Redesign of an Introduction to Mechanical Engineering Course to Keep Students Engaged and Interested
- Conference
- Location
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Salt Lake City, Utah
- Publication Date
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June 23, 2018
- Start Date
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June 23, 2018
- End Date
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July 27, 2018
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Mechanical Engineering
- Page Count
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15
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--30920
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/30920
- Download Count
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542
Paper Authors
Olivier Putzeys P.E. University of Maine
Olivier Putzeys is a Lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maine. Prior to UMaine, he was an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Montana State University. Dr. Putzeys worked at Exponent, Inc., a failure analysis consulting firm, for five years following his graduate studies in Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, which followed his undergraduate studies in Mechanical Engineering at Bucknell University.
Masoud Rais-Rohani P.E. University of Maine
Masoud Rais-Rohani is Richard C. Hill Professor and Department Chair of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maine. He earned his Ph.D. degree in aerospace engineering from Virginia Tech in 1991. His academic experience includes a long tenure in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Mississippi State University. He has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in the areas of design optimization, aerospace structures, structural mechanics, and composites. He has made extensive use of experiential learning and computer applications in his courses, including the development of two websites, one devoted to analysis of aircraft structures and the other to statics. He has also led or contributed to the development or redesign of several courses in aerospace and mechanical engineering.
Serge Raymond Maalouf University of Maine
Serge Maalouf is a graduate student and teaching assistant in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maine. His current research includes multiscale modeling of nanomaterials to study their mechanical behavior using first-principles computational techniques coupled with nonlinear elasticity. Before joining the University of Maine, Serge pursued his undergraduate studies at the University of Balamand (Lebanon) where he worked on the mechanics of lamina containing wavy fibers.
Abstract
An Introduction to Mechanical Engineering course is redesigned by integrating activities that involve experimentation, exploration, analysis, and discovery. The course includes a brief introduction of principal subject areas in the major and basic training with select software tools. Technical subjects are supplemented by presenting and discussing other important topics including engineering ethics. Behaviors that promote future success such as class attendance along with teamwork, communication, and other soft skills are emphasized. Students are given group and individual assignments, all of which are graded and returned with additional feedback. Besides providing a detailed overview of the course, the observations made and lessons learned from teaching the redesigned course for one semester are presented and discussed.
Putzeys, O., & Rais-Rohani, M., & Maalouf, S. R. (2018, June), Redesign of an Introduction to Mechanical Engineering Course to Keep Students Engaged and Interested Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--30920
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