Undergraduate Engineering Project Work

1. 7th December 2010 Aaron S. Blicblau*Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Australiaablicblau@swin.edu.au*Engineering and Science Education Research (ESER) GroupDavid RichardsSwinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Australiadrichards@swin.edu.au Undergraduate Engineering Project Work

2. This work sets out to investigate the possible relationship between project results at first and final years of an engineering course as a method of predicting success. Although first year projects are introduced into the engineering curriculum, major project or research work by the students is not undertaken until they reach their final year http://www.okanagan.bc.ca/departments/engineeringtechnologies/spaghettibridge.html

3. What do we want from the Role of Research Project Work in the undergraduate engineering curriculum • Undergraduate research work has been highlighted by the Council of Undergraduate Research, USA, as of primary importance, i.e. “…undergraduate research is an inquiry or investigation conducted by an undergraduate that makes an original intellectual or creative contribution to the discipline...”(Elgren, 2006; Prud'Homme, 1981).

4. Undergraduate project work and research which paves the way for future developments in engineering and influencing research at the postgraduate level. • For undergraduate student research, (Brew, 2006) has noted that “the main way students undertake research is when they come into their final year projects.” • However, there was little done to encourage research in their previous undergraduate experience, especially in engineering.

5. So how can we encourage more Projects as “starter cultures” for research for the Commencing Engineering Student • Only one subject in each semester of the first year has a major project or research component. • This first year experience is only the beginning of a long and varied path to encourage students to become independent learners. Major project or research component

6. If we look at the Proportion of course year of studies as project content we find that “research” or project work is minimal until final year compared with previous years Engineering

7. Looking at First year projects: they were developed so that students work in groups to design for example a robot for autonomous applications * • Eg groups of three students in the planning, design, construction, programming, testing, and debugging of an autonomous mobile robot. • Every robot, in competition with another robot, will search a simulated Antarctic landscape looking for particular types of “meteorites” (identified by their colours) and avoid bringing worthless “rocks” (meteorites of a different colour)”. **Implementing a Robotic Design and Build Exercise” R. Andrew Russell, Alireza Bab-Hadiashar, proceedings AaeE 2001

8. “There is no real substitute for first hand experience in an engineering-practice environment outside the educational institution” • After first year and before final in many cases the students have spent one year working in industry within the IBL programme( Industry Based learning) . • This industrial experience is seen as a necessary for success in a final year project which is essentially a large scaled problem based subject.

9. Outside influences, eg IBL, grants, company sponsorship, translate into Project Work or Research in Final Year • Division of projects according to provenance

10. What type of final year Completed Projects do we have? *indicates prizes # indicates publication Industry based learning

11. And is there a way of assessing the Quality of output from projects? • The quality of output from projects is measured by assessment or a grade. • In first year it is very prescriptive and numerical. • In final year includes a major thesis, and oral presentation and a poster presentation again resulting in a numerical grade. • The student results are dependent on their academic abilities ranging across high achievers (the minority), the middle group of average students (similar to the general population) to those who barely achieve a pass grade in the overall engineering course

12. But first we need to examine the influence of early project work; we undertook an analysis of first year results for a cohort of 20 students in the project subjectswas undertaken. These 20 students were a subset of a larger number (approximately 100) of first year students.They were the graduating remaining students who completed the four-year course in the minimum time allotted and who had no major interruptions; they could be tracked backwards!

13. there is a weak correlation between first year results in the first semester, S1, and second semester, projects, S2, subjects It would seem reasonable to expect that students who did well in S1 would also do well in S2, but the grades did not bear this out. Comparison of First Year S1, and S2, project results

14. We also then compared results from final year and first semester projects subjects. • but the grades did not bear this out Is it reasonable to expect that students who did well in S1 and/or S2, would do well in final year?. Comparison of Final Year and S1, project results

15. Similarly, there is little or no relation from the second semester project subject with results obtained in the final year project • cannot use these results as predictors Comparison of Final Year and S2, project results

16. So what is going on? The two first year project subject results appear to be independent of each other. From informal student discussions, this seems to be due to the subjects being new to the students and consequently they have adapted to therm in different ways. Further, the analysis suggests that there is little correlation between success in the first year and final year projects subjects. This was expected since commencing first year students have had little exposure to independent or group project work, and socially, they are just starting to come to terms with a tertiary environment

17. SO what can we use as predictors? • Prizes in final year? • Penultimate academic results? • High Overall academic results? • Period spent in industry? • Mathematics results-maths is taught in all but the final year? • Ongoing investigation!

18. High overall academic results correlate well with high project results.Group work influences the project markPrizes for projects do not always correlate with high academic achievement

19. First year projects are useful as an introduction to group work, basic investigative work, and cooperative learning-but not necessarily indicative of final year project performance. • No significant correlation in grades from first year projects to final year projects suitable for prediction of success. • Major benefits to students in the first year projects are the learning of teamwork, communication, independent learning skills. • Major benefits to students in their final year project arein professional and personal areas, such as improved abilities to formulate and solve difficult problems. • Further work is suggested to determine predictors of success in final year projects- capstone projects.

20. ? Aaron S. BlicblauSwinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Australiaablicblau@swin.edu.auEngineering and Science Education Research (ESER) GroupDavid RichardsSwinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Australiadrichards@swin.edu.au