Asee peer logo

Development of an Entrepreneurial Mind-set within a Three-Semester Mechanical Engineering Capstone Design Sequence Based on the SAE Collegiate Design Series

Download Paper |

Conference

2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Tampa, Florida

Publication Date

June 15, 2019

Start Date

June 15, 2019

End Date

June 19, 2019

Conference Session

Mechanical Engineering Division Technical Session 11

Tagged Division

Mechanical Engineering

Page Count

18

DOI

10.18260/1-2--32651

Permanent URL

https://strategy.asee.org/32651

Download Count

466

Request a correction

Paper Authors

biography

James A. Mynderse Lawrence Technological University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-3297-6636

visit author page

James A. Mynderse, PhD is an Associate Professor in the A. Leon Linton Department of Mechanical Engineering at Lawrence Technological University. His research interests include mechatronics, dynamic systems, and control with applications to piezoelectric actuators, hysteresis, and perception. He serves as the faculty advisor for the LTU Baja SAE team.

visit author page

biography

Liping Liu Lawrence Technological University

visit author page

Liping Liu is an Associate Professor in the A. Leon Linton Department of Mechanical Engineering at Lawrence Technological University. She earned her Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2011. Her research focuses on thermal sciences and energy systems, with special interest in addressing transport phenomena in energy processes. She is a member of ASEE, ASME, and SAE International.

visit author page

biography

Andrew L. Gerhart Lawrence Technological University

visit author page

Andrew Gerhart, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Lawrence Technological University. He is actively involved in ASEE, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the Engineering Society of Detroit. He serves as Faculty Advisor for the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Student Chapter at LTU, chair of the First Year Engineering Experience committee, chair for the LTU KEEN Course Modification Team, chair for the LTU Leadership Curriculum Committee, supervisor of the LTU Thermo-Fluids Laboratory, coordinator of the Certificate/Minor in Aeronautical Engineering, and faculty advisor of the LTU SAE Aero Design Team. Dr. Gerhart conducts workshops on active, collaborative, and problem-based learning, entrepreneurial mindset education, creative problem solving, and innovation. He is an author of a fluid mechanics textbook.

visit author page

biography

Robert W. Fletcher Lawrence Technological University

visit author page

Robert Fletcher joined the faculty of the Mechanical Engineering Department at Lawrence Technological University in the summer of 2003, after two decades of various industry engineering positions in research, and product development.

Dr. Fletcher earned his Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Washington, in Seattle, and the Master of Science and Ph.D. degrees in Chemical Engineering, both from the University of Michigan.

He teaches a number of alternative energy courses at Lawrence Tech. Dr. Fletcher and his student research team is focusing on energy usage and efficiencies of several traditional and alternative energy systems.

visit author page

biography

Hamid Vejdani Lawrence Technological University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0001-5352-9846

visit author page

Hamid Vejdani, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the A. Leon Linton Department of Mechanical Engineering at Lawrence Technological University. His research interests include dynamical modeling, control and robotics.

visit author page

biography

Wuming Jing Lawrence Technological University

visit author page

Wuming Jing received his B.S. and M.S. from Harbin Institute of Technology, China and Xi’an Jiaotong University, China, in 2006 and 2009, respectively, both in Mechanical Engineering. He earned his Ph.D. from Stevens Institute of Technology in 2013, also majored in Mechanical Engineering, focusing on microrobotics. He continued microrobotic research at Purdue University as postdoctoral associate before joining LTU at 2016. At LTU, he teaches mechanical and robotic courses. His research interest is on the novel robotics on micro-scales, especially meeting the engineering challenges.

visit author page

biography

Kingman E. Yee Lawrence Technological University

visit author page

Kingman Yee is an associate professor of mechanical engineering and the program director for the Master of Science in Automotive Engineering. In addition, he is faculty co-advisor for the Collegiate Chapter of SAE and the Blue Devil Motorsports Organization.

visit author page

Download Paper |

Abstract

Mechanical engineering seniors at Lawrence Technological University (LTU) complete a capstone design project: either an SAE collegiate design series (CDS) competition or an industry-sponsored project (ISP). Starting in 2015, the LTU CDS advisors worked together to redesign the five-credit three-semester sequence. The overall goals of the modifications were to improve student design, project management and communication skills; integrate SAE CDS projects into the actual class time; and increase faculty advisor involvement in the classroom. In parallel with senior design modifications, faculty recently completed a multiyear process to incorporate active and collaborative learning (ACL), problem-based learning (PBL), and entrepreneurially minded learning (EML) into the engineering curriculum. Leveraging the curriculum-wide course modifications, the CDS advisors also incorporated ACL and EML components into the capstone design changes.

Student demonstration of example behaviors associated with an entrepreneurial mindset were assessed using student surveys in the Introduction to Projects course (the beginning of the sequence) and Competition Projects 2 course (the end of the sequence) at the conclusion of the Spring 2018 semester. The results indicate that the capstone projects are great venues for students to work collaboratively and practice entrepreneurial skills. For example, students have to “integrate information from many sources to gain insight” and need to “persist through failure” throughout this 18 month long project. Most of the students admit that they need to almost always work as a team, and also to “understand the motivations and perspectives of others.” They also agree that through the capstone design project they have improved skills in project organization, time management, and project management. The survey results will be used to guide additional development of classroom materials to better foster the entrepreneurial mindset.

Mynderse, J. A., & Liu, L., & Gerhart, A. L., & Fletcher, R. W., & Vejdani, H., & Jing, W., & Yee, K. E. (2019, June), Development of an Entrepreneurial Mind-set within a Three-Semester Mechanical Engineering Capstone Design Sequence Based on the SAE Collegiate Design Series Paper presented at 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Tampa, Florida. 10.18260/1-2--32651

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2019 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015