Title: Introduction to Engineering Problem Solving A New Course for 1100 First Year Engineering Students
1Introduction to Engineering Problem Solving - A
New Course for 1100 First Year Engineering
Students
- Richard L. Porter, Laura J. Bottomley, Mary Clare
Robbins, - Sarah A. Rajala, Hugh Fuller, and Walthea V.
Yarbrough - College of Engineering
- Academic Affairs
- North Carolina State University
2Objectives of Course Development
- Desire to inculcate engineering problem solving
early in the curriculum - Stimulate interest in disciplinary
problem-solving - Firmly based on the ABET 2000 outcomes
- Integration with other first year
courses/content - Introduce multidisciplinary problem-solving
- Utilize teams, cooperative learning, and critical
thinking - Integrate with Introduction to Computing
Environments - Build upon the best practices from other SUCCEED
sponsored innovative courses IMPEC (Felder), - E123 (Ollis), and ECE 292D (Brickley).
3Schedule of Scale-Up
- Fall 1996 - special sections offered to 250
randomly selected first year engineers - extensive assessment of changes in attitudes
about engineering - Fall 1997 - offered again to 295 students
- cross over into regular sections was designed and
encouraged - Spring 1998 - planning with faculty involved with
previous SUCCEED sponsored innovative courses - Student Engineering Leaders selected
- Summer 1998 - two new dedicated computer
laboratories (NT) installed using donated H-P
equipment - Studio physics approach
- Fall 1998 - all 1134 freshmen engineers enrolled
- 6 lecture sections, 15 lab sections alternating
with 15 computing sections - Two rotations through the E123 device-dissection
laboratory
4Identified Contents of New Course
engineering problem solving
decision making
ability to apply math and science
oral communication
data analysis and interpretation
written communication
multidisciplinary teamwork
critical thinking
probability and statistics
contemporary issues
safety
societal impact
ethics
ability to apply computing skills
experimental design
system design
study skills
time management skills
research skills
library/web skills
choosing a major
broader view of engineering
individual vs. team learning
modeling
5Identified Delivery Methodologies
cooperative learning collaboration
hands-on learning
active learning
open-ended thinking
project-oriented
lecturing
integration of fundamentals with engineering
problems
integration of communications with problem
solving
integration of different engineering disciplines
integration of computing skills with problem
solving
critical thinking
high professor/ student interaction
contact
communication oriented
6Course Structure
- Lecture
- One large section per week (200 students)
- Individual assignments /In-class team activities
- Faculty and graduate TA
- Texts custom designed Eide, et al., and
Eisenburgs Technical writing - Laboratory
- One section every other week (48 students)
- Facilitated by undergraduate teaching assistants
- studio physics approach - 8 students/4 PCs -
circular table - Alternate week - Introduction to Computing
Environments - Mechanical-Dissection Laboratory
- Team-based assignments/reports
- Team based multidisciplinary design projects
- Departmental Information/Visitation sessions
7Integrated Problem 1
- Home Insulation
- Utilize spreadsheet calculations, plotting
subroutines - Determine optimum thickness for home insulation
- dimensions given, constants, insulation cost per
inch, energy cost - Calculations
- Dimensional analyses
- costs per inch
- energy cost per inch
- optimization from spreadsheets and graphical
analyses - Writeup
- Full technical report required
- Evaluation
- E115 Lab instructors
- E497F instructors
8Integrated Problem 2
- Chemical Reactor Design
- Utilize spreadsheet calculations, plotting
subroutines - Determine optimum temperature for maximum yields
of a CSTR - Mass balances given
- Calculations
- Concentrations as function of temperature
- calculate fractional conversions
- optimization from spreadsheets and graphical
analyses - Writeup
- Full technical report required
- Design decisions
- Ethics discussion
- Evaluation
- E115 Lab instructors
- E497F instructors
9Integrated Problem 3
- Cellular Telephony
- Placement of cellular phone towers to serve an
area in which towers are forbidden - understanding of cellular spectrum, assignment,
reuse factors, number of potential customers,
signal/noise ratio, political issues. - Graphical solutions
- use WWW to research problem
- Calculations
- Graphical layout
- determine number of cells and placement
- Simple spreadsheet calculations
- Optimize signal/ noise ratio
- Consider political solutions
10Student Engineering Leaders
- 16 undergraduate engineering students selected
- 1 selected as senior student leader
- 10 hours/week required
- stipend provided
- Students recruited from
- all women undergraduate engineering students
- all underrepresented minorities in the college
- all students enrolled in previous offering of
course - Selection criteria
- solid academic achievements
- demonstrated leadership
- knowledge of various computing platforms and
languages - willingness to function as mentors
11Design Projects
- Team Based
- multidisciplinary contents
- 4-5 weeks to complete
- Projects
- Balsa wood bridge
- Catapult
- Web page design
- Battery operated device
- Requirements
- Team report
- Structure/device/web page
- strength to weight/ speed/accuracy
- Presentation
12Design Projects
- Bridge - The bridge should be non-metallic and
should be constructed from Balsa wood and/or
pasta, rest on two supports placed 24 inches
apart, and must span the distance between the
supports. The bridge that holds the most weight
relative to its weight will be judged the winner. - Only hot glue and wood joints are allowed.
13Design Projects, contd
- Catapult - The catapult should be designed to
throw one large marshmallow. Although the power
of the catapult is at the discretion of the
builder, the catapult design will be judged using
the following criteria weight of the catapult,
distance object is projected, and accuracy of a
mathematical prediction. The winning catapult
design will be the one that propels the object
the farthest, is the lightest in weight, and is
most true to its mathematical prediction
14Design Projects, contd
- Web Page Design - Create a Web page for the
E497F class. The winning page may be used as the
E497F homepage. The purpose of this page is to
inform visitors about the Introduction to
Engineering course. It should identify the
subject matter included in the course, it should
describe the laboratory component, and the
grading for the course. The page should be
interesting and should hold visitor's attention.
Each project must include a mathematical analysis
and prediction for access time from a specified
machine. The winning page will include a variety
of special effects and content, e.g.,
backgrounds, images, animated gifs, links to
other appropriate pages, client-side image maps,
Javascript, etc.
15Design Project, contd
- Battery Operated Device - Develop a
battery-operated device that addresses one of the
following categories quality-of-life
improvement, improvement in education, commercial
value and/or entertainment. The device should be
portable, self-contained, and able to operate
independently of other supplementary equipment,
should not interface with any line-powered
device(s), and is restricted to alkaline AAA, AA,
C, D, 9-volt, and/or lantern batteries. Each
project should include a mathematical model that
calculates the lifetime of the device and the
power consumption.
16Assessment of Lecture
"disagree" and
"agree" and "strongly agree"
question
mean
neutral
"strongly disagree"
the in-class presentations were
3.67
15.3
14.0
70.6
helpful in gaining an understanding
about the nature of engineering
the departmental information
3.30
25.6
22.2
52.2
sessions presented useful information
I understand the value of keeping an
2.84
39.6
28.0
32.4
engineering journal
the class helped me see the links
3.42
18.4
23.1
58.4
between engineering, math,
chemistry, physics, and computer
science
the course helped me understand
3.31
22.6
26.0
51.3
what to expect from my academic
adviser
1 strongly disagree, 5 strongly agree
N830
17Assessment of Laboratory
"disagree" and
"agree" and "strongly agree"
question
mean
neutral
"strongly disagree"
mechanical dissection Take-Apart laboratory
2.99
34.2
25.2
40.4
2.94
34.4
29.4
36.3
cellular telephony laboratory
2.97
chemical reactor design laboratory
33.0
31.1
35.9
3.63
17.0
17.4
65.4
engineering design project
32.9
26.7
40.3
overall, the laboratory was enjoyable
3.05
1 strongly disagree, 5 strongly agree
N830
18Acknowledgements
- Funding provided by
- SUCCEED
- College Of Engineering, NC State University
- Office of the Provost, NC State University
- Hewlett-Packard Company