Assessment of Engineering Reasoning in Student Journals

1. Engineering Industrial Design Business Assessment of Engineering Reasoning in Student Journals

2. About Polytechnique Third-largest teaching and research establishment in Canada and first in Québec. First in Canada for the scope of its engineering research. 30,000 students graduated since 1873. 1,000 graduates per year. 27% of Quebec trained engineers are Polytechnique graduates. 220 professors. 50% of our graduates work for Small-Medium Enterprises. Operating budget of $85 million Cdn. Annual research budget of $60.5 million Cdn. 2

3. About our capstone projects Projects done in collaboration with industrial customers Students from three schools collaborate in a common project team Polytechnique (engineering) University def Montréal (industrial design) HEC Montréal (business, marketing, management) Large scale multidisciplinary teams (up to 20 students per team) 8 month long projects (6000 to 8000 student hours) 3

4. Learning project structure and journals

5. Capstone project (2007) Project 333: Ecology-Economy-Experience Design: François-Olivier Dagneau, Louis Drouin Customer: ITAQ, Quest Enterprises 5

6. Capstone project (2008) Project AUA: Advanced Urban Bus Exterior: Marc-André Rémillard Interior: Maryse Pelletier Seating: Karine LeBon Customer: ITAQ, CDCQ 6

7. Capstone project CAMAQ (2008)Aerospace industry consortium for education Prototype manufacturing from CAD data 7

8. Project 1 (2009) Exterior-interior: Étienne Bérubé, Daniel Racine 8

9. Project 2 (2009) Exterior: Stéphane Carrier Interior: Paul Ta Seating: Catherine Lagacé Driver compartment: Cléo Poirier, Maude Blanchard 9

10. Journal assessment Text Graphics Graphicsand text Engineering reasoning Date and week number Time spent Page number External source references Meeting minutes 10

11. Journal samples First year student 11

12. Journal samples Fourth year student Date of journal entry Time spent 3D hand drawn dimensioned sketch Documented question to be adressed Supporting calculations 12

13. Journal samples Fourth year student Documented hypothesis 3D sketch and design decisions Design calculations and criteria check 13

14. Journal assessment 14

15. 1- Content type 15

16. 2- Critical thinking Personal problem framing and resolution abilities measured not solution quality. Solution quality measured in the team reports. 16

17. 3- Project information Personal meeting notes and actions to do present Individual tasks assigned and clearly identified Written elements to prove the student worked on his assigned tasks Demonstration of progress over time towards completion of the tasks Compilation of all personal hours spent on the project Entries to the journal are marked with the date they were done on Empty pages identified as intentionally left blank No ripped out pages to insure integrity of the content timeline 17

18. Outcomes Students learn to document their personal work and questions on a daily basis in a centralized document (their project journal). Students share journal content at a moment notice during team meetings. Students find for themselves the value of documenting personal work when questioned on work done 6 months ago. Students use teacher feedback to adjust their journal writing. New recently revealed outcomes 3 year project fosters use of old student journals in team transitions. Students use older journals to better understand project decisions in support of published milestone reports. Students voluntarily leave their journals to the team who will continue their work after they have left the project. 18

19. Future developments Journal tagging methodology testing in preparation of electronic journal format. (Collaboration with the University of Bath) 19

20. For information Clement Fortin Director of mechanical engineering École Polytechnique clement.fortin@polymtl.ca 20