Paper Authors

Abstract

NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract

Session 2249

Hands-On-Workshop Based Learning of Rapid Prototyping

Ismail Fidan, Coral Nocton, Adam McGough, Ken Patton

Rapid Prototyping Laboratory, Tennessee Tech University, Cookeville, TN 38505- 5003/ Dean, Business Science Division, Saddleback College, Mission Viejo, CA 92692-3635

Abstract Although the manufacturing industry has recently declined considerably, several new manufacturing methods are growing in the 21st century. One of these methods is Rapid Prototyping (RP). Through the past decade, RP technology has increasingly been implemented in many places, (i.e. dentistry, biology, casting, tooling, and robotics). Although this technology has been advancing swiftly in teaching, training, and learning, it is still in its infancy. Since this vital technology is very important for the progression of the manufacturing industry, an NSF grant has been awarded for the RP Education (DUE Award Number 0302314: Technician Education in RP and Virtual Manufacturing Technologies). Project team members organized a workshop on Training the RP trainers at San Diego City College from July 27 to August 1, 2003. Tennessee Tech University (TTU) faculty and assistants attended this workshop because TTU was in the process of building a RP Lab and organizing workshops for high school students/instructors. This paper intends to report learning practices, adaptations, and implementations accomplished via this workshop.

The State of the Art The mission for all instructors is to educate their students the best way possible. Their teaching techniques should challenge, educate, and promote the students' innovative thinking1. The lecture-based format of teaching, which predominates in engineering education, may not be best to achieve these technical learning goals2. Through the lecture method, an instructor introduces students to course work by producing notes on a chalkboard or overhead projector. The instructor then hopes that students can regurgitate this collected information on their homework or exams. Some classes, if students are lucky, have accompanied laboratory practices where they can gain hands-on experience. There have been several attempts to revise engineering curriculum to improve understanding and foster creative thinking3. RP laboratories and practices may bridge lecture based education and laboratory execution in design and manufacturing courses, and then increase students’ comprehension. “Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Conference & Exposition Copyright©2004, American Society for Engineering Education”

• Citation

• Format
  • APA
  • APA - LaTeX bibitem
  • MLA
  • MLA - LaTeX bibitem
  • Bibtex
  • EndNote - RIS

McGough, A., & Nocton, C., & Patton, K., & Fidan, I. (2004, June), Hands On Workshop Based Learning Of Rapid Prototyping Paper presented at 2004 Annual Conference, Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--13726