Educational Opportunities of a Designed-based Project that Challenges Freshman Students to Build a Miniature Racing Car

Abstract

This paper introduces a semester long team-oriented, hands-on engineering project to design a miniature racing car that will compete in a series of challenges. Each team, consisting of three to four members, will be given a battery and a motor by the beginning of the semester, and by the end of the semester, must come up with their own unique design, manufacture their design, present it to the class and engineering faculty and staff, and compete in a series of racing challenges. The miniature racing car project awakes a desire of learning about engineering while acquiring useful skills such as problem solving, machining, time management, leadership, teamwork, etc. In addition, the students learn how to utilize engineering software such as MATLAB, SolidWorks, AutoCAD, and others in a creative manner to benefit in the project. The project is centered on the Conceive, Design, Implement, and Operate (CDIO) process, which is an innovative educational technique based on the principle that product, process, and system development are a key context for an engineering education. This project enhances students' learning experience through three categories: knowledge, skills, and competitiveness. This project accomplishes these three categories by helping each individual acquire technical and analytical skills and allowing them to experience what it is like to work on an engineering design using the proper software and hardware tools. First-year engineering students tend to question if they will be able to come up with creative designs and develop innovative devices within a relatively short period of time. Implementing a system engineering and freshman design course in the engineering core that challenges students to build a miniature racing car is beneficial for the students. Educational benefits that have been discovered are that students realize what they are interested in, discover what their roles are as a part of a team, gain soft and technical skills, and enjoy the project overall. The effectiveness of the project was quantitively measured through surveys that exposed the students to different aspects of the course. This showed that although most students thought they did not have the skills to successfully complete the project, at the end, they were able to succeed and learn from the experience.

Modular Hydrostatic Vehicle used for Engineering Technology

“…This issue led educators to adopt project-based learning methodologies that reinforce the students' engineering skill sets and enhance their learning experience. Educators started incorporating modern courseware, like modular engineering demonstrators, into the engineering education curriculum [5] [6]. They started using modular demonstrators as pedagogical tools in coordination with traditional techniques to improve the students' professional and technical competence skills [7].…”

“…Studies show that educational demonstrators, e.g., hydraulic remotely controlled vehicles, robotic cars, Etc., can reinforce students' learning through integrating hands-on labs into the laboratory curriculum [13]. Such educational demonstrators have been successfully incorporated into multiple engineering disciplines such as electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and industrial engineering to assist students in acquiring the most difficult-to-grasp engineering concepts [14].…”

Virtual Reality: A Learning Tool for Promoting Learners’ Engagement in Engineering Technology

“…Given the research problem defined in Section 1, developing more realistic and formative teaching methodologies is recommended to be adopted in incoordination with traditional-based techniques [10] [11]. Some educators have been adopting project-based learning (PBL) and competitionbased learning (CBL) as essential tools throughout the teaching process [12] [13] [14]. PBL and CBL are student-centered pedagogical paradigms that offer educators alternative solutions to surpass many of the student's deficiencies associated with losing engagement, self-esteem, motivation, etc.…”

“…In addition to PBL and CBL techniques, educators utilized modular educational demonstrators as interactive tools to reinforce students' learning [13]. Many educators have designed educational demonstrators to be incorporated into classes and laboratories to allow the delivery of course topics/concepts in a more fun and exciting way [23]- [26].…”