Three Freshman Team Design Projects

This paper contains a detailed description of three design team-projects developed for a freshman course in mechanical engineering. All projects include the research, design, prototyping, testing, and analysis phases of the design process, and can be completed within half of a two quartercredit course. They are detailed and in-depth, spanning beyond the typical “hobby-shop” freshman projects. The three team-projects are the design and testing of a wind turbine, a door handle, and a flywheel. The description of each includes the list of project requirements, learning objectives, design performance measures, testing setup, assignments, timeline, and design considerations. The paper contains examples of students’ work, such as design sketches and prototypes manufactured on a stereo-lithography machine (3-D printer), and rubrics used to evaluate the student’s individual and team performance. Also included is an example of how assignment grades are linked to ABET (a-k) Program Outcomes.