Designing with Lessons from the Machine Design Course: A Capstone Experience

Extensive procedures and complex calculations involved in the Machine Design courses make the students feel dull. To enthuse the students there is a need to have inspiring capstone projects that integrate machine elements, the impact of engineering designs and designers on society, and the systematic design process. Belonging to something noble fascinates people most of the times and it makes people to work hard to achieve that belonging. Relating to elite groups from a career would encourage young students to choose and belong to that career. A display item boasting the glory of mechanical engineering was chosen, to highlight the elite groups from mechanical engineering that made significant impacts on society and, to demonstrate the building blocks of mechanical engineering. A project displaying five historically prodigious achievers and achievements on a slowly rotating dodecahedron, driven by a power train made up of components learnt in machine design courses, was accomplished. The paper describes in detail how the project was implemented and what lessons have been learned.