Designing a big machine: A description and assessment of a mechanical engineering design project

Abstract

The Introduction to Mechanical Engineering Design course at the University of Pittsburgh piloted a design project in which students in the two course sections designed and built what the instructors referred to as a "big machine", which is similar to a Rube Goldberg machine. In past years, students in this design course completed a design project that emphasized user-centered design. Beginning in the fall 2015 semester, the big machine was incorporated as a second design project so that students would also get experience designing with the goal of fitting into a larger system. With this project, the emphasis was no longer solely on the end user, but also on making sure that their designs met the constraints and requirements of the system. In the big machine project, each team of 4-5 students (a total of 58 teams) was assigned a section of the machine of about 10 feet long and was asked to communicate with the adjacent teams to coordinate input and output requirements. Teams had to use the design process to design their segments such that their inputs and outputs would align with the preceding and the following teams' segments, thus creating the big machine. Teams also had to demonstrate creativity with the design of their segments, and follow additional constraints outlined by the instructional team. The purpose of our study is to describe the project and assess how well it worked, both in terms of implementation and in terms of student outcomes. Specifically, this paper will: (1) describe the process of creating and implementing this project, (2) describe what worked well with this project, and identify areas for improvement for future semesters, and (3) summarize students' perceptions of the activity, as well as their perceptions of the knowledge and professional skills developed, based on their responses to a survey.