Introducing the Engineering Design Process to First-Year Students with a Project Focused on Offshore Wind Energy

Gordon Stewart; Maija A. Benitz; Lillian Clark Jeznach; Charles R. Thomas

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Conference: 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Portland, Oregon
Publication Date: June 23, 2024
Start Date: June 23, 2024
End Date: July 12, 2024
Conference Session: First-Year Programs Division Technical Session 4: Design Thinking & Entrepreneurship
Tagged Division: First-Year Programs Division (FYP)
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/47685

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Paper Authors

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Gordon Stewart Roger Williams University

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Dr. Gordon M. Stewart, holding a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has a background in engineering education and renewable energy research. Currently serving as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island, his teaching spans various engineering courses and disciplines and includes mentoring engineering senior design teams. Dr. Stewart's research focuses on offshore wind energy, particularly in the characterization of fatigue and ultimate loads for floating offshore wind turbine concepts.

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Maija A. Benitz Roger Williams University

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Dr. Maija Benitz is an Associate Professor of Engineering at Roger Williams University, where she has taught since 2017. Prior to joining RWU, she taught at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA, after completing her doctoral work jointly in the Multiphase Flow Laboratory and the Wind Energy Center at UMass Amherst.

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Lillian Clark Jeznach Roger Williams University orcid.org/0000-0002-5476-9232

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Dr. Lillian Jeznach is an Associate Professor of Engineering at Roger Williams University. She teaches the first year curriculum as well as upper-level courses related to environmental and water resources engineering. Her research is focused on water quantity and quality in natural and built hydrologic systems.

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Charles R. Thomas Roger Williams University

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Dr. Charles Thomas is a member of the engineering faculty at Roger Williams University. For most of his time at RWU he has taught at least one section of the first-semester engineering course each fall semester, all the while enjoying the opportunity for collaboration with talented faculty colleagues that comes with teaching a multi-section course. He also teaches fluid mechanics and other mechanical engineering elective courses.

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Abstract

This is a complete evidence-based practice paper. In 2019, a new semester-long course project was developed for our university’s first-year engineering program that aimed to introduce students to the engineering design process (EDP) in an engaging and relevant way. Students in our small undergraduate-only engineering program earn Bachelors of Science degrees in Engineering, with a specialization in civil, computer, electrical, environmental, mechanical, or a custom area. Offshore wind energy was chosen as the project topic both for its relevance to the university’s coastal location and because it touches upon many of the subareas of engineering that students can specialize in. To meet the additional goals of strengthening teamwork and project management skills, the team-based project was organized into a series of phases and milestones. During the first phase, students focus on project management and team-building by developing a Team Working Agreement. Phase 2 introduces students to the electrical and mechanical engineering applications of the offshore wind industry, where they apply the EDP to create blades for model scale wind turbines. The phase culminates in a class-wide competition to see which team can produce the most power. In the final phase, civil and environmental engineering applications are introduced. Students again follow the EDP, but this time the focus is on designing towers and floating platforms for their model turbines, to be tested for stability in a small water basin. Additionally, students assess the environmental sustainability of their chosen materials and design. The competitive nature of phases 2 and 3 seeks to motivate students to engage deeply with the work. In the Fall 2023 semester the project was implemented for the fourth consecutive time. This paper explores the efficacy of the most recent offering of the semester-long project in meeting the course learning outcomes, including fluency with the EDP, understanding professional skills, developing team-working skills, documenting designs, and introducing multiple subfields of engineering. Assessment is carried out by investigating student work as well as end-of-semester course surveys. The paper shares lessons learned and provides suggestions for future implementations.

Citation
Format

Stewart, G., & Benitz, M. A., & Jeznach, L. C., & Thomas, C. R. (2024, June), Introducing the Engineering Design Process to First-Year Students with a Project Focused on Offshore Wind Energy Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/47685

TY - CPAPER
AB - This is a complete evidence-based practice paper. In 2019, a new semester-long course project was developed for our university’s first-year engineering program that aimed to introduce students to the engineering design process (EDP) in an engaging and relevant way. Students in our small undergraduate-only engineering program earn Bachelors of Science degrees in Engineering, with a specialization in civil, computer, electrical, environmental, mechanical, or a custom area. Offshore wind energy was chosen as the project topic both for its relevance to the university’s coastal location and because it touches upon many of the subareas of engineering that students can specialize in. To meet the additional goals of strengthening teamwork and project management skills, the team-based project was organized into a series of phases and milestones. During the first phase, students focus on project management and team-building by developing a Team Working Agreement. Phase 2 introduces students to the electrical and mechanical engineering applications of the offshore wind industry, where they apply the EDP to create blades for model scale wind turbines. The phase culminates in a class-wide competition to see which team can produce the most power. In the final phase, civil and environmental engineering applications are introduced. Students again follow the EDP, but this time the focus is on designing towers and floating platforms for their model turbines, to be tested for stability in a small water basin. Additionally, students assess the environmental sustainability of their chosen materials and design. The competitive nature of phases 2 and 3 seeks to motivate students to engage deeply with the work. In the Fall 2023 semester the project was implemented for the fourth consecutive time. This paper explores the efficacy of the most recent offering of the semester-long project in meeting the course learning outcomes, including fluency with the EDP, understanding professional skills, developing team-working skills, documenting designs, and introducing multiple subfields of engineering. Assessment is carried out by investigating student work as well as end-of-semester course surveys. The paper shares lessons learned and provides suggestions for future implementations.
AU - Gordon Stewart
AU - Maija A. Benitz
AU - Lillian Clark Jeznach
AU - Charles R. Thomas
CY - Portland, Oregon
DA - 2024/06/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Introducing the Engineering Design Process to First-Year Students with a Project Focused on Offshore Wind Energy
UR - https://peer.asee.org/47685
ER -