Introduction to Engineering: Course Syllabus

• Spring '09
• http://hackartlab.org/engr101
• Mondays and Wednesdays from 1:30pm to 2:45pm Neff 208  
• Friday afternoon (4-8PM) optional open lab in Duerksen Fine Arts Center C6 "The CRATEL Lab"

Primary Instructor: John Harrison, Director: CRATEL

 

• Cell: 316-208-4925
• CRATEL lab: 316-978-6817
• E-mail: john.harrison@alum.mit.edu

 

Course Design Consultant and Facilitator: Ivy Lanning, Student President, Engineers without Borders WSU Chapter

 

• Cell: 316-390-3503
• E-mail: ivy.lanning@gmail.com

 

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General Description

Introduction to Engineering is a three-hour course specifically designed for College of Engineering freshmen and transfer students in their first year at Wichita State University. This course serves to give you application in being both engineering students and in being practicing engineers.

About 1/3 of the course time we will focus on exploring your relationship as an engineering student with the University. Together we will look at common problems associated with first-year student experiences in the transition from High School or Community College to a four-year university. This includes exploration of the learning process, different learning styles, and essential academic survival skills.

The remaining 2/3 of the course time will center around group projects. These projects are intended to give you the experience of being practicing engineers. By participating in these projects, you will experience the design, teamwork, communication, and reporting activities which are typical of engineers employed in the corporate world.

This course does not earn you any credit toward an engineering degree. It is a course for you to explore what it means to be an engineer and what it means to be an engineering student at WSU.

Group Work

More than ever, engineers are required in their workplace to work together as a team. Also many professional engineers work in teams with non-engineers and must communicate engineering-related concepts to those outside their discipline, such as to salespeople and graphic designers who are representing their product. Related to this, most engineering students find their overall academic performance to be higher and more rewarding when they study together, rather than independently.

To help you explore engineering as a student and professional within a more social context, most class activity is centered around groups. Group size may vary between 3 and 6. Moreover, just as you cannot choose who works with you in the work place, you probably will not get to choose who works with you in your group.

Teaching Philosophy

Most classes taught at major universities follow a model of teaching in which the teacher imparts information to the students and then tests the students to see how well they have retained the information presented to them. This pedagogical approach, called Instructionism, focuses on the teacher as the giver of information. In contrast, Constructionism is a learner and community-based model. As the wikipedia puts it, "Constructionist learning involves students drawing their own conclusions through creative experimentation and the making of social objects. The constructionist teacher takes on a mediational role rather than adopting an instructionist position. Front of class teaching 'at' students is replaced by assisting them to understand—and help one another to understand—problems in a hands-on way."

Introduction to Engineering will borrow from both Instructionism and Constructionism. Specifically, we will integrate some of the ideas of Constructionist educators such as Seymour Papert, Mitchel Resnick, and David Cavallo. This means that:

• you will rarely find your assignments completely spelled out. Intentionally, there will be room for personal exploration.
• emphasis will be placed on the class as a community which communicates and supports itself within the context of the material presented.
• discussion and conversation is emphasized on all levels between and amongst all of us, teachers and students.
• the standard hierarchical model of teacher and student is no longer appropriate:
  • you can and should expect to learn from each other as much as from me
  • I can and should expect to learn from you
  • conversations between and among all of us are open and indeed part of the learning that occurs in the course.
• the course material is treated as continually changing, developing, and influenced by the class community, rather than as fixed facts to be presented within a formal structure.

Introduction to Engineering, in exploring a slight departure from the framework of strict Instructionism, as an experiment, exploring what teaching models can work within the University. We welcome your feedback on this experiment throughout and at the end of the course.

Projects

The majority of the class will give you practice being a professional engineer by focusing on designing and building projects within a strict set of constraints.

To help emulate the experience a real-world engineer might have and to make the class more fun, the class will metaphorically operate as a startup company for the project-based portions of the class.

Main Project

This semester's startup company is committed to biofuels, as it has investors that believe that vegetable oil is the fuel of the future. Currently the company is actively pursuing how cars might be economically converted to run on vegetable oil and how vegetable oil might be converted to biodiesel.

As the engineering team for this company, our job is to:

• design and prototype a conversion system to power a diesel vehicle with vegetable oil.
• design and prototype an automated biodiesel processor
• report on the feasibility and cost of both the car conversion and the processor
• report on the benefits and liabilities of the car conversion, the processor, and vegetable oil as a fuel in general locally, regionally, nationally, and globally. We will consider in our analysis all implications: economical political, sociological, ecological, and all other `icals.
• design and prototype related spinoff ideas as needed and necessary

It's an ambitious goal but we are not alone: Engineers without Borders student chapter at WSU will function as our managing engineers, overseeing our work and continually giving us feedback.

Related Projects

Heads up: our company is a bit troubled, resources are scarce and our corporate administration is desperate. What does this mean to you? Well, we'll have some materials and a small budget to work with but the company can't afford much. Moreover, administration seems to be ready to grab at any idea for a buck, no matter how far away it might be from the company's mission to explore biofuels. If suddenly upper management asks you to make a prototype for something unrelated, don't be surprised. For example, rumor has it you might need to prototype an interactive toy for toddlers...

Materials and fees

• The CRATEL Lab can provide you with most standard electronics components (resistors, capacitors, wires, etc.) as well as testing equipment and computers. The lab is available to you 24/7 for building your projects.
• You or your groups may also work with one of CRATEL's Arduinos for the semester. The Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments. In addition, various sensors, motors, and electronics will be available for you to explore and experiment with to build your projects. All materials and equipment, including the Arduino, must be returned after the course ends.
• There is no textbook and all software is free. There may be occasional required readings from handouts, online resources, or books on reserve at the library.
• Some projects may require materials above and beyond what can be provided for the class. In some cases, you may be required to buy these materials for your projects. Total expenditure should be less than $100, the cost of a typical textbook.

Software and Computers

• The Arduino Environment lets you program your Arduino. This is a free download, installable on all computing platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux).

• Python(x,y) is a free scientific and engineering development software for numerical computations, data analysis and data visualization based on Python programming language, Qt graphical user interfaces (and development framework) and Eclipse integrated development environment.

• The course will be easier for you logistically if you have your own computer and install the software for the class on it. A laptop is the best, since its portability will make installations and exhibits easier to experiment with. For those without a computer, The Cratel Lab (C-6 in Duerksen Fine Arts Center) will have some computers available. If necessary, we can have the Arduino software installed on the computers in Wallace Hall as well. The Cratel lab is open to you 24/7.

Labs

• Every Friday from 4 to 8pm, CRATEL hosts Build Day in the CRATEL lab (c6 of Duerksen). During Build Day, the CRATEL lab is open to visitors, volunteers, or anybody who wants to come by, chat, or build something. It's a nice opportunity to hang out at the lab with other geeks, especially creative arty ones, and it also doubles as my office hours. If you want any help assembling and exploring software, circuits, or anything else, come to Build Day.

• In addition, we will use a large percentage of our class time as a lab time where we can build and work on our projects.

Format

The course is designed in part from the belief that one of the main roles of any University is to share its knowledge freely and openly. For this reason all content for the course, with the exception of your grades, will be on kept on Hack.Art.Lab's publicly viewable collaborative web space. This has the added benefit of giving us practice communicating and sharing information for the betterment of the class community. Specifically we will use:

ENGR101 Group Pages:

On the ENGR101 group pages all of us can easily add and edit content. Most of the reference and course material for Introduction to Engineering is set up on the group pages, meaning that anybody in the class can change the site, adding or clarifying material. You are welcome but not required to add to any of the group pages as a contribution to the entire class. For example, if you find a great resource for purchasing relevant somethings and it is not listed on a group page, add it. If installation instructions for a particular piece of software are incorrect or missing information, correct this information on the page.

 

ENGR101 Group Discussion:

• We will use the ENGR101 group discussion as a way to share assignments, ask questions, seek help, or just share information pertaining to or of interest to the class. Resources can also be shared on the group discussion, as well as posted to the group pages.

• When faced with a problem in the class, instead of contacting the instructor, post to the group discussion. This allows the class as a community to act as a resource for help.

• In addition to sharing assignments and ideas, you can respond to each other's assignments, projects and ideas on the group discussion.

Twitter #e101:

• got a passing thought? have a quick question? wondering about something short and simple? wanna make a point real quick without archiving it for internet eternity? twitter the class with hashtag #e101.

Group Pages, Group Discussion and Twitter #e101

• Resources go on the group pages, questions and our more formal chatter go on the group discussion, and the short, simple passing thoughts go on twitter with hashtag #e101. Specific assignments might go on any of the three. Think of the group pages as "official" and "permanent," the group discussion as more "conversational," and twitter #e101 as class-related yacking.

• Activity is fun. More activity is more fun. Let's have an especially active group discussion and a bunch of tweets. It makes the class more fun.

• Because BlackBoard is viewable only by people within the university, using it for coursework doesn't fit the philosophy of this class, so it will be used only for grade posting.

 

Class Participation

Bring your laptops to class. Bring your cell phones to class. Use them for class-related materials. Google and view websites with related content. Tweet to hashtag #e101 from your phone or laptop while the class is in session. It's fun and we love it. We'll even try to show the tweets in realtime on a projector during class sessions.

But do the whole class a favor: don't use your laptop or cell phone for stuff unrelated to class during class time. It's distracting, it hurts the general feeling of community centered around the class content, and it makes me cranky. Really. I don't want to see you using your phone or laptop during class time for activities unrelated to class content. It's very rude so don't do it. And I'll kick you of the class for the day. Not pretty, eh?

 

Course Structure

A detailed course schedule is continually updated.

Assignments

All assignments are due for submission by the midnight before class. This is so we can look through the assignments before the class meets. Typically we will spend the beginning of class looking at people's assignments together on the day an assignment is due.

Plagiarism

It is okay to work together on projects, provided that each student develops in the collaboration a full understanding of all parts of the project and all students are credited. Moreover, it is okay for us to borrow from each other's projects as long as credit is given. Plagiarism, however, is the act of stealing somebody's work without giving credit to that person. Anybody caught plagiarizing will receive an X for the course and will be penalized to the full extent allowed by University policy. No excuses for plagiarism will be accepted. There are no exceptions to this policy.

Grading

The corporate world does not give grades but instead provides evaluations based on an explicit and implicit set of expectations. We grade using a similar method. Said another way, I know you are all adults and have a good idea of what a "good job" is in a class. At the University level, a good job is a "B." I'll give you feedback along the way as to how you are doing but I won't insult either of us by making a strict set of criteria that can't completely capture a measurement of your performance before we have even started.

Having said that, here is a far-from-complete set of basic guidelines for what consitutes good performance:

• show up to class
• participate in all class activities
• contribute to the class community
• submit quality assignments. 
  • Example: final project 
    • specification clearly articulated
    • documentation of both process and product
    • conformity to specs

Moreover your success in industry will be dependent not just on your individual peformance, but on the performance of your engineering team and the entire company you work for. Therefore, your final grade will be:

• 1/3 individual performance
• 1/3 performance of your groups that you participated in
• 1/3 class grade

Late assignments and extensions

Late assignments without prior approved arrangements are not accepted. If you have not completed an assignment on the day it is due, hand in your incomplete assignment for partial credit.

Feedback

We always welcome feedback about the class. You may email us at any time. In addition, a "Suggestions for next year" discussion topic will be created for students to suggest how to improve the course.

Responsibility

• Since the course material is broad and course meeting times are limited, be self-motivated and ready to seek help from each other, as well as from the instructors. Resources to facilitate this will be given in the class.

• You are expected to stay current daily with the engr101 social networking website and twitter feed. Set up your email notifications and RSS feeds accordingly. This will keep you informed of announcements and changes in assignments, and allow you to participate in various other conversations that may be happening. Assignments may be made via these online tools with or without having been mentioned in class.

• If you miss class without receiving instructor approval beforehand, it will be your responsibility to catch up on the class material.
• Expect to average at least five hours on assignments outside of the class each week.

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   "My freedom will be so much the greater and more meaningful
   the more narrowly I limit my field of action
   and the more I surround myself with obstacles.
   Whatever diminishes constraint diminishes strength.
   The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one's self
   of the chains that shackle the spirit."

-Igor Stravinsky, Poetics of Music

 

engr 101 syllabus, engr101 syllabus

Last updated 339 days ago by John Harrison