Bakrania, S., & Mallouk, K. E., & Bhatia, K. K. (2015, June), Consumer Reports Inspired Introduction to Engineering Project  Paper presented at 2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Seattle, Washington. 10.18260/p.23739

\bibitem{asee_peer_23739}
  Bakrania, S., \& Mallouk, K. E., \& Bhatia, K. K. (2015, June), \emph{Consumer Reports Inspired Introduction to Engineering Project}
  Paper presented at 2015 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Seattle, Washington.
  10.18260/p.23739

Smitesh Bakrania, Kaitlin Engle Mallouk, and Krishan Kumar Bhatia.  "Consumer Reports Inspired Introduction to Engineering Project".  2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Seattle, Washington, 2015, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2015.  https://sftp.asee.org/23739 Internet.  22 Jul, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_23739}
  Smitesh Bakrania, Kaitlin Engle Mallouk, and Krishan Kumar Bhatia.
  "Consumer Reports Inspired Introduction to Engineering Project".
  \emph{2015 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Seattle, Washington, 2015, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2015.
  https://sftp.asee.org/23739 Internet.  22 Jul, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_23739
author = "Smitesh Bakrania, Kaitlin Engle Mallouk, and Krishan Kumar Bhatia"
title = "Consumer Reports Inspired Introduction to Engineering Project"
booktitle = "2015 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition"
year = "2015"
month = "June"
address = "Seattle, Washington"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://sftp.asee.org/23739}
number = {10.18260/p.23739}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -         Consumer Reports Inspired Introduction to Engineering Project!Freshman engineering courses play a crucial role in educating students about the variousengineering disciplines and their functions, in addition to establishing a strong analyticalfoundation. Recognizing the importance of basic experimentation techniques, a new freshmanengineering project was designed to expose students to the overall engineering profession withemphasis on developing fundamental technical and laboratory skills. The project was inspired bythe popular Consumer Reports magazine, which publishes reviews of consumer products uponrigorous testing and analytical surveys. Specifically, we note the strong overlap between corefunctions of an engineer and the process with which Consumer Reports reviews are generated.Freshman students were asked to select three brands of a consumer product for their review withinstructor consultation. The products ranged from well-marketed kitchen tools to popularchildren’s toys. The student teams designed experiments to systematically test quantifiableproperties of these products, analyze the data and recommend a specific brand. The projectenabled students to practice core engineering functions such as design of experiments,measurement, data analysis, and representation. In essence developing laboratory skills withoutnecessarily requiring a strong theoretical understanding to conduct the experiments. Mostimportantly, the project afforded students the autonomy to design their own sub-project withinthe provided constraints. The students also recognized the importance of soft skills such asteamwork, effective communication, and project management in achieving their purpose ofidentifying a superior brand. This paper presents the overall scope of the project and itsoutcomes, including the details for adopting the Consumer Reports Project within a freshmanengineering course or, alternatively, in a high school technical course. The paper highlightsimplementation, including project milestones, and assessment of this highly student-drivenhands-on project. Pre- and post-tests were conducted to assess the effectiveness of the project inachieving the project objectives. Formative student surveys indicated a very positive response tothe project, acknowledging the independence of product selection as the key aspect in makingthe project engaging. The highly flexible and scalable aspects of the project make it ideal as anintroductory engineering project focused on developing a strong experimental foundation, at thesame time providing a broad overview of the engineering profession.
AU  - Smitesh Bakrania
AU  - Kaitlin Engle Mallouk
AU  - Krishan Kumar Bhatia
CY  - Seattle, Washington
DA  - 2015/06/14
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Consumer Reports Inspired Introduction to Engineering Project
UR  - https://sftp.asee.org/23739
DO  - 10.18260/p.23739
ER  -