2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Many engineering students are familiar with rapid prototyping processes such as FDM printing and laser cutting. However, they lack the knowledge and hands-on experience to use these technologies to effectively build robust mechanisms that meet performance requirements. In this study, we introduce an effort to improve student fabrication skills through a targeted lab activity.

This study was conducted in a 300-level mechanical design course at a large Midwestern R1 university. This class has two projects where students design and build devices that are supposed to achieve specific performance criteria. Project 1 is a hand crank operated device, and Project 2 is a motorized robot. Both projects utilize continuous reciprocal motion with linkages and/or gears.

Historically, students make the same fabrication mistakes every semester, resulting in nonfunctional projects and lower grades. These mistakes are typically made in the first project. However, poor quality submissions for both projects highlight some students' lack of training in how to design and build complex machines.

To enhance student project success, a new hands-on lab was implemented to expose students to proper design practices and show what mistakes are commonly made. In the lab activity, students explored five mechanisms: a crank-slider, 4-bar linkage, cam-follower, gear train, and box assembly. During the lab, students assembled and disassembled a “well designed” and “poorly designed” version of each mechanism and answered questions about the reasons one version of the mechanism performed better. These mechanisms were 3D printed, and laser cut, to demonstrate proper use of the fabrication technologies available to students.

An additional objective of the lab was to allow students to identify peers they would be excited to work with on their projects. To facilitate this, the lab utilized a structured seating rotation to foster collaboration.

As a direct measure of the impact of this new lab, we compared the “functionality” category of the project grading from the 2024-2025 academic year to the Fall 2025 semester. We observed that the proportion of students who earned full functionality points increased in comparison to previous years. As an additional indirect measurement of the lab's impact, we surveyed students’ perceptions on the impact of the new lab activity on their preparedness for their first project. Data from the survey indicated that students found the lab activity to be helpful and felt well prepared for their project.

This study demonstrates a practical way to bridge the gap between theoretical and practical knowledge in mechanics education. Additionally, the authors of this paper hope that these open-source designs can be adopted by other institutions to help their students connect theoretical knowledge of mechanics to practical results.