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Systems Design Using Real-World Experiences with Industry Abstract

The author has co-developed and taught the following courses related to systems design at the author's School of Engineering: Senior Design Project (3 semester hr) Manufacturing Related Topics in Probability, Statistics and Reliability (3 semester hr) Senior Design Seminar (1 semester hr)

These systems design courses taught in a traditional classroom setting meet ABET criteria. However, by adding the non-traditional elective Applied Systems Design with Industry (3 semester hr) to the systems design curriculum, students have been provided an opportunity for a deeper understanding of the need and benefit for systems design and systems engineering methodology.1

This paper describes: 1. the perceived shortcomings of a systems design course curriculum in a traditional classroom setting; 2. the development of a non-traditional systems design course with the cooperation of a local industry partner; 3. examples of off-campus field trips to the industry partner that support systems design learning experiences; 4. the outcomes, feedback, and experiences from partnering with a local industry;2 5. additional student opportunities resulting from developing a partnership with a local industry.

Perceived Shortcomings to Traditional Systems Design Curriculum

Before I began a career in academia as a professor of (electrical) engineering, I worked in industry for nearly 20 years. A major part of my career was in the military performing duties as an avionics maintenance technician, a flight crewmember in remote operations in Alaska, an avionics systems engineer for the F-16 aircraft, and researcher for guidance and controls systems in an avionics laboratory. Once in front of the classroom, it did not take long before I noticed that my senior students had a good grasp of the individual subjects (circuits, digital electronics, microprocessors, mathematics, physics, etc.), but they lacked a solid understanding of how the pieces integrated and functioned in a sophisticated system. For example, in a design class, students asked me how an electric motor actually worked. When I described the fundamentals of how a motor worked, I also found myself describing to them how a motor is built piece by piece. How I wished I could take my students back to my roots; to a place where raw materials such as copper and iron are fabricated into individual parts and manufactured and integrated together to make an electric motor. I wanted to take them back with me in the field where I worked and learned hands-on. In my mind, having this real-world knowledge seemed both fundamental and essential to better understand how a motor works. Along with finding a way to provide students with the opportunity to study and understand sophisticated systems, I wanted to involve students in systems design and multidisciplinary teamwork. Again, these are concepts that are best

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GRAY, R. (2008, June), Systems Design Using Real World Experiences With Industry Paper presented at 2008 Annual Conference & Exposition, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 10.18260/1-2--3980