Developing design courses in a project-based curriculum

Iron Range Engineering program, located in northeastern Minnesota, is an innovative, completely project-based learning model where the students practice engineering before graduation. In this program, students from various upperclass levels and disciplines form a team and work on multidisciplinary projects. In an effort to improve the student experience and increase the efficiency of learning engineering design, we have developed a new method of teaching engineering design which covers most aspects of a design. The new method fits into a foursemester design course series. The new method uses project-based learning and also addresses the issue of having students from multiple upperclass levels on one team.