Engineering Laboratory Experiments – An Integrated Approach Of Teaching The Introductory Engineering Course

Abstract

In an effort to introduce more realism and familiarity with the current manufacturing and testing equipment at an early stage of students' engineering education, the introductory level engineering course offered by Albany State University's transfer engineering program with Georgia Institute of Technology was transformed from a 3 hour lecture only to a 2 hour lecture and a 3 hour laboratory class where students go through a series of hands-on projects in a multidisciplinary laboratory setup established from a grant from the Department of Education. The LEGO Mindstorm robots, FLOTEK 1440 wind tunnel, PC TURN 55 CNC machine, SolidWorks 3D software with Dimension 3D Printer rapid prototyping machine are primarily used in the laboratory component of the "Principles of Engineering Analysis and Design" course taught at the sophomore level which carried 30% of the final course grade. The laboratory class introduced in 2001 has become a strong motivational tool for our engineering students inspiring them to continue with the upper level courses. Apart from exposure to multiple equipment and software, students gain an insight into how a task can be accomplished by first defining the problem, then breaking it down to workable steps and apply known information to solve them to arrive at an acceptable solution.