Innovative Manufacturing Education Experience for First-Year Engineering Students: Using a Seminar Course and Volunteerism to Enhance Manufacturing Skills

Traditional first-year engineering curricula place a premium on education related to math, science, and often an introductory engineering course involving elements of design, analysis, and programming. While the opportunity for first-year students to gain hands-on experience is increasing, these experiences typically focus on design-related activities, while experiences with manufacturing skills and processes are limited. Yet with the “maker movement” in full swing, today’s students have a strong desire for engineering experiences where they learn manufacturing skills and build things that complement the design skills they are learning in firstyear classes and beyond. This paper explores the details of how a 1-credit seminar course is being used at a large Midwestern university to provide an innovative manufacturing education experience to first-year engineering students. This is accomplished by grounding the course in the manufacturing tools and processes used in the university’s Artisan and Fabrication Laboratory (AFL) to facilitate learning about manufacturing through the technology that students have access to and can use. As part of the course, students can volunteer (and most do) to gain hands-on experience with the tools and processes that are discussed in the class through specific activities in the AFL designed to complement what is taught in class. As this class has been taught in both the Fall and Spring semesters since Fall 2013 (7 semesters), assessment data and student feedback is available and is reviewed in this paper. The overall result is a class that is in high demand from the first-year engineering student body and that greatly enhances students’ understanding of manufacturing. Tags: manufacturing, education, engineering, first-year, volunteerism