Examples of CDIO courses within Mechanical Engineering

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Examples of CDIO courses within Mechanical
Engineering Sven Andersson, Chalmers October 8,
2003
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CDIO and CDIO courses

• What is CDIO?
• An education reform, partly on the curriculum
  level, requires objectives (on several levels)
• What does CDIO mean to me who is a teacher?
• The content of my course should fit into the
  curriculum/program objectives
• Learning should be active and experiential
• What is a CDIO course?
• Could be any course, but often Design-Build is
  meant

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This presentation

• Here I will give two examples from
  Chalmers/Mechanical Engineering of courses of
  different character
• Internal Combustion Engines
• Chalmers Formula Student
• There are many more examples of CDIO-courses at
  the other collaborating universities (next
  presentation, www.cdio.org).

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Internal Combustion Engines

• Basic course
• Around 50 students (not compulsory)
• students from Mech. Eng.
• other programs
• industry
• Focus on understanding rather than calculations
• Mainly lectures, some exercises, one project,
  one lab
• A strong interest in engines and mechanical
  machines is common among the students!

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Learning Objectives, Course parts
(satellites)
Mechanical thing
Thermo- dynamical machine
Internal combustion engine
Emissionaire
Airpump
Combustion device
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Learning Objectives of a satellite

• Combustion device
• Be able to use basic combustion terminology
• Be able to describe the combustion process
  inside a cylinder, and especially the
  difference between an SI and a CI engine
• Use the knowledge about combustion properties
  to design a combustion chamber

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Assessment

• Muddy cards - Gave good feed-back on what worked
  and what did not
• - Forced the students to think about the lecture
• - Appetizers are dangerous
• Examination - Good result, because of MC or easy
  exam or ?
• - Did they learn the right things???
• - 100 of 40 is better than 40 of 100
• Course eval. - Course OK
• - Many small suggestions, good contact with
  students
• - MATLAB!!!

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Chalmers Formula Student
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Chalmers Formula Student

• Design/Build course
• Total car project, goes all the way from
  conceive to operate (test and improve)
• Combination Student Project and Course
• 5-10 students mainly within Automotive
  Engineering

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Main Goals

• To give knowledge of applied practical
  engineering work and prototype manufacturing.
• The course concerns a total car concept where the
  entire process from conceive and design to
  implement and operate is regarded
• Other main goals are system thinking,
  communication and teamwork.

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Select Categories from the CDIO Syllabus
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Learning Objectives, examples

• Use a project model, participate in defining the
  work (e.g. setting goals) and be an actor in the
  project group (both technically and socially)
  3.1-3.3, 4.4.1
• Use previously acquired knowledge and search for
  whatever more is needed, to design a subsystem of
  the product (e.g. a car) 1.3, 2.2, 2.3
• Manufacture the designed subsystem using
  appropriate methods 4.5.1, 4.5.2
• Be able to plan and perform tests of the
  subsystem (both separately and together with
  other subsystems) for further development 4.5.5,
  4.6.1

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Course issues
Teaching and Assessment matching the
Objectives Special problems - Essentially a
re-design project how to re-use knowledge
from last year - and how to make next year a
new challenge - How to manage varying
pre-knowledge / diverse student
groups? Barriers - Organization (e.g. school
curriculum) - Resources (like Faculty
competence, Teacher education, Educational
tools, Lab space) - Assessment (e.g. of
implement and operate skills)
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Status

• Internal Combustion Engines
• new main goals to fit restructured MSc program
• refinement and addition of objectives
• Chalmers Formula Student
• course given one year
• main goals of the course seems OK
• design being looked into
• assessment a problem ( a challenge)
• DB-course barriers will be addressed