Improving Design Of Experiment Skills Through A Project Based Fluids Laboratory

The educational community recognizes that the typical engineering curriculum has steadily decreased the emphasis on the study of experimental techniques for problem solving. 1 Industry partners suggest there is a need to place a greater emphasis on the study and practice of experimentation in the engineering curriculum. These recent trends are supported by results from exit interviews of Mechanical Engineering (ME) seniors at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). Students commented that more hands on data acquisition and open ended projects throughout the curriculum would be extremely valuable in preparation for their capstone senior design course.