"1. In addition to the development of student creativity, formulation of design problemstatements and specifications, consideration of alternative solutions, and feasibility considerations, ABETsuggests that design should also

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Martin T. Hagan; Carl D. Latino

curriculum.To understand why it is so important, consider the characteristics of typical undergraduate courses. Mostcourses, by necessity, focus on a narrow technical subject (e.g., electronics, electromagnetic,communications). Homework assignments generally ask specific technical questions, which have one solution,and which only take from a few minutes to an hour to solve. If students are not able to answer a problem in thatlength of time, they move on to other problems, since they usually have many problems to solve. They neverget a chance to learn that some problems take weeks to solve, and they never develop the confidence that if theyspend the time, they can solve the problem. Any term projects which are given in typical classes are usuallyvery