Integrated thinking in mechanical engineering education

• Autores: Reuven Katz
• Localización: The International journal of engineering education, ISSN-e 0949-149X, Vol. 31, no. 6 (Parte A), 2015, págs. 1613-1621
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Mechanical engineering (ME) departments in research universities face the challenge of educating mechanical engineers who willgraduate with a balanced knowledge in engineering science and mechanical design. The source of this challenge is the inherentdifference between teaching analytical thinking, which is required for most engineering-science courses, and design thinking, whichis required for project-based design courses. The purpose of this paper is first to propose a new approach that can potentiallybridge the educational gap between analytical and design thinking, which we refer to as integrated thinking. Second, we show howit can be applied to various ME undergraduate courses, which we refer to as integrated courses. Our approach reforms scienceengineering courses by (a) stressing the physical interpretation of mathematical derivations; (b) requiring students to analyze,design, and sketch simple mechanical devices based on the learned theoretical material; and (c) modifying project-based designcourses to emphasize the importance of analysis as part of the creative design process. A pilot course focusing on dynamics andvibration which we called Integrated Design and Analysis, was offered in the ME department at the Technion, where it was well-attended by senior ME students. The positive feedback of the students who took the course suggests that integrated thinking mightbe successfully applied in many areas of ME education, such as fluid mechanics and heat transfer, control, and mechatronics, andthat our approach may contribute to changing the current divided pattern in ME education.