2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The power of engineering simulation tools is well known in industry; simulation skills are listed as a key area for new graduates. Another benefit simulation can add to a curriculum is aiding students in visualizing phenomena, particularly in “real-world” scenarios. But the tools themselves can be overwhelming for early-years students who could benefit most, requiring additional instruction time in already packed curriculums for full efficacy. In this paper, we present work in progress to leverage recent developments where the Ansys simulation suite has become more accessible through APIs and Python libraries, allowing the development of teaching resources designed for the higher education classroom. This work looks to bring the benefits of simulation into the curriculum without additional student training requirements.

Two implementation approaches will be discussed here. The first utilizes the Jupyter Notebook (or equivalent) interface to engage with the software. Students and instructors can interact with either the code or the simulation tools if desired, providing opportunity to expand depending on course needs. The second approach involves a Python-based application with front-end user interface. Students in this case interact with the desired visualizations via a simple “app”, leaving the more complex simulation software unseen in the background.

Details of the teaching resource creation process, implementation challenges, and example curriculum integration opportunities will be shared, as well as preliminary feedback from academics and students using the tools presented. Our hope with this work is to lower the energy barrier for including simulation in the engineering curriculum, allowing students to take advantage of the visualization capabilities and familiarize themselves with the concepts of simulation tools early in their degree journey.