2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This work in progress (WIP) paper focuses on two aspects of upper-division undergraduate mechanical design courses: (1) how the engineering design process is enacted in the course and (2) how fabricating physical artifacts relates to course learning outcomes in design and analysis. In this work, we conduct an extensive review of undergraduate mechanical engineering curricula across several institutions to understand students’ design and analysis backgrounds prior to taking upper-division mechanical design courses. We also develop two survey instruments focused on project-based learning within mechanical design courses. The first survey focuses on how the design process is enacted by students during their projects. The second survey examines how students make fabrication decisions to support their project work.

A pilot study using both instruments was performed with undergraduate students who had previously taken an upper-division mechanical design course. Preliminary results from the design survey highlight generally high student engagement with multiple stages of the design process but suggest limited participation in both user-oriented design and analysis. Initial results from the fabrication survey suggest wide variation in the extents to which availability, advising, design decisions, and project management influence fabrication decisions. This decision process should be explored further through qualitative follow-up questions in future work. Additional future work includes (1) refining survey instruments, (2) survey deployment to faculty, machine shop / makerspace staff, and broader student study participants, and (3) examining results disaggregated by different curricular and project contexts.