2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Cutting Edge Education: Exploring Continuous Improvement in CNC Training Across Academic Levels

Presented at Manufacturing Division (MFG) Technical Session 2

We are evaluating the art of designing a course to allow students to explore their creativity while honing their technical design skills. We do so by analyzing and comparing the development and learning of two cohorts in a computer-numerical-control (CNC) manufacturing course. The cohorts analyzed in this work are: (1) bachelor granting degree students majoring in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and/or Industrial & Systems Engineering who complete the course over 6 weeks and (2) high school students who complete the course over 4 days. Alongside , using qualitative based research methods, we analyze student perception of personal learning progression as well as the intuitiveness of creative problem-solving. Results show that confidence level and knowledge after labs and lectures increase for both cohorts; however, underclassmen high schoolers have a slightly higher average for both. High schoolers also show a discrepancy in more knowledge gained with a slight drop in confidence after lab 2 when they are beginning to grasp more difficult concepts. This discrepancy indicates that high schoolers understand the knowledge leap taken from lab 1 to lab 2 but are not confident in their abilities to put that knowledge into practice. Future work will collect data from more high school and college cohorts to support the trends observed and produce statistically significant findings. There will also be an analysis done comparing the perceived knowledge from on-line surveys to learning outcomes from technical quizzes delivered throughout the proposed course.

Authors

Andrea Camacho-Betancourt University of Florida
Dr. Katie Leanne Basinger University of Florida [biography]

Lecturer and Undergraduate Program Coordinator at The University of Florida, in Industrial and Systems Engineering. My research is focused on practical applications of active and supplemental learning techniques for Generation Z students.
Dr. Sean R Niemi University of Florida [biography]

Sean R. Niemi is a Lecturer in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UF, and founder of the MERGE (MEchanical engineeRing desiGn pEdagogy) Lab focusing his research and teaching efforts on Capstone Design, Mechanical Design, and Design for Manufacturing.
Iris V. Rivero http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5542-0836 University of Florida [biography]

Dr. Iris V. Rivero is the Paul and Heidi Brown Preeminent Chair and Department Chair of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Florida. She received her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering from Penn State University. Prior to UF, she served as the Kate Gleason Professor and Department Head of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). In addition, she was a member of the faculty and Associate Chair in the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering at Iowa State University. Her research group iMED (Interdisciplinary Manufacturing Engineering and Design) laboratory specializes in research to design scalable hybrid manufacturing techniques of a wide array of material systems ranging from biopolymers, metal alloys, and concrete. Her research expertise is in additive and hybrid manufacturing processes, and biomanufacturing. Applications of her research extend to applications ranging from in-situ nondestructive testing of manufacturing processes to design of Additive Manufacturing alloys for aerospace and biomaterials for tissue engineering. She was a fellow at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center. She has over 100 peer-reviewed publications and over 100 invited talks and presentations. She is a fellow in the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE).

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