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Interdisciplinary capstone projects have been used in engineering education to provide students an opportunity to collaborate on a project with students from other disciplines that are different from their own. A few of the perceived benefits of such an experience are students developing a creative problem-solving approach, learning to communicate and collaborate with individuals outside of their major, increased understanding of the connections between different technical topics, and a deeper appreciation of other disciplines. For the last three years, York College of Pennsylvania has conducted an interdisciplinary capstone project focused on designing and constructing a prosthetic hand that will interpret muscle contractions from a young amputee and output the desired movement in the hand and fingers. The overarching goal of the design was to create an affordable option compared to commercially available prosthetics as young amputees can quickly grow out of their prosthetic limb and are more likely to use a prosthetic that is visually appealing. Two features of the prosthetic design are myoelectric technology to detect muscle contractions and 3D printing technology in the construction of the hand. Each academic year, a new student team spends two semesters focused on improving the prosthetic hand design from the previous year's team. The student team was small consisting of no more than five students from the Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Computer Engineering majors. This paper will detail the evolution of the interdisciplinary project from its first group of students who focused their efforts on researching and developing an initial prototype, due to working remotely because of the COVID-19 pandemic, to the current year's team concentrating on implementing sensors in the hand and refining the ergonomics of the existing design. The paper will also include student & faculty reflection and discussion of the faculty facilitation needed for such a service-based project and how engineering educators can consider implementing such projects into their programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This evidence-based practice paper details a Hyflex learning format used in a second-year Mechatronics course for Mechanical Engineering majors. At York College of Pennsylvania, Mechatronics introduces second-year Mechanical Engineering students to essential aspects of electronics and instrumentation through experiential hands-on learning. Students regularly conduct laboratory exercises and work on short projects as they learn about common electronic components, basic circuit analysis and sensors, and how these components can be used to create electro-mechanical devices. The course was modified in Spring 2021 to incorporate aspects of the Hyflex course format necessary to accommodate the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The course format enabled students to attend in person or remotely through Zoom video conferencing. The format expanded the use and support of asynchronous learning activities to better enable students quarantined, due to close contacts or positive Covid tests, to keep up or catch up on the course instruction. The goal of the instructors was to enable the same learning outcomes for all students, independent of personal circumstances. Online software tools (Canvas learning management system, Tinkercad and Nearpod) were used to deliver content and engage students. Conceptual topics were introduced followed by hands-on activities from Make: Electronics 2nd edition. Each student was also given a kit of electronic components, wire, a breadboard and a multimeter. Students completed and submitted assignments in a variety of digital formats, such as video reports. This paper details the Hyflex modifications made to Mechatronics. It also includes student feedback and instructor reflections. Although the Hyflex format required significant new planning and experimentation it provided a means of accommodating a mix of face-to-face and online students and also provided an opportunity to increase the long term effectiveness of the course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research is to analyze the effectiveness, and student's self-reported engagement with gamification tools on a student's learning of technical concepts when used in a project-based learning (PBL) engineering classroom environment. Gamification, as defined in this study, is the use of game-based elements such as online audience response systems with automated feedback in non-game situations. By adding gamification to the classroom, we hope to further build on the active and collaborative learning environment that our PBL program already provides. Five gamification activities were implemented during the Fall 2017 semester with junior and senior student engineers enrolled in Iron Range Engineering, a program of Minnesota State University, Mankato. The Iron Range Engineering (IRE) model is a project-based-learning program in which students work closely with industry on design projects throughout their 3rd and 4th years. The goal of this program's approach is to prepare and produce graduates with significant integrated technical and professional knowledge and skills to enter the engineering workforce. The three game-based online platforms along with two hands-on activities were used in six technical courses: Signals & Systems, Engineering Economics, Statistics, Linear Control Systems, Lean Principles, and Electric Machines. All five gamification tools allowed for real-time assessment, so students were given instant feedback from the game on their level of understanding of a technical concept. The in-class gaming activities were used in approximately five instances within the six courses; with about 8 - 12 participants in each class (n is approx 300 student gaming interaction instances). Feedback was collected via student surveys, student and faculty reflections and data received automatically by the game programs. Preliminary analysis of student feedback and faculty reflections indicates increased learner motivation, enhanced review of technical content and an upbeat atmosphere to the classroom. Faculty reflections also noted that the use of games that allow learners to answer the questions individually helped faculty identify those students who had successfully mastered the concepts, which allowed the instructor to structure peer-to-peer active learning opportunities during class more effectively. Future work includes analyzing test scores, and other measures of long-term retention of concepts. Overall, use of these gamification tools was found to be a significant addition to the project-based learning environment at Iron Range Engineering, bringing value to the overall learning process and will continue to be used to improve our teaching and student learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineering education models have recently embraced the entrepreneurial mindset as a desired outcome of undergraduate engineering education. Interdisciplinary active learning strategies have been suggested as an effective pedagogy for engaging student engineers in undergraduate engineering education. Recent research suggests that active, social learning in context can lead to improvements in learner innovation, problem-solving, curiosity, retention and accessibility of knowledge, value-creation, and other desired learning outcomes. Much of the recent adoption of active and collaborative learning, self-directed learning, problem-based and project-based learning (PBL), peer to peer learning, and other similar learning strategies are aimed at developing innovative and entrepreneurial mindset skills, but they have been limited to Capstone Design courses. Our aim is to develop the entrepreneurial mindset much earlier in the student engineers' undergraduate education. The Iron Range Engineering program is entrepreneurial in nature, based on continuous improvement, self-directed learning, and reflective practice. Our student engineers learn in context, by applying technical engineering knowledge in project teams working on industry-sourced projects, each of the four semesters of their junior and senior years. In addition, freshman and sophomores enrolled in pre-engineering studies in a closely aligned community college are included in the culture, many activities, and teaching staff of the upper division program. Drawing from the Kern Family Foundation's Engineering Unleashed program and Innovating Curriculum with Entrepreneurial Mindset (ICE) workshops, faculty in the program were introduced to the entrepreneurial mindset in the summer of 2017. In the Fall, 2017 semester, they developed and piloted several entrepreneurial-minded learning (EML) modules across the curriculum of our program (approx. 95 students in lower and upper divisions), ranging from Statics in Sophomore year, to Entrepreneurship and Statistics in the Junior year, and Three-Phase and Signals and Systems for the Seniors, among others. Entrepreneurial Mindset was also reinforced in Design class and applied in project work. This paper describes the experiences of faculty and students in the implementation of entrepreneurial mindset modules adopted in our program, as well as preliminary results of this rapid deployment in an interdisciplinary engineering program. We use a case study format to report auto-ethnographic stories from both faculty and student perspectives. Early results are promising. After two semesters of simultaneous deployment of entrepreneurial mindset across the curriculum, faculty are engaged and working collaboratively to improve and extend this type of entrepreneurial learning even further into the program. The impact on ABET and KEEN outcomes are addressed. Student feedback is also positive. The pervasiveness of the application of entrepreneurial mindset is present in student reflections, project technical documents, design reviews, oral exams, and other student work. The entrepreneurial mindset has become part of the culture of our program in a short time, which we view as a positive outcome. The experiences of the participating faculty members are presented in the paper, as well as student reflections on the application of entrepreneurial mindset in their courses and design projects. Planned next steps are also addressed in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]