Walking on Water Term Design Project in Fundamentals of Engineering

Djedjiga Belfadel; Michael Zabinski; Ryan Munden

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Conference: 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access
Location: Virtual On line
Publication Date: June 22, 2020
Start Date: June 22, 2020
End Date: June 26, 2021
Conference Session: First-Year Programs: Design in the First Year
Tagged Division: First-Year Programs
Page Count: 15
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--35492
Permanent URL: https://strategy.asee.org/35492
Download Count: 740

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Paper Authors

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Djedjiga Belfadel Fairfield University

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Djedjiga Belfadel is an Associate Professor in the Electrical and Bio Engineering department at Fairfield University. She obtained her Ph.D. degree from University of Connecticut in 2015, in electrical engineering. Her interests include embedded systems, target tracking, data association, sensor fusion, machine vision, engineering service, and education.

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Michael Zabinski Fairfield University

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Professor, Mechanical Engineering,Fairfield University, Fairfield, CT

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Ryan Munden Fairfield University

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Dr. Ryan Munden is an adjunct professor of Engineering at Fairfield University. He received his PhD in Applied Physics from Yale University and a BS in Physics from Stetson University. His areas of interest include semiconductor nanowires, nanotechnology education, first-year engineering initiatives, and engineering service, outreach, and education.

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Abstract

Walking on Water Term Design Project in Fundamentals of Engineering Course ASEE 2020 This Complete Evidence-based Practice paper outlines the benefits of incorporating a challenging team design term project into a first-year engineering class for students majoring in electrical, bio, mechanical, and students who have not declared a major. The course provides core engineering knowledge and competencies in a highly interactive course format. Topics include professional skills such as technical writing and presentation, guidelines for professional engineering practice, and career preparation. In this three credit-hour course, an engineering approach to problem-solving is taught with an emphasis on teamwork, communication (oral, and written), creativity, ingenuity, and computer-aided design tools. The instructional approach used in this course involves freshman engineering students as active participants in the learning process. Project-based learning involves implementing projects with hands-on tasks, well-defined outcomes, multiple solutions to the given problem, and linking science and engineering concepts. One of the signature assignments in the course is the “Walking on Water” (WOW) team-based design challenge. Students form design teams. They learn the systematic design process and design verification methods. This introductory design experience culminates with a review and presentation of design and a technical report. This project forms a structured introduction to the implementation of principles of design and engineering methodologies, project management, and presentation skills. Teams must design a system that propels a single person (the “operator”) across the entire length of the University’s swimming pool with a walking or running motion entirely above water. The project is open-ended in the sense that students are allowed to creatively design and fabricate a system that satisfies the requirements. This approach encourages pluralistic thinking wherein students are free to come up with any working design and are not bound by a right/wrong philosophy commonly encountered in exams. Teams learned important lessons about the transition from conception to implementation. One of the most important outcomes of the course was learning to work effectively in teams. At the end of the course, each team was assessed not only on the quality of design but also on team efficacy. The students developed professional socialization skills while preparing their technical reports and oral (PowerPoint and poster) presentations. On the last day of the program, students presented their group projects to a campus audience. In this paper, we report and analyze project data for several years of WOW projects.

Citation
Format

Belfadel, D., & Zabinski, M., & Munden, R. (2020, June), Walking on Water Term Design Project in Fundamentals of Engineering Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--35492

TY - CPAPER
AB - Walking on Water Term Design Project in Fundamentals of Engineering Course
ASEE 2020
This Complete Evidence-based Practice paper outlines the benefits of incorporating a challenging team design term project into a first-year engineering class for students majoring in electrical, bio, mechanical, and students who have not declared a major. The course provides core engineering knowledge and competencies in a highly interactive course format. Topics include professional skills such as technical writing and presentation, guidelines for professional engineering practice, and career preparation.
In this three credit-hour course, an engineering approach to problem-solving is taught with an emphasis on teamwork, communication (oral, and written), creativity, ingenuity, and computer-aided design tools. The instructional approach used in this course involves freshman engineering students as active participants in the learning process. Project-based learning involves implementing projects with hands-on tasks, well-defined outcomes, multiple solutions to the given problem, and linking science and engineering concepts.
One of the signature assignments in the course is the “Walking on Water” (WOW) team-based design challenge. Students form design teams. They learn the systematic design process and design verification methods. This introductory design experience culminates with a review and presentation of design and a technical report. This project forms a structured introduction to the implementation of principles of design and engineering methodologies, project management, and presentation skills. Teams must design a system that propels a single person (the “operator”) across the entire length of the University’s swimming pool with a walking or running motion entirely above water. The project is open-ended in the sense that students are allowed to creatively design and fabricate a system that satisfies the requirements. This approach encourages pluralistic thinking wherein students are free to come up with any working design and are not bound by a right/wrong philosophy commonly encountered in exams.
Teams learned important lessons about the transition from conception to implementation. One of the most important outcomes of the course was learning to work effectively in teams. At the end of the course, each team was assessed not only on the quality of design but also on team efficacy. The students developed professional socialization skills while preparing their technical reports and oral (PowerPoint and poster) presentations. On the last day of the program, students presented their group projects to a campus audience.
In this paper, we report and analyze project data for several years of WOW projects.

AU - Djedjiga Belfadel
AU - Michael Zabinski
AU - Ryan Munden
CY - Virtual On line
DA - 2020/06/22
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Walking on Water Term Design Project in Fundamentals of Engineering
UR - https://strategy.asee.org/35492
DO - 10.18260/1-2--35492
ER -