Lawrence E. Carlson

Engineers as entrepreneurs: invention and innovation in design and build courses

For several years, first-year engineering students at Colorado University (USA) have experienced the joys and frustrations of engineering in a college-wide introductory design-build test course. The course introduces students to engineering through hands-on, open-ended team design projects. The course is intended to serve the needs of entry-level first-year students, who are of similar age and maturity. With support from an NCIIA grant, a new course targeted at advanced and transfer students, and with an emphasis on entrepreneurship, was piloted. This paper discusses various elements of both courses as they apply to the process of invention and innovation, describes some design projects, and summarizes the lessons learned.

The integrated teaching and learning lab

The College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Colorado (CU) is in the sixth year of a college-wide reform initiative that models the real world of engineering where skills in communication, teamwork, and leadership, as well as the ability and self-confidence to define and solve open-ended problems, are demanded. The engineering curriculum for the next century must be relevant to the lives of students and the needs of society. To better meet tomorrows challenges, we have expanded our teaching methods to exploit teaming, active and group learning, and project-based design and problem-solving experiences. We have learned to value integration in addition to specialization and have come to understand that creating a seamless K-16 partnership is vital to our engineering mission and society.

Engineers invent and innovate

First-year students at CU gain a hands-on introduction to engineering through a design and build projects course. In fall 1998, a course with an emphasis on entrepreneurship was piloted to provide advanced and transfer students with similar hands-on opportunities. This paper summarizes course components and lessons learned, and describes some of the products invented. Students design and build an invention of their choice, and explore entrepreneurial topics including profitability, marketing, raising venture capital, angel investors and patenting. Creating mini-business plans forces teams to estimate the manufacturing cost of their product and forecast potential sales revenues. A two-week introductory design project provides an early opportunity for creativity, as well as insight into individual strengths and weaknesses in a team environment. Assessment results are presented as learned from student focus group interviews and pre- and post-course innovation skills assessment surveys. In spring 2000, two student teams received funding from NCIIA to continue development of their products.

Gunder differences in skills development in hands-on learning environments

Womens participation in engineering education is low relative to their presence in the general and college student populations, and it is sometimes assumed that the competitive engineering culture has a detrimental effect on womens confidence in their engineering skills. The described study investigated self-assessed confidence in five engineering skills across three K-16 curricular initiatives conducted by the Integrated Teaching and Learning Program at the University of Colorado at Boulder during a two-year period. In this investigation, attention is paid to gender differences in skills self-assessment and the reasons underlying gender disparity in engineering education. The effects of engineering and pre-engineering curricula on gender, with respect to student confidence in a number of skills necessary to succeed in engineering, are investigated. Results are discussed with respect to the structure of gender- friendly curricula and strategies for closing gender gaps. Suggestions for future research are presented.

Team building in lower division projects courses

Teamwork in lower division projects courses is increasingly common. To ensure student effectiveness in these teams, instructors must assume a facilitator role to nurture team process and progress. This paper describes team-building activities in two introductory engineering design/build projects courses at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The discussion is organized around developmental stages that teams typically pass through-forming, storming, norming and performing-with stage-appropriate reference to team needs, assessment and activities designed to build team skills. An evaluation of this team-building program is provided, based on skills self-assessment data gathered from students during one semester. Implications and suggestions for curriculum improvement are discussed.

A Multi-Disciplinary Design Environment

Design projects provide an ideal focus for hands-on learning, serving to anchor and provide context for theoretical concepts. Product design is inherently open-ended and multi-disciplinary, and forces effective teamwork skills, especially if the project is complex enough (in other words, realistic). By creating and implementing designs, students come to appreciate that engineering is about creating things for the benefit of society, a premise that has broad appeal to a diverse population. This paper discusses the design resources of the Integrated Teaching and Learning (ITL) Program, the design curricula it supports, and lessons learned.Copyright

Coordination of Reaching and Grasping in Prosthetic and Normal Limbs

An experienced user of a body powered voluntary-close upper extremity prosthesis was studied while tending to the task of grasping a vertical cylindrical object. Trials of repeated grasps were carried out under three different speeds of action. Similar trials were run using the subject’s normal right hand. Findings for the normal hand are consistent with previous studies by Fraser & Wing (1981) and Wing & Fraser (1983) in that the thumb tended to deviate significantly less from a straight line trajectory to the target than did the index finger. In the prosthetic hand, the moveable “thumb” maintained a straight line course toward the target while the fixed portion of the prehensor was moved normal to the trajectory in a manner which accounted for change in the aperture. Maximum aperture was greatest for the fast grasp in both prosthetic and normal hands. Other findings show significantly greater variability in most measures of the normal hand grasp compared to the prosthetic grasp. In general, the findings suggest multiple, but less variable, temporal patterns of coordination between transport and manipulation in the prosthetic compared to the normal hand.

The mechanics of dual-control above-elbow prostheses

A computer model of a cable-operated dual-control above-elbow prosthesis is presented and used to show the effect of certain geometric parameters on the force and excursion characteristics of the limb. The resulting data can be used to fabricate a prosthesis with operating characteristics which match an individual amputees capabilities.

Initial results teaching and learning in the Integrated Teaching and Learning Lab (ITLL)

Summary form only given. The University of Colorados College of Engineering and Applied Science (USA) is in the fifth year of a College-wide program that models the real world of engineering where skills in communication, teamwork and leadership, as well as the ability and self confidence to define and solve open ended problems, are demanded. This paper describes how a team of faculty and students defined and realized an ambitious vision for undergraduate engineering education reform which uses an integrated teaching and learning laboratory.