Recent Experiments in Aerospace and Design Engineering Education

2011

Aircraft design, a final year subject, integrates knowledge in aerodynamics, structure, stability and control, propulsion system and performance of an aircraft. In many universities, students will produce a conceptual design based on a Request for Proposal document. As a university that adopts Outcome-Based Education (OBE) concept, students in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) are not only expected to apply knowledge to solve design problems but also skillful and able to work as a team. Using Problem-Based Learning technique, students taking the Aircraft Design subject are taught design technique and skills to build a flyable prototype. The challenges faced by instructor are ensuring the originality of the design and prototype is completed within budget and dateline.

Aircraft Design, Systems, and Operations Meeting, 1993

outside the classroom on rea1•world, multidisciplinary One element of WPI's project-based curriculum is its problems requiring realistic solutions. Students nonnally interdisciplinary Advanced Aeronautics Design Program. conduct MQPs as a major portion of their activity Students participating in the program are involved in the throughout the senior year. They work in teams, often design, construction, and flight testing of non-traditional with liaisons from off-eampus organizations, to aircraft such as an ultralight solar-powered vehicle, synthesize their classroom experience into the design and microwave-powered long endurance aircraft, or a flying testing of an idea or product in the environment of real oblique wing. The WPI project philosophy and character ** Professor, Associate Fellow AIAA. approximately 330 for the 1992-1993 academic year + Associate Professor, Member AIAA. (33 % of the Mechanical Engineering Student body).

Traditionally, many Aerospace undergraduate students complete their degrees without really having the opportunity to get a close look at many of the structural components let alone the chance to design or build them. A new approach is explored whereby students are given design drawings of a real light aircraft which is usually available in the market as a kit aircraft. The students are then required to verify the design in terms of its structural ability to carry anticipated external loads while keeping structural integrity. Then they are required to redesign metal components using the currently popular composite materials. Finally, the students build some of their components out of metals and others out of composite materials to be physically tested and the results verified against their stress hand calculations and Finite Element Analysis (FEA). The students are eventually given the chance to take up the task of completing and flying the aircraft as a final year team project. The benefit of using kit aircraft is found to be in the ability to work with real aircraft design drawings, the availability of complimentary aids such as construction photos and videos as well the simplicity of building such an aircraft. An inspiration to the students is also drawn from the fact that they know they are working on an aircraft that could eventually make it to the skies. In this work, a light sport utility aircraft named CH750 which is designed by Zenith Aircraft Company is demonstrated as a typical example that gave students hands-on experience on aircraft structural design, analysis, manufacturing and testing.

The globalisation of the engineering workplace has elevated the importance of preparing engineering students for an international working environment. This paper reports on the development and results of an international aerospace design exercise, organised for students from Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. Six years of experience has demonstrated that if properly managed, taking into account learning styles and cultural dimensions, international design exercises such as these are extremely worthwhile and provide students with a number of additional competencies not readily encountered in most engineering degree courses, such as the abilities to work with teams of different cultures/learning styles, and to deal with the challenges of long distance communication.

2009

An investigation into the impact of a simple team design experience in teaching the engineering design process is described. The design experience occurred early in an Introduction to Engineering course after a single lecture on the engineering design process. The design activity, necessarily simple at this stage, consisted of designing, building, and testing a drag racer, constructed from LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT parts and powered by a single rubber band. Assessment of the value of the experience focused not only on gains in student perceptions of knowledge of and confidence in applying the engineering design process, but also on actual gains in knowledge, as judged by written responses, and on the use of the engineering design process, as judged by student design step logs. Student learning was assessed through questionnaires at the beginning and end of the laboratory period. The questionnaires addressed both student knowledge and student confidence levels. In addition to assigning n...

49th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting including the New Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition, 2011

The North American Aerospace Project (NAAP) is a NASA/industry sponsored effort to accelerate penetration of the project-based educational concept of "Conceiving, Designing, Implementing, and Operating" (CDIO) into US Aerospace Engineering programs. NAAP is developing innovative educational approaches, tools, methods and concepts specialized for the education of the future aerospace engineers. Several projects have been made available in a standardized template format. The template is designed to help an interested faculty member to quickly adopt a project and introduce it in a class.

2024

and Instructor of the Aerospace Engineering Capstone Senior Design courses. Engineering research interests are in the science and technology at the intersection of aerodynamics, structural mechanics, energy, and smart materials. Recent works have focused on exploiting aeroelastic instabilities on piezoelectric structures for engineering applications. Educational research interests include engineering design education, developing better-equipped graduates for the workforce, bridging the core competencies gap, improving diversity and collaboration within disciplines

39th Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit, 2001

are used as input. The course design at UK is constructed around a basic introduction to the science of aerodynamic design along with a design-build-test approach (when applicable). There are two basic ways to structure an elective course-the survey method and design approach. This course uses elements of both and combines them in an effort to instruct the student in the complexities of aircraft design. Primarily, aircraft design is taught as a multidisciplinary systems-oriented field requiring integration between several separate areas. As this is often new to the ME student, this must be approached with care. Text and materials used are discussed with comments as to their success and pitfalls in covering too much or too little material in regards to developing successful prototype designs are covered. Examples of student completed design projects from the course are shown, including micro-aerial vehicles, sport biplanes, and a cruise missile carrier, along with the specific hurdles involved in having ME students with no prior AE experience tackle these designs.

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings

is a graduate student at Tufts University. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering with a research focus on engineering education. She received a M.S. from Tufts University in science, technology, engineering and math education and a B.S. from Northwestern University in mechanical engineering. Her current research involves examining the design process of undergraduate students in project-based courses.

123rd ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, 2016

Synergistic Activities • Introduced Computer Aided Design for elementary and middle school children (2005-2009) • Supervised 30+ design/research projects involving 83+ undergraduate students • Hosted numerous outreach programs for 2000+ pre-college students • Combustion Institute KSA Country Chapter founding member • Supervised three annual teams of international design exchange students from France conducting research/design at U of Iowa and Industry • Served as industry liaison between U. of Iowa and HNI Corporation for nine years • Served as a member of industry advisory board for College of Engineering at the U.