(GIFTS) Designing for Daily Life: Open-Ended 3D Modeling in First Year Engineering

Ashley Joyce Mont; Philip Reid Brown; Katie Barillas

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Conference: FYEE 2025 Conference
Location: University of Maryland - College Park, Maryland
Publication Date: July 27, 2025
Start Date: July 27, 2025
End Date: July 29, 2025
Conference Session: GIFTS II
Tagged Topic: FYEE 2025
Page Count: 4
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--55236
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/55236
Download Count: 12

Paper Authors

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Ashley Joyce Mont Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey orcid.org/0000-0002-2062-6663

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Dr. Ashley Joyce Mont is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Office of Undergraduate Education in the School of Engineering at Rutgers University. She received her BS in Biomedical Engineering from Rutgers University and her PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Dr. Mont teaches first-year engineering courses that emphasize data-driven design, computational thinking, and technical communication. She assisted with the course development of a two-course sequence for first-year students centered on hands-on projects, MATLAB programming, 3D modeling, and collaborative problem solving. Her teaching is grounded in active learning strategies, with a focus on fostering student engagement, professional development, and a strong sense of community within engineering.

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Philip Reid Brown Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

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Philip Brown is an Associate Teaching Professor in Undergraduate Education at Rutgers School of Engineering. He has a PhD in Engineering Education from Virginia Tech. He teaches, coordinates and develops curricula focused on engineering design, computer programming and data literacy. He also co-coordinates faculty development and peer-support groups based on pedagogical development and peer teaching observations. His research interests include student and faculty motivation, computer programming pedagogy, and faculty pedagogical development.

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Katie Barillas Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

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Dr. Katie Barillas is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Undergraduate Education Department at Rutgers University and serves as the Program Director for ID3EA (Introduction to Data-Driven Design for Engineering Applications), the foundational first-year course sequence for all engineering students. She holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Lafayette College and both an M.S. and Ph.D. in Chemical and Petroleum Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh.

Dr. Barillas’s focus is on first-year engineering education, student engagement, interdisciplinary learning, and inclusive pedagogy. As Program Director for ID3EA, she has led curriculum development initiatives that integrate hands-on design, teamwork, and real-world problem-solving into the foundational course sequence. Her teaching emphasizes active learning, student-centered instruction, and the development of professional skills such as technical communication, collaboration, and ethical decision-making.

Her research interests include interdisciplinary education, curriculum innovation, and the retention and success of underrepresented students in engineering.

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Abstract

(GIFTS) Designing for Daily Life: Open-Ended 3D Modeling in First Year Engineering

First year engineering students often anticipate structured, well-defined problems. To challenge this mindset and cultivate creative problem solving from the beginning of their college career, we implemented an open-ended individual 3D design project as part of a first-year engineering course. This assignment followed lecture sessions on the engineering design process and 3D modeling using Onshape®. It also provided students with an opportunity to apply their skills to a personally meaningful problem which increased motivation.

In the third week of their first semester, students were tasked to design a functional object that could improve their daily lives while defining their own three design constraints. The open-ended nature of the assignment removed the step-by-step guidance many students expect and challenged students to navigate this using independent design decisions. They documented this process in a technical memo which detailed the steps they took in the engineering design process including how they determined and met their constraints. Students also had the opportunity to 3D print their designs as a challenge with guidance from the laboratory technician. Students were assessed on the functionality of the design, adherence to constraints, quality of technical writing, and visualization.

This project fostered active learning and challenged students to navigate the ambiguity of the assignment which is an essential skill to real work engineering problem solving. Students gained a strong foundation in designing thinking, 3D modeling, and iterative problem solving which supported student success in their final group design projects. This experience highlights the value of open-ended, student-centered challenges to build confidence, creativity, and technical competency in first year engineering students.

Citation
Format

Mont, A. J., & Brown, P. R., & Barillas, K. (2025, July), (GIFTS) Designing for Daily Life: Open-Ended 3D Modeling in First Year Engineering Paper presented at FYEE 2025 Conference, University of Maryland - College Park, Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--55236