2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

At a large Midwest university, we have been running an innovative program that allows students, from freshmen to senior students, to be engaged in hands-on learning using a Project Based Learning framework with a flipped classroom approach. While the aerospace engineering department runs this program, it is open to all students and has a diverse and multidisciplinary group of students involved. Over the last twelve years of running this program, many lessons have been learned. This paper reviews the lessons learned, what changes we have made to the program, and a discussion on continuing adaptations to the program to continue the program over the next ten or more years.

One of the largest challenges with a program like this is how assessment can be done in a fair and unbiased manner. We will discuss how we have adjusted our grading rubrics and approaches over the years, especially as the program grew from around six projects and fifty students to, at its peak, two hundred and eighty students and sixteen projects. Over the years, we have learned which assessments have effectively evaluated the students while balancing the workload on students and the instructors and teaching assistants involved in the program.

Another challenge with a project like this is the management of a diverse student group and the management of the projects to keep students on track and ensure that deliverables are met while doing this in an academic setting. These challenges, along with the variety of student projects, create unique management situations as some projects are tied to competitions while others are working with a client. We will discuss approaches we have taken to help manage the projects and the systems engineering approach we took to take these issues. This approach also gave us a unique opportunity to teach our engineering students these skills, skills that are only sometimes covered in other courses.

Finally, we will present the impact the program has had on our students. We have collected student comments and feedback that have shown the positive impact the program has had. We also continue to get feedback from our alumni and industrial affiliates involved in the program. We will show these impacts and how we continue to use this feedback to continuously improve the program.