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Session 3433

Freshman Design Experience: Solar Powered Irrigation System for a Remote farm

Oguz A. Soysal Frostburg State University

Abstract

"Introduction to Engineering Design" is offered at Frostburg State University for freshman students interested in engineering major. The main objective of this freshman design course is to introduce basic design concepts and to motivate the students towards their majors. The selected design topic in Fall-1999 was an automatic irrigation system powered by solar energy. During the design and prototype development process, students learned energy conversion principles, discussed various issues related to power generation, and gained hands-on experience on technical drawings and workshop activities. The paper discusses the educational impacts of the freshman design course on the motivation and professional orientation of students.

I. Introduction

Frostburg State University (FSU) started electrical and mechanical engineering programs in fall 1997 in collaboration with University of Maryland College Park (UMCP). Students enrolled in the FSU/UMCP Collaborative Engineering Program take all science, math, general education, basic engineering and design courses on campus from resident faculty. Upper level engineering courses are offered from UMCP over distance. The main objective of the Collaborative Engineering Education is to provide students located on a remote campus the opportunity to access advanced engineering courses of a metropolitan university1. The developed model is an economical way to extend engineering education possibility to remote areas without loosing experimentation and design activities and student-instructor interactions, which are essential for technical education.

Although the program is based on delivery of upper level engineering courses over distance (via ITV), active learning is considered as one of the major characteristics of the curriculum. As a constituent institution of the ECSEL (Engineering Coalition of Schools for Excellence in Education and Leadership) program, University of Maryland has developed the concept of learning by design to "renovate undergraduate engineering education through the infusion of design experiences across the curriculum and to increase the diversity of the profession" as the "Year 9 Report for ECSEL2,3" states. This approach yielded the idea of introducing engineering design at the freshman level, starting the first day students enter the school of engineering4,5,6.

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Soysal, O. A. (2000, June), Freshman Design Experience: Solar Powered Irrigation System For A Remote Farm Paper presented at 2000 Annual Conference, St. Louis, Missouri. 10.18260/1-2--8392