2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The Mechanical Engineering Department at XX University is undergoing curricular revisions in the sophomore and junior years to better align with industry needs. As part of this effort, course prerequisite requirements were analyzed using curricularanalytics.org. A particular focus was the dynamic-systems track, a frequent bottleneck for on-time graduation. Currently, students must earn a grade of C in Statics to proceed to Dynamics, and a grade of C in Dynamics to advance to Dynamic Systems Modeling (a differential-equation-based modeling course). Additionally, Dynamic Systems Modeling requires passing grades in both Differential Equations and Electric Circuits.

Although students who struggle with prerequisite courses have opportunities to catch up, this often delays Dynamic Systems (and its successor, Controls) to the senior year, or requires additional time and financial investment through summer or J-term courses. These delays may result in overloaded senior-year schedules and limit students' ability to apply foundational knowledge in their senior courses and capstone projects.

This paper aims to assess the correlations between performance in the prerequisite courses and success in Dynamics and Dynamic Systems. The existence of correlations will be statistically assessed using Chi-squared tests, and the degree of correlation quantified via Cramer’s V. It is expected that Dynamics will have the highest correlation with Dynamic Systems Modeling, and Statics will have the highest correlation with Dynamics, versus all other prerequisite-successor course pairings.

Finally, the results from the dynamic-systems track will be compared to the thermo-fluids track, where no "C" prerequisite rule exists. The findings will help guide potential modifications to the prerequisite structure for the dynamic-systems track at XX University to alleviate bottlenecks while maintaining academic rigor.