2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Review of a Design Methodology in a Client-Based, Authentic Design Curriculum

Presented at Design in Engineering Education Division (DEED) Technical Session 13

The curriculum at a small, urban, private school is centered around a series of hands-on, client-based design courses called the [redacted]. Projects are completed during an entire academic year. Faculty serve in a dual role of technical consultants and as academic coaches through the program.

A faculty committee tasked with the responsibility to review, develop, and implement design course work performed a mid-semester progress report of students teams as part of a regular curricular review, and realized that a majority of teams were behind schedule for the prescribed project lifecycle and timeline. This realization from a collective team status update prompted a review of project expectations and milestone accomplishments across three levels of student teams (i.e. sophomore, junior, and senior). Design project teams in all three levels originally followed the same two semester project lifecycle, divided into four phases: Identify Requirements, Characterize Design, Optimize Design, and Validate Design, commonly referred to as ICOV. The status reports revealed that senior teams were on track with the prescribed project lifecycle, while the junior and sophomore teams required additional resources (e.g. time and faculty support). This performance evaluation prompted the faculty committee to develop new project timelines scaleable to the skill levels of the project teams. Additionally, this assessment of team progress also provided an opportunity to redefine the project phases to better represent the types of problems historically researched by the teams and the sequence of tasks performed throughout the semesters. The committee rebranded the four phase project lifecycle with custom phase definitions: Identifying requirements, Develop Preliminary Design, Develop Detailed Design, and Final System Design. The updated phase definitions were created to provide more structure for the student teams and better capture what the school’s design process was in practice rather than in theory.

This paper will present the original and revised project phases and the review of the design process. This process should be of interest to programs with capstone experiences.

Authors

Dr. Megan Hammond University of Indianapolis [biography]

Megan Hammond received her Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Western Michigan University. She is an assistant professor in the R.B. Annis School of Engineering at the University of Indianapolis. Her research interests include cluster analysis, anomaly detection, human centered design, and engineering education.
Dr. Kenneth Reid http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2337-7495 University of Indianapolis [biography]

Kenneth Reid is the Associate Dean and Director of the R.B. Annis School of Engineering at the University of Indianapolis and an affiliate Associate Professor in Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. He is active in engineering within K-12, serving on the Technology Student Association and Solid Rock International Boards of Directors, and has recently co-authored a high school text, "Introduction to Engineering".
Dr. Stephen J. Spicklemire University of Indianapolis [biography]

Has been teaching physics at UIndy for more than 35 years. From the implementation of "flipped" physics class to the modernization of scientific computing and laboratory instrumentation courses, Steve has brought the strengths of his background in physics, engineering and computer science into the classroom. Steve also does IT and engineering consulting.
Dr. Joseph B. Herzog http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2441-6169 University of Indianapolis [biography]

Joseph B. Herzog is an Assistant professor in the R.B. Annis School of Engineering at the University of Indianapolis. He chose to come to the University of Indianapolis because he is passionate about teaching, is excited about the direction of the new R.B. Annis School of Engineering, is glad to return to his engineering roots, and is happy to be close to his extended family. Previously he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Arkansas. He is truly grateful for his time at the University of Arkansas, and enjoyed his department, students, and the campus. While in Fayetteville, he also served as a faculty in the Microelectronics-Photonics Program and the Institute for Nanoscience and Engineering. He received his PhD from the University of Notre Dame working in the Nano-Optics Research Lab with J. Merz and A. Mintairov. After this he was a Welch Postdoctoral Research Associate, researching plasmonic nanostructures at Rice University with Douglas Natelson in the Department of Physics & Astronomy. In the summer of 2017 he was a Fellow at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington, DC working with Jake Fontana on tunable subnanometer gap plasmonic metasurfaces as part of the Office of Naval Research Summer Faculty Research Program. At the NRL he worked in the Center for Biomolecular Science and Engineering, which is a division of the Materials Directorate at the NRL. His experience also includes working for Intel Corporation both in Hillsboro, OR and Santa Clara, CA; and he worked at the Berliner Elektronenspeicherring-Gesellschaft für Synchrotronstrahlung m.b.H. (BESSY - Berlin electron storage ring company for synchrotron radiation) in Berlin, Germany, researching ultra thick high-aspect-ratio microfabrication. His research focuses on experimental nano-optics, including plasmonics, nanofabrication, computational modeling, photonic crystals, and engineering education.
Dr. Suranga Dharmarathne University of Indianapolis [biography]

Dr. Suranga Dharmarathne is an Assistant Professor of Engineering at the R.B. Annis School of Engineering at the University of Indianapolis. He earned his PhD. in Mechanical Engineering from Texas Tech University in 2015. At Texas Tech University, he received the competitive Teach Fellowship from the Teaching, Learning, and Professional Development Center in the 2012-2013 academic year. Then he pursued his postdoctoral work in computational fluid dynamics at Purdue University West Lafayette, IN before working at the University of Indianapolis. Dr. Dharmarathne's research mainly focuses on solving fluid dynamics problems related to energy, environment, and health. He is also interested in the scholarship of teaching and learning and developing an entrepreneurial mindset in students. Dr. Dharmarathne strongly believes in experiential learning and active learning and incorporates them into his classes. He is a member of ASEE, ASME, and APS.
Dr. David Olawale http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1644-7790 University of Indianapolis [biography]

Dr. David Olawale is an Assistant Professor of Engineering at the R. B. Annis School of Engineering (RBASOE), University of Indianapolis. He has experience in research and development in composite materials, energy storage and technology commercialization. He has published over fifty peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and conference papers, including lead editor of the book, Triboluminescence: Theory, Synthesis, and Application (Springer, 2016). He co-authored several book chapters including a chapter in the book, Nanotechnology Commercialization: Manufacturing Processes and Products, (Wiley, 2017). At the RBASOE, he focuses on the development of entrepreneurial mindset in engineering students. He combines practical technology commercialization experience from co-founding two technology startup companies and serving as a consultant for others. He is a bridge builder for promoting innovation through collaborations among different disciplines including engineering, business, as well as art and design. His effort led to the founding of the Center for Collaborative Innovation at the RBASOE. He is also the president and founder of Valgotech LLC, a company that was awarded the highly competitive Small Business Technology Transfer and Research (STTR) Phase 2 grant by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop advanced Lithium Sulfur batteries for drones and other applications.
Dr. Najmus Saqib University of Indianapolis [biography]

Najmus Saqib is an Assistant Professor in the R.B. Annis School of Engineering at the University of Indianapolis (UIndy). Saqib received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Colorado School of Mines (CSM), focusing on "Optical Diagnostics of Lithium-Sulfur and Lithium-Ion Battery Electrolytes using Attenuated Total Reflection Infrared Spectroscopy". He likes to use innovative pedagogical techniques to facilitate student learning.
Christopher M. Stanley
Dr. George D. Ricco http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4993-2971 Miami University [biography]

George D. Ricco is an engineering education educator who focuses on advanced analytical models applied to student progression, and teaching first-year engineering, engineering design principles, and project management.

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