2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

To increase student interest in the graduate program, and to increase retention in the undergraduate program of mechanical engineering, energy conversion course was incorporated to provide an avenue to apply fundamental concepts to practical scenarios and provide design solutions for mini steam power plants. This strategy improved the fundamental grasp, confidence, ethics, and responsibility of engineering students. Towards the middle of this course, local engineers from the industry were invited to give a guest talk related to energy conversion applications incorporated in their respective industries. This course covered topics related to the application of regeneration, reheating in boilers to solve a complex project related to setting up a steam power plant, analysis of jet engines and gas turbines, and application of sunlight for chemical energy conversion and storage through Hydrogen production. This course also contained an ethics component to meet one of the ABET requirements. Through individual exams, group projects, presentations, group design/analysis, and attending presentations from industry personnel, the student's performance was evaluated. Additionally, an outgoing survey was taken from the students. The overall rating of this course was 4.53/5 and the students' survey indicated excellent application-based learning. 6 graduate and 7 undergraduate students took this course and 4 out of those 7 undergraduate students who took this course as an elective signed up for the accelerated masters’ program track, thereby suggesting an increase in retention, participation, and improvement in the curriculum through such applied courses.