2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This is a complete evidence-based practice paper. In 2019, a new semester-long course project was developed for our university’s first-year engineering program that aimed to introduce students to the engineering design process (EDP) in an engaging and relevant way. Students in our small undergraduate-only engineering program earn Bachelors of Science degrees in Engineering, with a specialization in civil, computer, electrical, environmental, mechanical, or a custom area. Offshore wind energy was chosen as the project topic both for its relevance to the university’s coastal location and because it touches upon many of the subareas of engineering that students can specialize in. To meet the additional goals of strengthening teamwork and project management skills, the team-based project was organized into a series of phases and milestones. During the first phase, students focus on project management and team-building by developing a Team Working Agreement. Phase 2 introduces students to the electrical and mechanical engineering applications of the offshore wind industry, where they apply the EDP to create blades for model scale wind turbines. The phase culminates in a class-wide competition to see which team can produce the most power. In the final phase, civil and environmental engineering applications are introduced. Students again follow the EDP, but this time the focus is on designing towers and floating platforms for their model turbines, to be tested for stability in a small water basin. Additionally, students assess the environmental sustainability of their chosen materials and design. The competitive nature of phases 2 and 3 seeks to motivate students to engage deeply with the work. In the Fall 2023 semester the project was implemented for the fourth consecutive time. This paper explores the efficacy of the most recent offering of the semester-long project in meeting the course learning outcomes, including fluency with the EDP, understanding professional skills, developing team-working skills, documenting designs, and introducing multiple subfields of engineering. Assessment is carried out by investigating student work as well as end-of-semester course surveys. The paper shares lessons learned and provides suggestions for future implementations.