Zgonc, D. C., & Dacunto, P., & Ezerins, E. A., & Combs, D. J. A., & Palmer, J. N. (2016, June), The Nexus of Science and Engineering: Structuring Individual Studies to Inform Senior Design Projects  Paper presented at 2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana. 10.18260/p.26992

\bibitem{asee_peer_26992}
  Zgonc, D. C., \& Dacunto, P., \& Ezerins, E. A., \& Combs, D. J. A., \& Palmer, J. N. (2016, June), \emph{The Nexus of Science and Engineering: Structuring Individual Studies to Inform Senior Design Projects}
  Paper presented at 2016 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana.
  10.18260/p.26992

David C. Zgonc, Phil Dacunto P.E., Emily Arija Ezerins, Dalton Jefferson Alexander Combs, and Jacob Neil Palmer.  "The Nexus of Science and Engineering: Structuring Individual Studies to Inform Senior Design Projects".  2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2016, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2016.  https://strategy.asee.org/26992 Internet.  30 Jun, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_26992}
  David C. Zgonc, Phil Dacunto P.E., Emily Arija Ezerins, Dalton Jefferson Alexander Combs, and Jacob Neil Palmer.
  "The Nexus of Science and Engineering: Structuring Individual Studies to Inform Senior Design Projects".
  \emph{2016 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2016, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2016.
  https://strategy.asee.org/26992 Internet.  30 Jun, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_26992
author = "David C. Zgonc, Phil Dacunto P.E., Emily Arija Ezerins, Dalton Jefferson Alexander Combs, and Jacob Neil Palmer"
title = "The Nexus of Science and Engineering: Structuring Individual Studies to Inform Senior Design Projects"
booktitle = "2016 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition"
year = "2016"
month = "June"
address = "New Orleans, Louisiana"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://strategy.asee.org/26992}
number = {10.18260/p.26992}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Semester-long advanced individual studies in engineering are dictated by the interest of the student and his or her advisor.  Definitively, the topics of these studies push the student to the edges of the student’s knowledge and are often quite specific in scope.  The exploration of specific topics necessarily requires the student to seek out specialized knowledge exceeding the depth and/or breadth of previous course work.  This exploration can be distracting to the intent of learning about the engineering design process if rushed.  How best, then, can the student, who is limited in time, adequately explore the science behind a problem involving a complex system before applying that knowledge to an informed, engineered design?  One approach is to link the student’s individual study to group project work in a follow-on senior design course.  This linkage extends the design cycle to one academic year within the curriculum framework and allows: 1) students to optimize their time and efforts in thoroughly understanding the science behind a problem before continuing in the design process; 2) adequate time for model building, testing, and iteration; 3) a more informed student population to feed technical discourse between peers and thus spawn professional growth.  This paper qualitatively explores the costs and benefits of marrying an advanced individual study in horse waste as a biodigester feedstock with a central biodigester design project in a follow-on senior design course.  Teaching design in this way allows students to more productively focus on learning hands-on the design process as opposed to being distracted by their knowledge shortfalls for the given study topic.  
AU  - David C. Zgonc
AU  - Phil Dacunto P.E.
AU  - Emily Arija Ezerins
AU  - Dalton Jefferson Alexander Combs
AU  - Jacob Neil Palmer
CY  - New Orleans, Louisiana
DA  - 2016/06/26
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - The Nexus of Science and Engineering: Structuring Individual Studies to Inform Senior Design Projects
UR  - https://strategy.asee.org/26992
DO  - 10.18260/p.26992
ER  -