Students gain real-life engineering experience through industry-led design challenge

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Undergraduates in an engineering technical communications class recently had the unique opportunity to work with local industry leaders and create innovative designs to address a real-world problem. 

Students in a section of the fall 2016 ENGR 2367 class piloted a collaborative educational model with representatives of Worthington Industries, a diversified metal manufacturing company, and one of their customers, Select Sires, a leader in reproductive management solutions for dairy and beef producers. 

The two companies presented their issue to the class: they needed a vessel custom-designed to effectively and safely transport hundreds of bull semen samples to farmers around the country. Select Sires specializes in providing highly fertile, superior genetic products to enhance the productivity and profitability of dairy and beef producers. The transportation of such a sensitive biological product faces many challenges, from temperature control to complex logistics management.

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Students present their design concepts to the judges.

This challenge was not a typical assignment for the students, who needed to become knowledgeable about a broad range of topics in a short amount of time, including livestock breeding, shipping regulations and cost, and the use and limitations of raw materials such as stainless steel and expanded polystyrene.

“We were able to get hands-on experience and that is very rare to get as a first- or even second-year student,” said David McGee, a second-year industrial and systems engineering major. “That really helps for resume building and just experience for the future.”

This multidisciplinary pilot project aimed to fill gaps within the engineering curriculum by offering communication instruction and practice through a high-quality, industry-led learning experience for students. Industry partners engaged in conversations with students about their teams’ design responses to the problem, allowing the students to gain one-on-one attention from practicing engineers and to hone their interpersonal and communication skills while completing their projects.

Director of Engineering Technical Communications Mary Faure of the Department of Engineering Education led the course, while the industry collaboration was facilitated by Assistant Vice President Jay Sayre and Senior Technology Integrator Kari Roth, both of the Materials and Manufacturing for Sustainability Program at Ohio State’s Institute for Materials Research (IMR).

“Today’s engineering students need engaging, contextually-positioned technical communications, project management, entrepreneurial thinking, and teamwork instruction and practice in order to perform well in advanced discipline-specific engineering classes, internships, capstone, and in their entry-level engineering positions,” said Faure. “This project was designed to provide important skill-building through an authentic, hands-on experience, which today's students crave, while fulfilling an essential component of the general education curriculum. It gives students a unique experience without adding credit hours to their curriculum or cost to their college expenses.” 

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Judges of the design challenge stand alongside the winning team of students.

Student groups were able to present their final designs at an evening event in the new Materials Innovation space located on Kinnear Road. Each group was given up to 15 minutes to present their vessel design to the judges from Worthington Industries and Select Sires. The presentations included videos, prototypes and many unique suggestions to best transport Select Sires’ samples across the country safely to its customers.  Worthington Industries generously provided gift cards to members of the winning team: Alex Machtay, Matt Rowland, Robert Jankovsky and Adam DeNise.

The company reps said they enjoyed working with the students, were surprised and pleased at the quality of their projects, and would welcome continuing the collaboration in the future with another cohort. One student from the class is currently being considered for a summer internship with Worthington Industries.

The hope is that the success of this authentic, interdisciplinary learning experience paves the way for an “integrated curriculum” that crosses college boundaries, offering students of all majors engaging, high-quality learning experiences that more accurately prepare students to be effective in the workplace or in graduate schools regardless of their disciplinary interests. 

by Layla Manganaro, Institute for Materials Research

Categories: ResearchStudents