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Session 1660

Evolution of Engineering Design Education at KIT - Technical and Cultural Aspects of Concept Transfer and Translation - Masakatsu Matsuishi, Yuko Hoshino, Wayne Sanders Kanazawa Institute of Technology Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Abstract In 1996, Kanazawa Institute of Technology (KIT) became the first university in Japan to offer courses in Engineering Design. Starting in the Fall and Winter quarters, Engineering Design I (EDI) and Engineering Design II (EDII) were taught respectively to approximately two thousand sophomore engineering students. These courses were developed with the assistance of visiting professors from U.S. universities. This paper discusses how the Engineering Design Program at KIT was transferred from one culture to another, how it evolved, and how it is now.

The first revision of the program occurred during the 1998-1999 academic year. A Task Force, which included some foreign professors, was formed to identify problems and needs in Engineering Design Education (EDE), and to develop design specifications for educational materials. The result was course packages for EDI and EDII. These packages included easy-to-use manuals for students and instructors. The course objective of EDI and EDII is distinct and properly coupled in order to achieve a seamless transition from EDI to EDII. A “Project Summary Report” was introduced to achieve this seamless transition.

The second revision of EDE started in 2000. Websites for EDI and EDII were opened for students and instructors to use. The websites contain teaching materials, templates for assignments, past student design projects, a bulletin board for information to students, and a question-and-answer box.

Today, both the face-to-face instruction system and the e-learning system are used. The Engineering Design courses are being taught face-to-face in the classroom, while collaborative communication functions of the e-learning system are being used to help the student teams complete weekly assignments. Since each student spends approximately five hours on each assignment, the collaborative communication functions of the e-learning system are very helpful.

The entire EDE faculty is now Japanese and visiting faculty from other countries comes to KIT to study the Program. A collaboration project is now under way between Singapore Polytechnic and KIT. 1 Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2004, American Society for Engineering Education

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Hoshino, Y., & Matsuishi, M., & Sanders, W. (2004, June), Evolution Of Engineering Design Education At Kit Paper presented at 2004 Annual Conference, Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--13853