麻豆影院

CU 麻豆影院's Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering is committed to providing students with an education complete with active learning. Though the pandemic has made the semester more challenging, faculty and staff have been daily innovating to make their courses as hands-on as possible while also ensuring the safety of their students. See how some of your favorite classes and facilities have听committed to active learning听产别濒辞飞.听

Manufacturing Processes and Systems

Taught by Janet Tsai and听David Wolenski

In Manufacturing Processes and Systems, we focused on setting up three in-person, hands-on lab experiences: Casting, Inspection with Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T), and Heat Treatment. We branded each of these in-person labs as a 鈥淣avy SEAL Mission" meaning that听students are prepared and trained ahead of time with a clear mission objective to accomplish in-person, so听they can easily get in and get out of the lab, completing their required tasks while minimizing their exposure. Each in-person lab was scheduled down to the minute, with individual students coordinating within their three-to-four person lab groups exactly who was going to be where and when. This requires a lot of logistics and planning, especially since our class includes students from Colorado Mesa University who use their lab in Grand Junction, coordinated by Dr. Nathan McNeill.

In addition to the three听in-person labs, we also have two remote labs: Statistical Process Control (SPC) and Plastics. For the Plastics Lab, students are given a set of tasks to accomplish by examining various plastics around their homes, investigating how household plastics are created and formed听and even doing some at-home tests to identify mystery plastics. To support both the in-person and at-home lab experiences, Professor Tsai听got to hone her video editing skills, combining raw footage shot in the Idea Forge with still images showcasing real-world examples and听specifics of measurement. Usually, the Manufacturing Processes and Systems course includes at least one department-arranged visit to a real manufacturing site. During fall 2020, we have been going on virtual tours听instead, viewing manufacturing documentaries posted to YouTube from both modern and vintage manufacturing sites across the world.

Design for Community

Taught by Dan Riffell

In Design for Community, we currently have a waiting list of client projects for us to address. I treat this class like an active engineering consultancy in order to keep students engaged. Some of our projects require teams of students to engage with a client long-term, and some of the projects require that I pull one student away for a few days to complete less labor-intensive tasks. The addition of client deliverables, communication, scheduling听and team organization creates听active and dynamic environments for learning. Additionally, I have created internal competitions for our design coursework where students compete with the rest of the class to have their designs manufactured.听

Data Analysis and Experimental Methods

Taught by Keith Regner

In Data Analysis and Experimental Methods, students still get to complete all the labs in the course. During in-person instruction, students worked individually on the labs to conform to social distancing rules. When CU 麻豆影院听went remote, we organized a checkout process to get the lab equipment in the hands of every student鈥攎ore than 100鈥攖o complete the lab remotely at home.听

Idea Forge Operations

Observations by Shirley Chessman

At the beginning of the semester, we supported听faculty, ordering and distributing document cameras and any test equipment needed for remote/recorded lab demonstrations and helping to coordinate lab space and equipment for a small number of in-person labs.

Now, as the semester has progressed, things are more student focused. 听Students schedule Zoom meetings and we discuss their need and purpose. I will use my webcam to show them different pieces of equipment. The items will then get checked out to the student and left in the DIDL for contactless pick-up. A similar virtual process has been developed for 3D printing, woodworking, and machine shop fabrication. Students set up virtual consultation meetings with the shop engineers to have drawings and specifications clarified. These consultation meetings provide an opportunity for students to practice technical communication skills听as well as receive design guidance.听After completing the consultation meeting, necessary design changes are made, then the student will submit a work order. The shop engineers fabricate the parts and also leave them for contactless pick-up.

I have made a few trips to FedEx to ship some pieces of equipment to students who are not campus adjacent.听Some 厂别苍颈辞谤听顿别蝉颈驳苍 teams are beginning to order parts or their clients are shipping things for their projects.听I have been receiving these and either storing them or setting them out for pick-up.听Lately, I鈥檝e been helping听set up an outdoor classroom for Daniel Knight鈥檚 Project Based Learning in Rural Schools and some graduate students who needed equipment to teach classes听and have been working with Idea Forge staff as we slowly start allowing student teams to use Idea Forge facilities for meetings.

Senior Design - Industry-Sponsored & Engineering for Social Innovation Sections

Taught by Daria Kotys-Schwartz, Dan Riffell, Julie Steinbrenner

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, ME Senior Design is still providing students with a project-based, transitional engineering experience. With 27 industry-sponsored projects and two听competition teams in the industry-sponsored section听and five unique projects in the Engineering for Social Innovation (ESI) section, students are already well underway with the design and early prototyping of their projects. Students are meeting teammates, directors听and clients remotely, with in-person, masked and socially-distanced听meetings arising as local health orders permit.听

Teaching design in a remote setting presents many challenges, including allowing students to physically prototype with their teammates听despite being distant from one another. Therefore, we have modified some of our typical activities to be more representative of engineering with a remote team. For example, we added new, relevant learning objectives to the marshmallow/spaghetti tower build that has been used as a team-building exercise in the past; this year, the activity focused on designing with a remote team, including communication, strategy听and execution of a design while physically separated.听It also inadvertently produced many marshmallow Ralphies, the CU 麻豆影院 mascot.听

Projects will continue to include design, build, assembly and testing of physical prototypes听though COVID-19听constraints require new processes. There is an increased emphasis on design for manufacturability and design communication, as the fabrication facilities on campus move to order intake systems where staff produce parts for students to reduce the risk of facilities closing. Much like spring 2020, teams will assemble and test hardware on-campus and off-campus, according to resource needs. We are getting creative to address the challenges related to our projects and preparing the next generation of engineers who will launch into their careers in unprecedented times.听