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Session 2553

Undergraduate Design and Research Experience at UW-Platteville

Abulkhair M. Masoom, Fahmida R. Masoom University of Wisconsin-Platteville

Introduction

Although there have been many different approaches and program mixes, the main focus in undergraduate engineering education still is to provide an education and training in engineering principles and design. It is constantly changing to meet the changing needs of students. These changes are prompted by industry demands, advances in technology, and availability of powerful and affordable tools and equipment. Involvement of undergraduate engineering students of different levels in research projects with different levels of guidance from faculty or engineers from industry has been found to have positive outcomes.

At the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, several initiatives have been undertaken to expose undergraduate engineering students to engineering design. Apart from the conventional upper level engineering design courses and senior capstone design courses, the most recent initiative has been the introduction of design at the freshman level in the Introduction to Engineering course required for all incoming freshmen. Another undergraduate research program - Pioneer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (PURF) initiated about a half dozen years ago at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville has been instrumental in providing first hand research experience to undergraduate students. What follows is an account of this program which has produced a good number of graduate students or research and development engineers for industry, and a brief description of the freshman design experience.

The PURF Program

The purpose of the Pioneer Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program is to encourage undergraduate students to participate in research or other creative projects under the direction of a faculty member. It is hoped that this opportunity will stimulate an interest in pursuing graduate work in the area of the students' research or creative activity. Five fellowships are awarded annually. Undergraduate students with at least Junior standing with a minimum core GPA requirement are eligible to compete. Students have to be enrolled during the academic year and group projects are not allowed. Applications are processed and awards are announced during the months March-April every year. Recipients are expected to develop a report or paper on the results of their activities. Each fellow is required to present the results of his/her efforts at a luncheon during the spring of the following year. Recipients are encouraged to present their work at national or regional meetings.

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Masoom, F. R., & Masoom, A. M. (1997, June), Undergraduate Design And Research Experience At Uw Platteville Paper presented at 1997 Annual Conference, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 10.18260/1-2--6844