2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Evaluating and Refining Hands-On Systems Thinking and Systems Engineering Activities in Mechanical Engineering Courses

Presented at Systems Engineering Division (SYS) Technical Session 1

Engineering courses often emphasize technical analysis at the expense of systems thinking (ST) and systems engineering (SE) concepts. To better prepare students and address this issue, this multi-institutional project introduces and refines a series of hands-on learning activities designed to integrate ST and SE principles into mechanical engineering courses across three universities. This work has a flipped classroom approach, where online modules are completed outside of the class by students, while hands-on activities during lecture reinforce concepts in an engaging manner. This effort has developed three different 1-hour activities to excite students about engineering principles, while reaffirming knowledge learned outside of class.

This paper describes the refinement of these developed activities, as well as the analysis of the unit assessments and feedback forms from one institution as a part of this program. The activities include a Product Decomposition exercise where students identify subsystems and interfaces within a wind-up toy, a role-playing Case Study based on the 2023 Titan submersible disaster that examines how stakeholder expertise and bias shape real-world system decisions, and a Paper Airplane Design Challenge focused on teamwork, budgeting, and adapting designs to changing conditions.

Recent updates to these activities account for differences in resources and classroom settings across universities. The revised instructional guides now include clearer prompts, standardized assessments, and embedded reflection questions to help students connect each exercise to broader systems concepts. A fourth activity is also being developed to extend current learning objectives through a rapid prototyping design challenge that emphasizes iterative improvement, solution-neutral thinking, and articulating mission-driven ideas.

To build on recent refinements, student feedback and assessment data from Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 are being analyzed. The quantitative data come from unit assessments and Likert-scale surveys, while the qualitative data come from open-ended responses that capture student engagement and perceptions. Machine learning tools are being used to identify themes related to engagement, clarity, and overall activity design. This mixed-methods approach aims to reveal both the educational benefits and the implementation challenges of integrating ST/SE-focused activities into early engineering coursework.

The results of this analysis will help guide future iterations of the activities, helping development of new instructional materials to strengthen ST/SE concepts in early classes. Additionally, it will help guide implementation into a broader range of classroom settings to help bring this material to a broader audience. Ultimately, this effort seeks to prepare students for challenges with the necessary toolset for success in modern engineering practice.

Authors

Lucas Ian Pierce South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
Dr. Micah Lande http://orcid.org/https://0000-0003-4964-5654 South Dakota School of Mines & Technology [biography]

Micah Lande, PhD is an Associate Professor and E.R. Stensaas Chair for Engineering Education in the Leslie A. Rose Department of Mechanical Engineering at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology. Dr. Lande directs the Holistic Engineering Learning Lab and Observatory. He teaches human-centered engineering design, design thinking, and design innovation courses. Dr. Lande researches how technical and non-technical people learn and apply design thinking and making processes to their work. He is interested in the intersection of designerly epistemic identities and vocational pathways. Dr. Lande received his B.S. in Engineering (Product Design), M.A. in Education (Learning, Design and Technology) and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering (Design Education) from Stanford University.
Dr. Cassandra M Birrenkott http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6137-0820 South Dakota Mines [biography]

Dr. Cassandra (Degen) Birrenkott received her B.S. degree in Metallurgical Engineering from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in 2007. She received her Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering in 2012 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, studying mechanochemical reactions of a spiropyran mechanophore in polymeric materials under shear loading. She is currently an Associate Professor in the Mechanical Engineering department at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology where her research interests include novel manufacturing and characterization techniques of polymer and composite structures and the incorporation of multifunctionality by inducing desired responses to mechanical loading.
Hannah Benes South Dakota School of Mines and Technology [biography]

Hannah Benes is a rising senior in the Leslie A. Rose Department of Mechanical Engineering at South Dakota School of Mines & Technology.
Annelise Larson South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
Dr. Mark David Bedillion http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5065-4131 Carnegie Mellon University [biography]

Dr. Bedillion received the BS degree in 1998, the MS degree in 2001, and the PhD degree in 2005, all from the mechanical engineering department of Carnegie Mellon University. After a seven year career in the hard disk drive industry, Dr. Bedillion was on
Dr. Karim Heinz Muci-Kuchler http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2272-2886 Texas State University [biography]

Dr. Karim Muci-Kuchler is a Professor and Mechanical Engineering Program Coordinator at the Ingram School of Engineering of Texas State University. Before joining Texas State University, he was a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Director of the Experimental and Computational Mechanics Laboratory at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. He received his Ph.D. in Engineering Mechanics from Iowa State University in 1992. His main interest areas include Computational Mechanics, Solid Mechanics, Product Design and Development, and STEM Education. He has taught several different courses at the undergraduate and graduate level, has over 80 publications, is co-author of one book, and has done consulting for industry in Mexico and the US. Dr. Muci-Kuchler is an ASME Fellow.

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 21, 2026, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 24, 2026

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