Project Objectives

Teaching engineering design and manufacturing is a challenging task. First, a vast majority of the students freshly come out of schools have no idea how an engineering part is being designed and made. Second, design and manufacturing requires very board knowledge including calculus, mechanics, heat and fluid, materials, and computer, etc. In addition, students need to carry out many hands-on experiments and course projects, which require skills and experiences. As a result, the traditional “push” teaching method does not work very well. Animated by the course content first, many students fell behind later and missed at the end. This may have a negative impact to not only the students but also the regional engineering society.

The proposed project is aimed towards developing a new “pull” teaching method for the Engineering Design and Manufacturing course. The project consists of two parts. The first follows the divide-and-conquer methodology, where the related knowledge is decomposed into segments under a clear structure. The second is composed of practical engineering examples, where students are taught step by step and challenged to design and make practical prototypes. To facilitate the teaching, a website will be developed, containing rich multimedia material.

The proposed project will accelerate the learning of engineering design and manufacturing for not only the registered engineering students but also the engineering society in the region and around the world.

Key deliverables expected and timelines for completion

The key deliverable is an interactive multimedia website for teaching and learning engineering design and manufacturing. It will be completed in two years (Jan 2013 – Dec 2014).

Arrangements for evaluation of project deliverables/outcomes

The success of the project can be evaluated by the number of visits of the website. The target number is 250,000 times by the end of the project in Dec 2014.

Means for disseminating project deliverables/outcomes

Upon the completion of the website, we will conduct promotions on university website, local and global engineering education websites, trade magazines, etc.