AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO ENGINEERING AND DESIGNSchool of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering (SMAE)Dr Linda Lee, Peter Lo and Lim Siew Kuan

June 2009

Contents

• Introduction of CDIO in SMAE courses• Module description and integration• Project description• Workspace and resources• Mode of assessment• Module evaluation• Short video on CDIO Racing Challenge

The School of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering (SMAE) offers five diploma courses:

• Diploma in Aeronautical Engineering• Diploma in Bioengineering• Diploma in Mechanical Engineering• Diploma in Mechatronics and Robotics• Diploma in Resort Facilities Services and Management

(retiring)

CDIO was implemented for the all the diploma courses in the first year of study

Courses offered

• Improve the quality of the courses• Provide students with significant learning

experiences beyond foundational knowledge acquisition

• Enhance the local relevance of our programme• Advance international recognition for the

excellence of our courses

What do we want to achieve at the end of the day?

Current vs CDIO: Where are we now??

Current CDIO

1. Learning outcome: heavy on “what we think students are capable of doing”

2. Modules are still largely “independent”, that is compartmentalized learning. Disconnect between C-D-I-O, not integrative

3. Assessment: heavy on testing knowledge

1. Learning outcome is determined by

what is expected of graduates in future employment (e.g. job competency)

2. Modules are integrated to support CDIO initiative

3. CDIO elements are assessed mainly on application of knowledge

CDIO framework can address some shortfalls in the current syllabus design methodology

What have been done so far?

• “Introduction to Engineering” which is Standard 4 of the ‘HOW’ was introduced in year 1 of the course

• This module is integrated and conducted together with another module, “Innovation, Design and Enterprise in Action” (IDEA) to fulfil Standard 3

• In “Introduction to Engineering” module, students are engaged in the practice and application of engineering skills and knowledge in the manufacturing of a product

• The skills acquired for generating ideas for the product are taught in “IDEA”

• To engage students in an active learning environment, a CDIO Workspace, Standard 8, was built for students to gain simple design-built experiences

• Engage students in a simple design-build project

• To introduce students to engineering • To motivate them for engineering studies• To provide real experiences of engineering work• To support the learning of CDIO skills, e.g.

teamwork, communication

Objectives of “Introduction to Engineering”

Objectives of “IDEA”

• To develop an attitude and skills in basic design creativity

• To enable students to question preconceptions, see things from multiple perspectives

• To enable students to generate new ideas• To provide students with the ability to work and

communicate effectively with the others for good teamwork and collaboration

Integrated curriculum 

The design-build project is a model racing car consists of two parts:

• Designing and modelling of racing car body are conducted in “IDEA” module

• Machining of racing car chassis is conducted in “Introduction to Engineering” module

Project description

Design-build project

Detailed drawing of the chassis assembly

Race track

2nd CDIO Racing Challenge

CDIO Workspace (Standard 6) – model making

return

Mode of assessment

• Process of designing and building the project• Team formation• Selecting the best design• Managing the entire project• Applying machining skills to fabricate the parts• Assembling all the parts• Communicating group findings through a presentation

3 components of assessment

• Creativity and innovation– design and modelling of the racing car body

which are conducted in “IDEA”

• Skills– machining of the racing car chassis which is

conducted in “Introduction to Engineering”

• Performance– assembly, performance and presentation of

model racing car

Most innovative design and best performance cars

Assessment criteria

Assessment criteria for most innovative design cars• form (innovative and functional)• built quality, colour and decals

Assessment criteria for best performance cars• based on time taken to race down the 6-metre long race

track

Results at the 2nd CDIO Racing Challenge

Timing readings ranged from 2.87 to 3.30 seconds among the 18 finalist cars

Rubric for the final assessment

Students are assessed through critique sessions

Module evaluation • A set of questions for interview was conducted for a

selected group of about 100 students

• The evaluation was targeted at the students’ ability to understand the skills and whether the skills help them in the given tasks.

• The following skills were evaluated:– thinking– communication– teamwork– managing your learning

Results of evaluation

Rating scale1 being strongly disagreed 5 being strongly agreed

Conclusion • This presentation highlights the integration between “Introduction

to Engineering” and “IDEA” modules in SMAE. The knowledge acquired from these modules is applied in the designing and building of a model racing car

• Overall responses from the students were positive and majority felt that, through the integration of the two modules, they were able to learn and apply the CDIO skills effectively

• For module evaluation, a rating scale of 1 to 5 was used where 1 being strongly disagreed to 5 being strongly agreed. Results show that percentage of rating >=3 ranges from 92 to 98%

Thank you

Peter Lo: peterlo@sp.edu.sg