2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This work in progress will describe the motivation, development, preliminary implementation, preliminary results, and planned full implementation and expected results of augmenting a theoretical modeling activity with empirical data as part of a semester long design project in a first year course.

The Biomedical Engineering curriculum begins with a one-credit Introduction to Biomedical Engineering course which is the only core engineering course during the students’ first semester. Since 2017 the course has focused on a semester long design project. Due to changes in constraints as a result of the pandemic, starting in 2020 the project has focused on theoretical modeling to aide in the design of a portable air filtration prototype instead of relying heavily on empirical data gathered in lab settings as in previous offerings. However, while the use of theoretical modeling has great learning outcomes, the students have been mentally overwhelmed by the activity and incapable of effectively applying the learned concepts into practice toward the design of their prototype. The goal is to fill the gap between learning and applying knowledge by providing experiences to help students understand and practice how to reconcile theoretical models with empirical data. The expected outcome is improvement of their final prototype due to use of theoretical modeling in the design process.

Theoretical modeling is new to many students including the skills of 1) extrapolating information from manufacturer’s websites to produce a graph, 2) producing the graph using tools such as Excel, 3) using the graph to determine the dependent variable from an independent variable, and 4) translating this information into an application used to make decisions in the design process. Being able to collect empirical data will support the learning process, specifically points 3 and 4, with a hands-on demonstration of the theoretical information. This experiential addition will also give physical meaning to the theoretical values in the graph and help the students who learn concepts better when connected to a physical experience instead of as mathematical representations.

This specific theoretical modeling activity is intended to help teams choose fans and filters for their filtration systems. A demonstration chamber was designed to allow for various filters to be tested at various fan speeds in order to confirm concepts from the theoretical modeling activity. Pressure and velocity are measured to validate relationships introduced by the theory and how varying fan speed or filter arrangement impacts these measurements. Assembly of the chamber took too long in the fall of 2022 so full implementation was not completed at this time. Preliminary evaluation of the demonstration chamber to compliment the theoretical fan and filter subsystem modeling activity will be gathered by the end of the fall 2022 semester.

For two offerings, the course has used theoretical models for students to learn the skill of how to make specific, data-driven design decisions. The next step has been for students to apply the concepts and relationships in order to size fan and filter subsystems for their project. Full implementation of the demonstration chamber is planned for the fall of 2023 when the collection of empirical data can be done concurrently to theoretical modeling. The final expectation is for this to result in better educated design decisions and more effective prototypes as students bridge the gap between learning and applying by using both empirical data and theoretical modeling.