Enhancement of Mechanical Engineering Degree through student design competition as added value. Considerations and viability

Abstract

Enhancement of Mechanical Engineering Degree through student design competition as added value. Considerations and viability.This paper propose using a student design competition as an learning tool in the Mechanical Engineering Degree for enhancing the general competences and motivation of the students, transferring theoretical knowledge to practical situations and bringing together all courses involved under a common framework.This constitutes an added value that the in-person universities should offer to their students as a consequence of the Bologna process and the raising of open online resources for self-learning.In order to assess the viability of this proposal, a pilot Competition-DesignActivity (CDA) is presented using project-based learning methods during a Mechanism Theory course for sophomore students. Meanwhile, twenty seven participants of a forty five-student course from a European university took part in the pilot CDA, which consisted on redesigning the motorbike rear suspension used in a student design competition. Participants also completed mid-term and final exams as well as a survey to get their perception of this activity.Based on the success of the pilot CDA, the authors are planning to implement the proposal, including similar CDAs in other Mechanical Engineering courses to use the competition as a link between them and to encourage students to participate on the competition.

The Role of Engineering Design in Technological and 21st Century Competencies Capacity Building: Comparative Case Study in the Middle East, Asia, and Europe

“…The engineering learning value of design competitions have been emphasized in several other studies. Such values includes, among others, integrating theories from different courses into applicable development, computer aided design, practical experience, industry-like authentic experience, interdisciplinary engineering experience [10][11][12][13][49][50][51][52]. The educational benefits in engineering learning of design competitions can be understood from the perspective of learner-centric, experiential, project-based, and constructivist pedagogy theories [53][54][55][56][57][58].…”

“…Apart from development of core technical engineering competencies, the collaborative, constrained, and inter-/multi-disciplinary nature of engineering design and competitions could lead also to development of several soft skills or competencies [11,13]; however, there is very limited reports of in-depth research on the impact on non-technical skills development. The research reported in this paper measured, among others, the impact of an automotive EDC on engineering competencies using a four-dimensional model of the 21st century skills of modern engineering and technology talent [14,15].…”

“…In other cases, the complex design experience and competitions were utilized as a framework for integrating engineering learning from freshman to senior years in engineering schools, enhance engineering learning, and/or platform for project based learning [10][11][12][13]. Automotive EDCs promote learning and mastery of limitless set of technical and engineering concepts and approaches mastery, such as: computational fluid dynamics, control design, solar engineering, chassis design, combustion, computer aided design and simulation, prototyping, testing, materials engineering, thermodynamics, systems engineering, modelling, fuel efficiency, optimization, aerodynamics, embedded systems, mechanics, manufacturing, numerical analysis, safety engineering, sensing and actuating, computer aided analysis, reliability engineering, etc.…”

New technical elective recognizing experiential learning in competitive engineering teams: A report from the inaugural offering of the course

“…Informally, the value of these student competitions is widely known, since it is common for vehicle manufacturers to recruit from these events. In recognition of this value, various attempts have been made to incorporate competitive vehicle teams into formal curricular courses [2,4,5,6,7,9]; many universities offer the option of using a portion of the vehicle design as a capstone project for a small group of students. In addition to the existing capstone option, in 2017-2018 McMaster Engineering introduced the option of using vehicle project work as a technical elective.…”

Board # 64 : Highlighting and Examining the Importance of Authentic Industry Examples in a Workforce Development Certificate Program

“…de-Juan et al 11 note that while problem based learning is more about generating knowledge, project-based learning is concerned with bring that knowledge to bear on a project that is illdefined. Project-based learning has also been associated with improved self-efficacy 12 .…”