Impact of a Design Project on Engineering Physics: Motor does it really motivated our students?

Engineering physics courses are the key gateway courses in engineering. Most engineering students take one year of physics courses. The first semester materials cover mechanics based physics, which are taught in great detail at several high schools, but the second semester of physics, electricity and magnetism are somewhat new to several students. Motivating students to learn these concepts individualistically in addition to the materials covered in class is a challenging task. One way to deal with this issue is to assign a design project as part of the course requirement. In this effort, students were given a team project to design and build an electric motor and optimize its performance. Converting electrical energy to mechanical, and mechanical energy to electrical in the magnetic domain are the fundamental and practical concepts of this course, and fit well with the goal of this study. There are several interesting physics concepts involved in this project such as voltage, resistor, current, circuit, magnetic field, magnetic flux, and magnetic force on current carrying wire, torque and more. The project also helps students to learn about the physical process and the theory behind building the motor. For example, logic such as the force produced by the magnetic field on a current carrying wire is the fundamental behind rotation. This report will present detailed information about design requirement; materials provided, constraints, outcome and student feedback via assessment. At the end of the semester, a survey was done to see how much the motor design project motivated our students to learn the course materials. About hundred students participated in the survey. The data was analyzed using a spreadsheet and the outcome will be reported in this paper.