Integrated 2D Design in the Curriculum:  Effectiveness of Early Cross-Subject Engineering Challenges

Kevin Otto; Bradley Adam Camburn; Kristin L. Wood; Giacomo Nannicini; Roland Bouffanais; Elica Kyoseva; Jean Wan Hong Yong; Dario Poletti; Robert E Simpson; Aditya Prasad Mathur

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Conference: 2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Indianapolis, Indiana
Publication Date: June 15, 2014
Start Date: June 15, 2014
End Date: June 18, 2014
ISSN: 2153-5965
Conference Session: Integration of Engineering and Other Disciplines (Including Liberal Arts)
Tagged Divisions: Multidisciplinary Engineering and Liberal Education/Engineering & Society
Page Count: 18
Page Numbers: 24.763.1 - 24.763.18
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--20655
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/20655
Download Count: 693

Paper Authors

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Kevin Otto Singapore University of Technology and Design

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Dr. Otto is an Associate Professor in the Engineering Product Development Pillar at the Singapore University of Technology and Design. He teaches the design courses as well as disciplinary courses including thermodynamics, and is very interested in multidisciplinary education.

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Bradley Adam Camburn University of Texas, Austin, and Singapore University of Technology & Design

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BSME Carnegie Mellon 2008
MSME University of Texas at Austin 2010
PhD, Mechanical Engineering, Design Methods, University of Texas at Austin, 2014 expected.

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Roland Bouffanais is an assistant professor in the Engineering Product Development (EPD) Pillar at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). He has been a postdoctoral fellow and associate at MIT and still is a research associate with the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. His research group – the Applied Complexity Group – focuses on both fundamental and applied interdisciplinary problems rooted in the field of Complexity. Depending on the very nature of the problem, experiments, analytical theory and computation are considered and practised.

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Elica Kyoseva Singapore University of Technology and Design

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Jean Wan Hong Yong SUTD

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Given that novel discoveries and industrial applications occur at the interface of traditional disciplines, SUTD is indeed a unique institution where the students are given a greater focus on multi-disciplinary education and research. Dr Yong is part of the SUTD biology team teaching introductory biological sciences to all Freshmore students. These students will eventually become a special group of well-rounded engineers and architects for the future. Dr Yong is a biochemist and plant eco-physiologist by training and received his BSc (Hons) and MSc degrees from the National University of Singapore (NUS). His PhD was awarded in 2001 by the Research School of Biological Sciences, Australian National University. Between 2003 and 2004, Dr Yong was the US Fulbright Scholar with Brown University, USA where he focused on climate change sciences and policy issues, and science education. As an educator, Dr Yong had nurtured many students at the two universities (Nanyang Technological University [NTU] and NUS) in Singapore. For his excellent and sustained innovative teachings, he was awarded the 2003 and 2006 Teaching Excellence Awards at the National Institute of Education, and the 2006 Nanyang Award for Teaching Excellence.

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Dario Poletti Singapore University of Technology and Design

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I have obtained a double Master degree in Nuclear Engineering from Politecnico di Milano and Ecole Centrale Paris. In 2009 I was conferred a Joint-PhD in Physics from the National University of Singapore and the Australian National University. I am a theoretician working in quantum many-body systems out of equilibrium. I have a particular interest in ultracold gases and quantum machines and to treat these problem I use a variety of advanced analytical and numerical methods.

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Robert E Simpson

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Aditya Prasad Mathur

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Abstract

Integrated 2D Design in the Curriculum: Effectiveness of Early Cross-Subject Engineering ChallengesAbstractMultidisciplinary engineering design is difficult to teach in the undergraduate curriculum,particularly in the early Freshman and Sophomore years, since the students have not enrolled in abreadth of subjects. Multidisciplinary projects are often left to latter years, thereby leaving thestudents with an incomplete picture of how course subject matters relate and fit in a larger viewof engineering and design. To address this, a novel approach to multi-disciplinary engineeringeducation was instituted in the Freshman and Sophomore years, where during a particular termall courses simultaneously attacked a common design problem. For one dedicated week, thecoursework was stopped and instead all instructors and students simultaneously worked on thedesign challenge problem engaging those courses’ subject matter alone. We call this the 2Ddesign challenge, where the design problem is multidisciplinary, but exclusively restricted to thedomains of the courses being taught.The 2D design challenge approach was highly effective at providing early learning of themultidisciplinary nature of design problems, including statistically significant impact on studentperceptions of their ability to solve multidisciplinary design problems. As an example, coursesin biology, thermodynamics, differential equations, and software with controls were brought intoa 2D design challenge problem of developing a perishable food delivery system composed ofunrefrigerated unmanned ground vehicles. Students designed insulated cartons for transport byUGVs provided for which they also had to develop the motion control and path planning. In self-efficacy assessments, a statistically significant increase was observed in students’ reportedability at solving multidisciplinary problems (p = 0.013) from before and after the challenge.Further, a statistically significant shift occurred in students reported ability to solve designproblems involving materials outside their discipline (p = 0.002). As a further check, one wouldnot expect students to change their perceived ability to solve design problems within theirdiscipline from the 2D experience since it lasts only 1 week, and indeed there was no change(p = 0.25 indicating no change).Recommendations for successful 2D multidisciplinary projects include that instructors establisha priori a chain of design project requirements linking the design activity associated with eachcourse. That is, the design problem should have co-dependent requirements from each disciplinethat cannot be independently determined in isolation. The biology requirement should not besolvable without thermodynamic and systems analysis, for example; all requirements should becoupled yet with design freedom to solve these coupled requirements such as insulationselections, layout, and scheduled delivery time design. This thereby allows for creativity anddependency in the solutions developed and yet allows the instructors to ensure multidisciplinarythinking.

Citation
Format

Otto, K., & Camburn, B. A., & Wood, K. L., & Nannicini, G., & Bouffanais, R., & Kyoseva, E., & Yong, J. W. H., & Poletti, D., & Simpson, R. E., & Mathur, A. P. (2014, June), Integrated 2D Design in the Curriculum: Effectiveness of Early Cross-Subject Engineering Challenges Paper presented at 2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Indianapolis, Indiana. 10.18260/1-2--20655

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -          Integrated 2D Design in the Curriculum: Effectiveness of Early                     Cross-Subject Engineering ChallengesAbstractMultidisciplinary engineering design is difficult to teach in the undergraduate curriculum,particularly in the early Freshman and Sophomore years, since the students have not enrolled in abreadth of subjects. Multidisciplinary projects are often left to latter years, thereby leaving thestudents with an incomplete picture of how course subject matters relate and fit in a larger viewof engineering and design. To address this, a novel approach to multi-disciplinary engineeringeducation was instituted in the Freshman and Sophomore years, where during a particular termall courses simultaneously attacked a common design problem. For one dedicated week, thecoursework was stopped and instead all instructors and students simultaneously worked on thedesign challenge problem engaging those courses’ subject matter alone. We call this the 2Ddesign challenge, where the design problem is multidisciplinary, but exclusively restricted to thedomains of the courses being taught.The 2D design challenge approach was highly effective at providing early learning of themultidisciplinary nature of design problems, including statistically significant impact on studentperceptions of their ability to solve multidisciplinary design problems. As an example, coursesin biology, thermodynamics, differential equations, and software with controls were brought intoa 2D design challenge problem of developing a perishable food delivery system composed ofunrefrigerated unmanned ground vehicles. Students designed insulated cartons for transport byUGVs provided for which they also had to develop the motion control and path planning. In self-efficacy assessments, a statistically significant increase was observed in students’ reportedability at solving multidisciplinary problems (p = 0.013) from before and after the challenge.Further, a statistically significant shift occurred in students reported ability to solve designproblems involving materials outside their discipline (p = 0.002). As a further check, one wouldnot expect students to change their perceived ability to solve design problems within theirdiscipline from the 2D experience since it lasts only 1 week, and indeed there was no change(p = 0.25 indicating no change).Recommendations for successful 2D multidisciplinary projects include that instructors establisha priori a chain of design project requirements linking the design activity associated with eachcourse. That is, the design problem should have co-dependent requirements from each disciplinethat cannot be independently determined in isolation. The biology requirement should not besolvable without thermodynamic and systems analysis, for example; all requirements should becoupled yet with design freedom to solve these coupled requirements such as insulationselections, layout, and scheduled delivery time design. This thereby allows for creativity anddependency in the solutions developed and yet allows the instructors to ensure multidisciplinarythinking.
AU  - Kevin Otto
AU  - Bradley Adam Camburn
AU  - Kristin L. Wood
AU  - Giacomo Nannicini
AU  - Roland Bouffanais
AU  - Elica Kyoseva
AU  - Jean Wan Hong Yong
AU  - Dario Poletti
AU  - Robert E Simpson
AU  - Aditya Prasad Mathur
CY  - Indianapolis, Indiana
DA  - 2014/06/15
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Integrated 2D Design in the Curriculum:  Effectiveness of Early Cross-Subject Engineering Challenges
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/20655
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--20655
ER  -