Approach for Integrating Professional Practice Issues into Undergraduate Environmental Engineering Design Projects
Publication: Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice
Volume 130, Issue 3
Abstract
According to C. L. Dym and P. Little, the complete design process includes identifying a need or problem, recognizing constraints, identifying and developing courses of action, testing potential courses of action, selecting optimum courses of action, preparing the documents required for the design, managing the overall process, communicating the design, construction, and testing. We have addressed these design considerations by linking design projects in our introductory physicochemical treatment processes course (EV401, taken by second-semester juniors) and our senior capstone design course (EV490, taken by second-semester seniors). The process developed and implemented addresses the integration of professional practice into design inexperience. We require our cadet students to communicate with their customers, an illustrator, and tradesmen, three forms of communication that are necessarily quite different from traditional student-professor exchanges. Also, students must design under constraints, this time not because of the closed nature of the project but rather because of “real world” resource constraints: time to complete the project, a limited budget to purchase materials and labor, availability of materials, ease of construction, and balancing competing projects (in other courses). The first attempt at implementing this engineering design learning model occurred during the spring of 2001 in EV401. Herein we assess the design and construction of one of two projects, oriented toward modification of a surface-water treatment plant model. Results suggest that iterative growth can occur and a more complete appreciation of the design process can result.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
Chan, E. H. W., Chan, M. W., Scott, D., and Chan, A. T. S.(2002). “Educating the 21st century construction professionals.” J. Prof. Issues Eng. Educ. Pract., 128(1), 44–51.
Cleary, D. B., and Sun, C. C.(2003). “Course in professional practice issues.” J. Prof. Issues Eng. Educ. Pract., 129(1), 52–57.
Davis, D. C., Gentili, K. L., Trevisan, M. S., and Calkins, D. E.(2002). “Engineering design assessment processes and scoring scales for program improvement and accountability.” J. Eng. Educ., 91(2), 211–221.
Dutson, A. J., Todd, R. H., Magleby, S. P., and Sorensen, C. D.(1997). “A review of literature on teaching engineering design through project-oriented capstone courses.” J. Eng. Educ., 86(1), 17–28.
Dym, C. L., and Little, P. (2000). Engineering design, Wiley, New York.
Jenkins, S. R.et al. (2002). “Capstone course in an integrated engineering curriculum.” J. Prof. Issues Eng. Educ. Pract., 128(2), 75–82.
Klukken, P. G., Parsons, J. R., and Columbus, P. J.(1997). “The creative experience in engineering practice: Implications for engineering education.” J. Eng. Educ., 84(2), 133–138.
Koen, B. V.(1994). “Toward a strategy for teaching engineering design.” J. Eng. Educ., 83(3), 193–201.
Lagnese, J. F. J.(2000). “Teaching environmental engineering design: A practitioner’s perspective.” Environ. Eng., 36(1), 8–32.
Lamancusa, J. S., Jorgensen, J. E., and Zayas-Castro, J. L.(1997). “The learning factory—A new approach to integrating design and manufacturing into the engineering curriculum.” J. Eng. Educ., 86(2), 103–112.
Latcha, M., and Oakley, B.(2001). “Toying with a capstone design course.” J. Eng. Educ., 90(4), 627–629.
Sageev, P., and Romanowski, C. J.(2001). “A message from recent engineering graduates in the workplace: Results of a survey of technical communication skills.” J. Eng. Educ., 90(4), 685–692.
Todd, R. H., Magleby, S. P., Sorensen, C. D., Swan, B. R., and Anthony, D. K.(1999). “A survey of capstone engineering courses in North America.” J. Eng. Educ., 84(2), 165–174.
Wankat, P. C., and Oreovicz, F. S. (2001). “Teaching engineering.” 〈https://engineering.purdue.edu/ChE/News_and_Events/Publications/teaching_engineering/index.html〉 (August 2002).
Woods, D. R., et al. (1997). “Developing problem solving skills: The McMaster problem solving program.” J. Eng. Educ., 86(4), 75–91.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice
Volume 130 • Issue 3 • July 2004
Pages: 166 - 172
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 17, 2003
Accepted: Jun 27, 2003
Published online: Jun 15, 2004
Published in print: Jul 2004
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.