Learning with their hands

The students’ ultimate goal over the next 14 weeks is to build and program a fully functional, six-cylinder radial compressed air motor, controlled by an Arduino microprocessor.

Before this semester, venturing into the machine shop felt like entering uncharted territory for most of these students. A new course offered in The Ohio State University College of Engineering, ME 2900 Introduction to Design in Mechanical Engineering, aims to change that by taking a hands-on approach to teaching students the machining and electronics skills they need to be successful engineering designers.

Less than two years old, ME 2900 is already receiving rave reviews from industry and students alike, said Michael Neal, a lecturer in mechanical and aerospace engineering and one of two co-instructors for the course.

The course, which is required for all second-year mechanical engineering students, is broken into two parts, machining and electronics. During the machining portion, each student learns how stress, strain and torque influence the design of an actual part as they fabricate a piston, cylinder block, connecting rod and end cap. Students also spend four weeks working to program an Arduino microcontroller to control the motor’s firing sequence.

“After they run the air motor, we take it to the next level and give students two weeks to build a custom interactive device using sensors, actuators and other available components,” said Neal. “The students get really creative with it, because they get to make it their own.”

Not only is the air motor project motivating for students, it also helps build a solid foundation of concepts they will learn in more detail in future classes.

"We’ve found the air motor project to be a popular one that gets students hooked on mechanical engineering,” said Blaine Lilly, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, who leads the machining portion of the course. “But it also serves as a universal instructional platform that illustrates a number of concepts in mechanical engineering, such as thermodynamics, controls, vibrations, fluid dynamics and especially machine design.”

Students are also introduced to the concept of designing for manufacturing, a core theme that runs throughout Ohio State’s mechanical engineering curriculum.

“The great thing about this class is that when you see it firsthand and are actually doing the work yourself, you really understand on a much deeper level the importance of designing for manufacturing processes,” said Neal.

“Only six of the 20 institutions we regularly benchmark ourselves against offer similar types of instruction,” Neal said. “But none of those schools go into as much depth as we do with both machining and electronics, especially in a hands-on manner.”

Designed in part to meet a need for more practical, hands-on experience for students, the new course marks the first time the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering has offered formal machining instruction.

“When I was an undergrad here, I went through the program and never once used any machine shop equipment,” explained Neal, a two-time Buckeye (’11, MS ’13, mechanical engineering). “But now all mechanical engineering students gain very specific skills in this class.”

These skills help students excel in advanced classes, obtain and succeed at internships and co-ops, and discover new research interests and career paths.

“Most mechanical engineering students become engineers, not machinists. But it’s important for them to be able to communicate with machinists, to understand the lingo and to have respect for what it takes to machine these things,” Neal said. “A lot of students come into this class thinking, ‘How hard could it be to operate these machines?’, but they realize there’s a lot more to it than what they thought.”

The respect goes both ways, Neal explained, because when a machinist works with an engineer who knows what he’s talking about, it makes a great impression.

“Being able to hand a set of correct drawings to a machinist has helped me gain a lot of respect on the floor,” said one student in a course evaluation. “And it’s allowing me to work on more challenging and interesting projects as I continue my internship.”

Students also give the course high marks for increasing their confidence with electronics and machining and helping them secure internships and co-ops.

“Referring to my work in the machine shop helped me considerably in the interview process,” said another mechanical engineering student in a course evaluation. “Employers' eyes lit up when I said I had experience with a mill, lathe and micrometers.”

Written by Candi Clevenger, College of Engineering Communications, clevenger.87@osu.edu