7th December 2010
Undergraduate Engineering Project
Work
Aaron S. Blicblau*
Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Australia
ablicblau@swin.edu.au
*Engineering and Science Education Research (ESER) Group
David Richards
Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Australia
drichards@swin.edu.au
21st Annual AaeE Conference 5-10 December 2010, Sydney Australia: UTS
This work sets out to investigate the
possible relationship between project
results at first and final years of an
engineering course as a method of
predicting success.
Although first year projects are introduced into
the engineering curriculum, major project or
research work by the students is not undertaken
until they reach their final year
http://www.okanagan.bc.ca/departments/e
ngineeringtechnologies/spaghettibridge.ht
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21st Annual AaeE Conference 5-10 December 2010, Sydney Australia: UTS
What do we want from the Role of
Research Project Work in the undergraduate
engineering curriculum
• Undergraduate research work has been highlighted
by the Council of Undergraduate Research, USA, as
of primary importance, i.e. “…undergraduate
research is an inquiry or investigation conducted by
an undergraduate that makes an original intellectual
or creative contribution to the discipline...”(Elgren,
2006; Prud'Homme, 1981).
21st Annual AaeE Conference 5-10 December 2010, Sydney Australia: UTS
Undergraduate project work and research
which paves the way for future
developments in engineering and
influencing research at the postgraduate
level.
• For undergraduate student research, (Brew, 2006)
has noted that “the main way students undertake
research is when they come into their final year
projects.”
• However, there was little done to encourage research
in their previous undergraduate experience,
especially in engineering.
21st Annual AaeE Conference 5-10 December 2010, Sydney Australia: UTS
So how can we encourage more Projects as
“starter cultures” for research for the
Commencing Engineering Student
• Only one subject in each
semester of the first year
has a major project or
research component.
• This first year experience
is only the beginning of a
long and varied path to
encourage students to
become independent
learners.
Percent
100
90
Major project or
research
component
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
Stage of Course
21st Annual AaeE Conference 5-10 December 2010, Sydney Australia: UTS
7
8
9
10
If we look at the Proportion of course year of
studies as project content we find that
“research” or project work is minimal until final
year compared with previous years
Year of Studies
Year 4
Year 3
Engineering
Year 2
Year 1
0
5
10
15
20
Percent of year
21st Annual AaeE Conference 5-10 December 2010, Sydney Australia: UTS
25
Looking at First year projects: they were
developed so that students work in groups to
design for example a robot for autonomous
applications *
Paper boxes
ARENA
• Eg groups of three students in the planning,
design, construction, programming, testing,
and debugging of an autonomous mobile
robot.
• Every robot, in competition with another
robot, will search a simulated Antarctic
landscape looking for particular types of
“meteorites” (identified by their colours) and
avoid bringing worthless “rocks” (meteorites
of a different colour)”.
21st Annual AaeE Conference 5-10 December 2010, Sydney Australia: UTS
White floor
Polarised light
beacon
**Implementing a Robotic Design
and Build Exercise”
R. Andrew Russell, Alireza BabHadiashar, proceedings AaeE
2001
“There is no real substitute for first hand
experience in an engineering-practice
environment outside the educational
institution”
• After first year and before final in many cases the
students have spent one year working in industry
within the IBL programme( Industry Based learning) .
• This industrial experience is seen as a necessary for
success in a final year project which is essentially a
large scaled problem based subject.
21st Annual AaeE Conference 5-10 December 2010, Sydney Australia: UTS
Outside influences, eg IBL, grants, company
sponsorship, translate into Project Work or
Research in Final Year
Industry
60
Staff
50
Students
Division of
projects
according
to
provenance
40
Percent of Stage
•
30
20
10
0
2005
2006
2007
Year
2008
21st Annual AaeE Conference 5-10 December 2010, Sydney Australia: UTS
2009
2010
What type of final year Completed Projects do
we have?
*indicates prizes # indicates publication
Title of Research Project
Provenance
Research
*Ship-Ship Hydrodynamic Interactions
Staff
√
*OEE applications: Challenges and Opportunities
Staff/ Industry
√
High Pressure Turbine Blade Performance Analysis
Industry
#Probabilistic Modelling of Automotive Body joints
Industry
*Thermal prototyping of PCB portioned BCM design
concept
Industry
√
Thermal Insulation panels recycled Polystyrene packaging
Staff-Industry
√
Air cooled EAF Electrode Seals
Industry
√
Crushing of Aluminium Foams
Staff
√
*Modelling of cooling system of a passenger vehicle
Staff/ Industry
√
Application of Differential Steering in Articulated machinery
Industry
√
Downhill Mountain Bike Frame
Students
√
NA Class Steam Locomotive Front-end Analysis
Students
√
#Modelling of particle separation in a vibrational classifier
Industry/NGO
√
21st Annual AaeE Conference 5-10 December 2010, Sydney Australia: UTS
Developmental
√
√
Industry based learning
And is there a way of assessing the Quality
of output from projects?
• The quality of output from projects is measured by
assessment or a grade.
• In first year it is very prescriptive and numerical.
• In final year includes a major thesis, and oral
presentation and a poster presentation again resulting
in a numerical grade.
• The student results are dependent on their academic
abilities ranging across high achievers (the minority),
the middle group of average students (similar to the
general population) to those who barely achieve a pass
grade in the overall engineering course
21st Annual AaeE Conference 5-10 December 2010, Sydney Australia: UTS
But first we need to examine the
influence of early project work;
we undertook an analysis of first year
results for a cohort of 20 students in
the project subjects was undertaken.
These 20 students were a subset of a larger number
(approximately 100) of first year students.
They were the graduating remaining students who
completed the four-year course in the minimum
time allotted and who had no major interruptions;
they could be tracked backwards!
21st Annual AaeE Conference 5-10 December 2010, Sydney Australia: UTS
Second semester project
results
It would seem reasonable to expect that
students who did well in S1 would also do
well in S2,
but the grades did not bear this out.
100
80
60
40
20
0
0
50
First sem ester project results
100
there is a weak correlation
between first year results in
the first semester, S1, and
second semester, projects,
S2, subjects
Comparison of First Year S1, and S2, project results
21st Annual AaeE Conference 5-10 December 2010, Sydney Australia: UTS
Final yearr project
results
100
80
60
40
20
0
We also then compared results from final
year and first semester projects subjects.
Is it reasonable to expect
that students who did
well in S1 and/or S2,
would do well in final
year?.
0
50
100
First sem ester project results
• but the grades
did not bear
this out
Comparison of Final Year and S1, project results
21st Annual AaeE Conference 5-10 December 2010, Sydney Australia: UTS
Final year project results
Similarly, there is little or no relation from
the second semester project subject with
results obtained in the final year project
• cannot use these
results as
predictors
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0
20
40
60
80
100
Second semester project results
Comparison of Final Year and S2, project results
21st Annual AaeE Conference 5-10 December 2010, Sydney Australia: UTS
So what is going on?
The two first year project subject results
appear to be independent of each other.
From informal student discussions, this seems to be due to
the subjects being new to the students and consequently
they have adapted to therm in different ways.
Further, the analysis suggests that there is little correlation
between success in the first year and final year projects
subjects.
This was expected since commencing first year students
have had little exposure to independent or group project
work, and socially, they are just starting to come to terms
with a tertiary environment
21st Annual AaeE Conference 5-10 December 2010, Sydney Australia: UTS
SO what can we use as predictors?
•
•
•
•
•
Prizes in final year?
Penultimate academic results?
High Overall academic results?
Period spent in industry?
Mathematics results-maths is
taught in all but the final year?
– Ongoing investigation!
21st Annual AaeE Conference 5-10 December 2010, Sydney Australia: UTS
High overall academic results correlate
well with high project results.
Group work influences the project mark
Prizes for projects do not always correlate
with high academic achievement
21st Annual AaeE Conference 5-10 December 2010, Sydney Australia: UTS
First year projects are useful as an introduction
to group work, basic investigative work, and
cooperative learning-but not necessarily
indicative of final year project performance.
• No significant correlation in grades from first year projects to
final year projects suitable for prediction of success.
• Major benefits to students in the first year projects are the
learning of teamwork, communication, independent learning
skills.
• Major benefits to students in their final year project are
in professional and personal areas, such as improved
abilities to formulate and solve difficult problems.
• Further work is suggested to determine predictors of
success in final year projects- capstone projects.
21st Annual AaeE Conference 5-10 December 2010, Sydney Australia: UTS
?
Aaron S. Blicblau
Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Australia
ablicblau@swin.edu.au
Engineering and Science Education Research (ESER) Group
David Richards
Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Australia
drichards@swin.edu.au
21st Annual AaeE Conference 5-10 December 2010, Sydney Australia: UTS