THE MELTING POT APPROACH TO SENIOR DESIGN Michael A. Latcha, Ph.D. Subramaniam Ganesan, Ph.D. Edward Y.L. Gu, Ph.D. Richard E. Haskell, Ph.D.

Reasons for a change of practice n Duplication of effort, different expectations and outcomes between departments n Integrate knowledge and skills n Multidisciplinary teamwork n Accreditation requirements SOLUTION: Schedule all senior engineering design courses together on same days, at same times, with three experienced faculty members

The “Melting Pot” Philosophy n The “Melting Pot” Approach  All engineering disciplines in one room n Student Design Teams  Combining all engineering disciplines to be successful n Choice of Design Project  Non-industrial, multidisciplinary, no experience necessary n Never Answer a Question n The Importance of Competition

Project n Design a kit for Sophomore Design  Upcoming course  Autonomous line-following vehicle that can carry a 15-lb payload along a closed-circuit track up to 300-ft long  Additional functions must be discussed but not necessarily designed  Maximum cost: $150

Competition n Must function on non-straight portion of track with 15-lb payload n Performance measure: fastest adjusted time to traverse course n Can make up to 3 runs, with modifications between n Penalties:  5 second penalty for hitting obstacles  1 sec/ft penalty for not finishing course

Week 1 – Introduction n Uncomfortable silence, confusion, wide- eyed looks, disbelief n Describe project and competition to class, establish website as main communication tool n Student profiles to gather information for team assignments n Design teams assigned, work begins

Week 3 – Design proposals n Required before purchases can be made n Level of detail range from minimal to extreme n Current designs have little resemblance to proposed designs n Team activity mainly divided between disciplines with little interdisciplinary communication

Week 8 – Oral Progress Reports n 20-minute PowerPoint presentations  “tell the story” n Every team member speaks n No group had a functioning vehicle n All groups had all necessary components n Much more interdisciplinary activity, CS/ME and EE/CE

Week 12 – Current status n Only one group still has not seen their vehicle follow a line n All other groups are improving speed, accuracy and tracking - 3 weeks early n Most successful groups work and meet as a whole, everyone involved with all aspects n Least successful groups are still passing vehicles between discipline sub-groups

Vehicles

Future project ideas n Autonomous vehicles that:  seek out and park into parallel spaces  seek out and extinguish fires  play sports (shoot baskets) n Teams of inter-communicating vehicles that cooperate to perform a function  Play soccer, marching band n Anything with fire or explosives

Conclusions After April 15, 2004 see