A Web-Based Online Collaboration Tool for Formulating Senior Design Projects

Teaching senior design courses and labs has not been an easy task for the two authors. It has been rather a daunting working task associated with great learning experiences. It was decided early on from the initiation of the mechanical engineering program at the McCoy School of Engineering at Midwestern State University that the senior design project within the senior design class is a testing and enriching experience for senior mechanical engineering students as well as the teaching faculty. The senior design course and labs are conducted as a research experience for undergraduate students and their assigned faculty. The proposed senior project spans over two semesters, fall and spring, where the students experience a full mechanical engineering related project from the inception phase, through the design and construction phases, and finishing with the testing and analysis phases. The inception phase stands essentially for the brainstorming phase where the students are required to come-up with a set of diverse solutions to their assigned project problem. The design and construction phases stand for choosing an optimal particular solution for their problem according to a set of defined criteria. Then, the students start the preliminary design phase with related cost estimation, and then finalize the design with a set of final drawings. After the design phase, the students start building a machine, an apparatus, a prototype or putting together the elements of a process. In this period they work intensely, with their faculty, the purchasing department, and mostly the department machinist, or the surrounding town machine shops. The testing and analysis phase stands for designing an experimental set-up, writing a testing procedure, and obtaining real time recorded data and proceeding with its analysis. In this technical paper, the authors talk about the requirements for a senior project known as the deliverables, the teaching tools used throughout the class work and labs, the students’ partial and final PowerPoints presentations and weekly and final reports. The authors describe the students overall achievements, and the archiving of the projects. Additionally, the authors talk about the twists and turns encountered during a senior project, with students, other faculty, the machinist, the lab technician, the secretary, and suppliers, and other difficulties experienced in running a full project with real final products. Finally, the authors talk about the aftermath of a senior project, eventual publications related to the project, and what is the view point of the American Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET) on these senior projects.

Recognizing students’ preferred learning styles can inform instructional design and support academic success, yet the linkage between learning-style models and teaching practice is often overlooked. In this paper, the interactions between prominent learning style models and both the cognitive and teaching styles are discussed and presented in a novel visual way. Additionally, two courses shared by Electrical Engineering (EE) and Mechanical Engineering (ME) students, and taught by two professors with contrasting teaching styles, are used to assess how instructional approaches interact with learner preferences and outcomes. This research aims to raise two research questions: 1) Should instructors adjust their teaching style based on students’ discipline? 2) Is there a correlation between students’ learning style and their choice of field of study? Four case studies are used to evaluate the impact of teaching styles on the learning of ME and EE students. Results indicate a discipline-specific pattern: EE students predominately display abstract, intuitive, and aural preferences and perform well in theory-oriented settings, whereas ME students more often exhibit concrete, sensing, and kinesthetic preferences and benefit from real-world, hands-on examples to grasp theoretical concepts. These divergent preferences may influence disciplinary orientation and have clear implications for curriculum and pedagogy. While the limited sample precludes definitive conclusions, the observed trends suggest that combining abstract exposition with applied, experiential learning could better accommodate diverse engineering learners.

Innovation in the changing undergraduate engineering curriculum mandates efficient management of interdisciplinary capstone senior design projects. This effort requires collaboration and management of students and faculty from multiple disciplines, and provides students an opportunity to learn from other engineering disciplines. In addition, this approach will i) emphasize problem solving and creative thinking skills; ii) provide students first-hand experience in generating a management plan; iii) expose students to multiple engineering disciplines, and work in diverse, multi-cultural teams; and iv) prepare students with an in-depth understanding of the interdisciplinary skills necessary for success. The senior design project (SDP) presented is based on the interdisciplinary collaboration of electrical, computer, and mechanical engineering students and faculty to design an integrated high altitude balloon system that would reach an altitude of 100,000 feet and return safely to earth. This paper presents methods by which all the above issues are addressed, results obtained over the recent years.

Since Fall 2000, mechanical engineering students at Montana State University (USA) have been required to keep design journals of their senior design projects. The journals are being used now to investigate student design processes. of particular interest is the representations students use to reason about their design problems at different levels of abstraction. The faculty developed a scheme to code the journal data by three design levels (concept, system, and detail) and have applied it to six the team projects (21 individual journals). They then performed a frequency analysis of the different representational forms for design information found in the students' design journals. This paper describes the coding scheme and development, and reports some preliminary findings from the analysis.

In Spring 2008 Central Connecticut State University Department of Engineering offered a new project, named “Lunar Rover Vehicle”, as a senior capstone design project. Main goals of the project were to attract engineering students to aerospace related applications and implement existing NASA educational programs in a senior capstone real-world design challenge. In Spring 2008 engineering technology student team developed conceptual schematics of Moonbuggy vehicle, calculated and optimized several parameters of the frame, suspension system, and transmission mechanism. Many components of Moonbuggy frame, suspension and transmission were designed. In fall 2008, the new mechanical engineering major student team continued working on the existing vehicle. The initial findings were presented at the 47 AIAA Aerospace Science Meeting (Orlando, FL, January 5-8, 2009). In spring 2009 Mechanical Engineering students completed the design and fabrication of Moonbuggy vehicle and participated in 16 NASA Great Moonbuggy Races. Three semesters of experience with the project demonstrated that it is very suitable for offering engineering students unique opportunities to improve their analytical abilities, develop design, organizational and project management skills, gain experience in working in multidisciplinary teams, solve cutting-edge engineering problems, and familiarize themselves with aerospace challenges which will positively impact and enhance their chances of success as practicing engineers.

BackgroundOnline collaboration tools have been identified as potentially effective means for enhancing student learning, motivation, and engagement in science education. However, their effectiveness in improving science education outcomes among middle school students remains uncertain.ObjectivesThe study aimed to investigate the impact of online collaboration tools on science education outcomes among middle school students, focusing on learning achievement, engagement, and motivation.MethodsA quasi‐experimental design with a pretest‐posttest control group was used in this study. A total of 60 eighth‐grade middle school students were involved in the study, with both the experimental and control groups comprising 30 students each. The experimental group incorporated the use of digital collaboration platforms, including Asana, Slack, and Team Viewer, as instrumental components of group project execution and discussion in their science lessons. Conversely, the control group adhered to the current educational approach in Turkey, characterized by the employment of an inquiry‐based learning strategy in their science instruction. Data was collected over eight weeks using a science achievement test, engagement scale, and science motivation scale.ResultsThe experimental group demonstrated significantly higher post‐test scores compared to the control group, suggesting that online collaboration tools positively impacted science education outcomes. Additionally, survey data indicated high levels of engagement and motivation among the experimental group students when using the online collaboration tools.ConclusionsThe findings support the notion that online collaboration tools can effectively enhance learning, motivation, and engagement in science education among middle school students. These results have significant implications for educators, educational institutions, policymakers, and curriculum developers. Further research is needed to examine the potential of these tools in various educational contexts and with different student populations. This will help broaden the understanding of how online collaboration tools can be integrated into diverse learning environments, potentially benefiting a larger number of students and further improving science education outcomes.

In the last decades, the fast growth of Information and Communication Technologies changed our way to communicate and share information. Traditional groups or teams frequently give way to virtual teams, working with tools for online collaboration. Interaction between persons geographically dispersed has become easier. However, the use of new collaboration tools can also bring many challenges. Some technologies, like e-mail, can create delays on reply or even misunderstandings, case the message is not well understood by the recipient. Can these new technologies improve the productivity and enhance the creativity between group members, improving also their confidence and motivation? Although virtual teams have a high capacity to adapt to constant market changes, personal interactions are still important, mainly to clarify tasks and goals. The main purpose of this study is to understand how tools for online collaboration may improve the productivity (and enhance creativity) in teamwork. This study was conducted through an internet platform and the survey was hosted online by SurveyMonkey.com. We intended to verify, among other questions, what users think about different collaboration tools, how often they use these tools, and how they perceive these technologies as adequate ways to communicate, to work with, and to improve productivity. Findings show that e-mail is the most used tool, and personal contact is still more important for teamwork than any tools for online collaboration. Our results contribute to perceive in what extent collaboration tools are indeed an asset or a barrier in teamwork. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n6s4p511

This article provides an overview of senior design in the United States and its impact around the world. Within the United States, the National Science Foundation (NSF) Senior Design Projects to Aid Persons with Disabilities program has provided funding since 1988 to thousands of senior design projects that have been completed by students for persons with disabilities. This program combines the academic requirement of a design experience with enhanced educational opportunities for students, and it improves the quality of life for disabled individuals. Also described are two national design competitions hosted by the Rehabilitation Research's Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center (RERC) on Accessible Medical Instrumentation (AMI) and the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA). In addition, there are a number of biomedical engineering (BMH) programs in the United States that provide an opportunity for students to design and construct projects for individuals in developing countries.

Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and experimental techniques based laboratory courses are used in the mechanical engineering curriculum to equip students with numerical and experimental abilities to solve design problems. Review of mechanical engineering curricula in US universities found no definite structure for the numerical and experimental based laboratory courses to support the core courses. Also, the authors found that due to lack of knowledge about the application of finite element analysis and lack of collaboration of experimental laboratories in the universities and colleges, students are unable to apply theory, numerical tool and experiment, when it comes to complete product design. To be effective product development engineers, students have to know how to use these engineering tools effectively for various mechanical systems to design a product with perfection. This motivated the authors to develop, teach, and evaluate a laboratory course before the senior design project, where students will have hands on experience with product design. The application of theoretical, numerical and experimental techniques, and their interconnectedness, will also be addressed in this new course. The main three learning objectives of this course were: (1) the ability to apply physical and mathematical models to analyze or design the mechanical systems; (2) the ability to use numerical tools (e.g., FEA) and a fundamental understanding of the limitations of such tools; and (3) the ability to correlate the theoretical knowledge with FEA and experimental findings. Some of the issues observed from the previously taught FEA laboratory related course are: (1) students do not understand how to use FEA tools in practical design problems; (2) students are unable to relate the theory with numerical and experimental result; (3) students do not understand the importance of verification of numerical results; and (4) students with knowledge of a particular analysis background have problems setting up the product design requirements dealing with different analysis systems. To overcome these difficulties, the proposed course will select design problems related to heat, fluid, vibration, and fracture and examine the overall design process including preliminary design, material selection, manufacturing, analysis, and testing. Simulating the complexity of “real world” engineering will prepare students for their senior design projects. The main benefits of this course are: (1) application of theoretical, numerical, and experimental techniques to solve a design problem, and (2) hands on experience with design problems.

This research aims to describe; 1) the influence of using pop-up book learning media on student learning motivation, 2) the influence of using pop-up book learning media on student learning outcomes, and 3) the influence of using pop-up book learning media on student motivation and learning outcomes. This type of research is quasi-experimental research using a quantitative approach. The subjects of this research were 30 students in class V of Silih Nara 4 Elementary School. This research design uses One Group Pretest-Posttest Design. Data collection techniques use observation, questionnaires and documentation. The analysis technique uses a simple linear regression analysis test. The research results show that; a) there is a significant influence of the use of pop-up book learning media on student learning motivation, b) there is a significant influence of the use of pop-up book learning media on student learning outcomes, c) there is a significant influence of the use of pop-up book learning media on student motivation and learning outcomes.

NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract Session 2520 An Autonomous Robot—The Ideal Design Project? Paul Giolma, Farzan Aminian and Djaffer Ibaroudene Trinity University/St. Mary's University Abstract This paper describes a senior design project at Trinity University from the 1997-98 academic year. Senior design at Trinity is the culmination of four years of design courses and of integration of design into undergraduate laboratories and into engineering science courses. The autonomous robot designed by four seniors (advised by two faculty) is a four wheel vehicle, powered and steered by two DC motors, controlled by an MIT "Handy Board," with optical en- coders and IR sensors as inputs. Starting from a fixed position, the robot finds its way to a given destination coordi- nate while avoiding randomly placed obstacles along the path. The project is an excellent teaching and learning ex- perience due to the multiple disciplines involved: logic, electronics, control, programming and mechanics. In addi- tion, the project provides the students with a relatively realistic professional experience involving financial and time budgeting, management, meeting of deadlines, making presentations and writing reports. Introduction Probably due to the interdisciplinary nature of the program, design has been an integral part of the undergraduate curriculum in Trinity's Engineering Science program since its inception in the 1960s. From those early beginnings, courses in engineering design have been in the engineering science core—courses with group-oriented projects be- ginning with the first semester and culminating in the senior year with a full year project that builds upon the entire curriculum. The nature of the design element in the engineering science curriculum has evolved considerably in the thirty years since its inception. In the early 1990s, the Department reviewed the design components of the curriculum and redi- rected the emphasis on design to the entire engineering core [1] [2]. Rather than treating design as a separate com- ponent of engineering, the approach adopted by the Department tries to incorporate and integrate engineering sci- ence and design wherever possible in all courses and laboratories. Along with philosophical changes, the availability of new tools to support design (e.g. personal computers, micro- processors and simulation tools such as Spice, MATLAB® and LabView®) have changed the curriculum and the students' ability to engage in and complete more difficult and realistic projects. The 1980s saw the first integration of computers into senior design projects and the advent of projects based on robotics and microprocessors. Besides the obvious benefits of these tools in enhancing the capabilities of students to successfully attack "real-world" problems, these technological advances also promote interdisciplinary projects. Background The design curriculum (in terms of specific courses) begins in the first year, which contains two three-hour courses that include topics in graphical analysis and communication, an introduction to the processes of engineering design, analysis techniques and two competitive design projects (i.e. groups in each semester pursue designs that meet a common set of specifications). First year projects are typically truss or bridge designs (in the first semester) and a "water balloon launcher" in the second. The second year contains two one-hour courses that address design of ex- periments, engineering economics, optimization and a competitive mechanics-oriented project in the second semes- ter. The third year follow in the same (as the second year) format, addressing management of design activities, reli- ability, two competitive projects (electrical in the first semester and thermo/fluids [3] in the second) and initial preparation for the senior project.

This paper outlines a proposed low-cost experimental setup for characterization of surface waves that was designed and fabricated in conjunction with a senior design project. The proposed experimental setup will enhance the student’s learning of surface waves at water-air interface inside an open transparent channel. The experimental study is based on the flow visualization of water waves combined with measurement of water level using a conductance wave height probe. The detail of the data acquisition system and the characteristics of the wave probes are presented. Finally a teaching strategy for implementing the water wave experimental setup in a Mechanical Engineering curriculum is discussed.

Most of the engineering courses focus more on theory and very little on hands-on, project-based learning in the classroom. Integration of real-world engineering problems and applications in lower division engineering courses will produce engineering students, who will be technically sound and be able to execute and manage real-world projects, when they will do senior design projects in their final year of engineering study. To overcome the engineering design challenges we have developed iHOP (Ingenieŕia Hands on Project) and integrate it with our lower division engineering courses. iHOP has been developed to emphasis the design component at the University of Texas at Brownsville (UTB) Engineering Physics curriculum and the project is now an integral part of Introduction to Engineering class. The iHOP project is one that is challenging, fun, requires teamwork, associated with the engineering material being studied, low cost, and doable in a limited amount of time. The experience from iHOP project motivates our freshman students to choose a better senior design project in senior year of their college career. The objectives of the iHOP projects are — to have students develop teamwork skills, and to teach students basic engineering design concepts in a complementary format to the traditional lecture. Various techniques related to team selection, encouraging teamwork, incorporation of engineering topics, keeping costs down, project results presentations, and gathering feedback from students will also be presented in this paper. Integrating iHOP Project with Introduction to Engineering class helped us to improve our retention effort in the engineering department.

The majority of the students who enroll at the Walter Sisulu University (WSU) in South Africa are not equipped with the necessary academic/learning skills to cope with the university environment, especially in Mechanical Engineering. The Department of Higher Education and Training (2013, p. 17), further states that “students’ support is crucial to ensure that students adapt to the demands of college life and that they can meet the demands of college programmes”. Particularly in South Africa, the school environment might also contribute to poor student performance as a result of insufficient student support, and a lack of facilities and resources. In order to address this gap, a Peer-Assisted Learning (PAL) programme was implemented to provide support targeting high-risk subjects for at-risk students in Mechanical Engineering at WSU. The programme therefore is pro-active and student-driven in that senior students assist junior students with their academic work and learning processes. The programme is designed to encourage collaborative and cooperative learning approaches during group sessions and active student engagement to support student learning (Laal & Laal, 2012). The programme requires substantial resources and time commitments. It is important from an operational, learning, and student perspective to understand in what ways the PAL programme assists students (if at all). Eliciting the experiences of students also helps the department to design interventions from a student-centred perspective using the lens of learning theories. This qualitative case study explores the student experience of the Peer-Assisted Learning (PAL) programme. Open-ended questionnaires/survey from 20 first-year students elicited their perceptions and experiences of the PAL programme. Responses were analysed thematically. Findings indicated that the students had useful insights that may contribute to revising the programme. Aspects mentioned were improved study skills, improved time management, and improved communication, problem-solving and presentation skills. The study suggests that the PAL programme also creates a safe (where students of the same age come together to discuss concepts of the subject under the guidance of the senior student as an experienced student), comfortable and conducive environment for first-year students’ learning. However, the gender dynamics within the programme point to revisions needed in the programme to address the gap on the gender balance as only six out of the twenty participants in this study were female. The study contributes to our understanding of aspects of PAL for first-year Mechanical Engineering students at WSU, as it affords students the opportunity to interpret, integrate and apply information/knowledge acquired during lectures and to interact effectively in small-group sessions.

Flushing transfer pipe after radioactive waste transfers generates thousands of gallons of additional radioactive waste each year at the Hanford site. The use of pneumatic pigging with waste soluble pigs as a means to clear transfer piping may be an effective alternative to raw water flushes. A feasibility study was performed by a group of senior mechanical engineering students for their senior design project as part of their curriculum at Washington State university. The students divided the feasibility study into three sub-projects involving: (1) materials research, (2) delivery system design, and (3) mockup fabrication and testing. The students screened through twenty-three candidate materials and selected a thermoplastic polymer combined 50:50 wt% with sucrose to meet the established material performance criteria. The students also prepared a conceptual design of a remote pneumatic delivery system and constructed a mockup section of transfer pipe for testing the prototype pigs.