Introducing Design To Freshmen And Sophomores At Western Kentucky University

Abstract

The role of design in an engineering curriculum is a key issue to the success of the program and graduates. In the Electrical Engineering program at Western Kentucky University, two new courses have been developed for the first and second years of the program which are focused on teaching design through robotics. In the first course, students must build a robotic "bug." During this design experience, the students solder components, learn to read a simple circuit diagram, and program a BASIC Stamp chip. In the second design course, students must build a simple robot which is programmable logic controller driven. Through this experience, the students learn to deal with cost constraints, basic robot construction, and programming. The results of these courses, student feedback, and suggested improvements are included in this paper.