Experiences With A Comprehensive Freshman Hands On Course Designing, Building, And Testing Small Autonomous Robots

Abstract

During the past ten years, The Ohio State University's College of Engineering has been aggressively addressing the issue of student retention. A major element in this effort is the development of a first-year engineering program that has moved from a series of related but separate courses for first-year engineering fundamentals to a framework that involves two course sequences with tightly coupled courses. Engineering orientation, engineering graphics, and engineering problem solving with computer programming are now offered in each of two course sequences, 1 one called the Fundamentals of Engineering and the other the Fundamentals of Engineering for Honors. These course sequences retain part of the traditional material but now include hands-on laboratory experiences that lead to design/build projects. 2 Teamwork, project management, report writing, and oral presentations have assumed important roles in both sequences. This paper describes the administrative and teaching experiences with a design/build project course in the Fundamentals of Engineering for Honors sequence that serves as a capstone-like culmination to the engineering honor students' first academic year.