(459d) Teaching the Value of Communication in the Engineering Design Cycle

For the last ten years, the Introduction to Engineering Design course at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) has evolved from a traditional lecture and design-on-paper course, to an active learning lecture and project-based learning engineering design course. The importance of learning teamwork skills and communication skills are emphasized in the course. Every effort is made to ensure that the design teams are diverse, interdisciplinary, yet academically balanced. The design teams are required not only to research, design, construct, evaluate, test and present (through oral presentation and written reports) their product, but also to develop a mathematical model to predict their product's performance. It is important that the students have a fun yet inexpensive product to design and build, but they must also develop a mathematical understanding of the fundamental engineering principles that make their design work. Through this mathematical modeling the students cultivate the connection between mathematics, science and engineering. Successful engineering design projects have included human powered pumps, hot air balloons, hemodialysis systems, chemically powered vehicles, renewable energy systems, contaminated water purification systems and simulated heart-lung machine.

Over the years it has been observed that the students often overlook the importance of communication during the design process. Therefore, the teams were also evaluated on their ability to effectively communicate their design with their team members and with other teams in their discussion session. The class consists of 210 students; broken into seven discussion sessions, with five teams each ? for a total of 35 design teams. The communication criteria was assessed in addition to the design project criteria. Each team was required to complete their design, mathematical model and testing plans well in advance to their scheduled testing date. Each team gave their design project construction materials and design plans (which include CAD drawings and instructions) to another team in the class which constructed the design. The construction team had one week to construct the design and then passed the constructed design to an evaluation team. The evaluation team tested and evaluated the design based on the testing / evaluation documentation provided by the original design team (the original design team constructs and evaluates two different designs while their design is worked on by other teams). Three days later the evaluation team returned the design, with the construction and evaluation reports to the original design team. The design team then had time to make any necessary modifications / improvements before the final demonstration / testing / evaluation of their design with the instructor. It was hoped that this rotation of the designs within the discussion session will facilitate better communication (both written and oral) between the teams and more successful designs; since each team is required to work on three different designs. The success (or failure or ? logistical nightmare) of the communication criteria of the project is assessed with student surveys, written project report scores and oral presentations. Comparisons are made with previous semester surveys and scores when the designs did not rotate between the teams in each discussion session.