A Multi-major Senior Design Experience

Avimanyu Sahoo; Aaron Alexander; Jeeyeon Hahn

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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: Capstone/ET Projects II - General
Tagged Division: Engineering Technology
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 23
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--34017
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/34017
Download Count: 513

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Paper Authors

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Avimanyu Sahoo Oklahoma State University

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Avimanyu Sahoo received his Ph.D. and Masters degree in Electrical Engineering from Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO, and Indian Institute of Technology, Varanasi, India, in 2015 and 2011, respectively. He is currently working as an Assistant Professor at the Division of Engineering Technology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA. His teaching interests include mechatronics, control systems, electrical engineering. His current research interests include event
sampled control, adaptive control, neural network control, networked control system, and optimal control.

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Aaron Alexander Oklahoma State University orcid.org/0000-0001-7254-3619

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Aaron Alexander is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering Technology at Oklahoma State University. He received his BSE from Messiah College, his MSME from Purdue University, and his PhD from Oklahoma State University. Before entering academia he spent eleven years as an Acoustical/Noise Control Engineer in industry and still continues to consult in that field. His research interests are fluid flow, wind turbines, noise control, and computational fluid dynamics.

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Jeeyeon Hahn Oklahoma State University

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Jeeyeon Hahn is an adjunct assistant professor in the Division of Engineering Technology at Oklahoma State University, Engineering North, Room 524, Stillwater, OK 74078; jeeyeon.hahn@okstate.edu.

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Abstract

The Engineering Technology (ET) programs focus on the hands-on approach to engineering education. To keep pace with the rapid growth of industrial technology in the area of automation and artificial intelligence, the ET programs need to introduce students with cutting-edge hands-on interdisciplinary project experience. In this paper, we discuss the outcomes of such a pilot project on the exposure of ET students to state-of-the-art autonomous vehicle technology as an interdisciplinary senior design project. The project was introduced as a competition among teams consisting of both electrical engineering technology (EET) and mechanical engineering technology (MET) students. The objective of the project was to design a vehicle that can autonomously navigate a specified course at speed while completing an assigned mission challenge. The mission challenge was to shoot a small tennis ball two times towards a target while navigating through the course. The learning outcomes of the project was to: (1) evaluate students for their ability to think beyond the classroom education while solving an important societal problem, (2) gain experience in an interdisciplinary team of students with a diverse background, and (3) increase the synergy between the EET and MET programs for the future graduate degree program in Mechatronics and Robotics. The novelty of the project was the additional ‘speed’ component involved when compared to the traditional robotic projects along with the mission objective. This brought in the challenge of maintaining the stability of the vehicle while navigating at a higher speed. The project duration was for two semesters and facilitated by two instructors, one from each program. The course was of hybrid nature with some students enrolled online and participating off-campus. One of the most important factors involved in the project was the anonymity of the designs among the teams until the competition date. To keep the progress on track, the instructors adapted an innovative reporting process, which helped in peer evaluation. It is observed that the ET students are more inclined towards learning and adapting the latest open source technologies in their projects, such as open CV for image processing.

The full paper will focus on three important aspects of the project from the perspective of ET students. First, the approaches of ET students in handling cutting-edge technology as an open-ended problem. Second, approaches of the instructors to facilitate the two-semester project along with the lessons learned. Third, both the instructor and student experiences during the project. The paper will also include sample material for project specification and the milestones, feedback, and reporting procedure along with the challenges encountered by both the students and the instructor. The paper will also present the analysis of the student outcomes accessed by the instructors, student comments, and discussion on methods to increase student motivation, participation, and project evaluation. Finally, the paper will also include comments from students after graduation. This paper will serve as a teaching aid for the instructors currently teaching or plan to teach senior design in the near future. Most specifically, this will help the newly joined junior faculty members in planning the course and adapting grading and reporting procedures.

Citation
Format

Sahoo, A., & Alexander, A., & Hahn, J. (2020, June), A Multi-major Senior Design Experience Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--34017

TY - CPAPER
AB - The Engineering Technology (ET) programs focus on the hands-on approach to engineering education. To keep pace with the rapid growth of industrial technology in the area of automation and artificial intelligence, the ET programs need to introduce students with cutting-edge hands-on interdisciplinary project experience. In this paper, we discuss the outcomes of such a pilot project on the exposure of ET students to state-of-the-art autonomous vehicle technology as an interdisciplinary senior design project. The project was introduced as a competition among teams consisting of both electrical engineering technology (EET) and mechanical engineering technology (MET) students. The objective of the project was to design a vehicle that can autonomously navigate a specified course at speed while completing an assigned mission challenge. The mission challenge was to shoot a small tennis ball two times towards a target while navigating through the course. The learning outcomes of the project was to: (1) evaluate students for their ability to think beyond the classroom education while solving an important societal problem, (2) gain experience in an interdisciplinary team of students with a diverse background, and (3) increase the synergy between the EET and MET programs for the future graduate degree program in Mechatronics and Robotics.

The novelty of the project was the additional ‘speed’ component involved when compared to the traditional robotic projects along with the mission objective. This brought in the challenge of maintaining the stability of the vehicle while navigating at a higher speed. The project duration was for two semesters and facilitated by two instructors, one from each program. The course was of hybrid nature with some students enrolled online and participating off-campus. One of the most important factors involved in the project was the anonymity of the designs among the teams until the competition date. To keep the progress on track, the instructors adapted an innovative reporting process, which helped in peer evaluation. It is observed that the ET students are more inclined towards learning and adapting the latest open source technologies in their projects, such as open CV for image processing.

The full paper will focus on three important aspects of the project from the perspective of ET students. First, the approaches of ET students in handling cutting-edge technology as an open-ended problem. Second, approaches of the instructors to facilitate the two-semester project along with the lessons learned. Third, both the instructor and student experiences during the project. The paper will also include sample material for project specification and the milestones, feedback, and reporting procedure along with the challenges encountered by both the students and the instructor. The paper will also present the analysis of the student outcomes accessed by the instructors, student comments, and discussion on methods to increase student motivation, participation, and project evaluation. Finally, the paper will also include comments from students after graduation. This paper will serve as a teaching aid for the instructors currently teaching or plan to teach senior design in the near future. Most specifically, this will help the newly joined junior faculty members in planning the course and adapting grading and reporting procedures.
AU - Avimanyu Sahoo
AU - Aaron Alexander
AU - Jeeyeon Hahn
CY - Virtual On line
DA - 2020/06/22
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - A Multi-major Senior Design Experience
UR - https://peer.asee.org/34017
DO - 10.18260/1-2--34017
ER -