Engineering education

Humour may improve performance in creative problem solving as demonstrated in various studies, although the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon are still unclear. In this work the mechanisms of how humour facilitates creative problem solving during the conceptual phase of product design will be investigated. From the educational point of view all the activities that tend to reduce fixation during conceptual design are welcome, because students without specific experiences in work group and in generating original ideas reproduce always what is already known. In order to study the impact of humorous visual stimuli on creativity an experiment was performed. A sample of students of a MSc class in Management Engineering was divided into two sets and engaged to generate ideas concerning benches and shoe racks by Brainwriting (635 method) in two different ways: without stimulus and with stimulus. Three experts evaluated the concepts proposed in the generation phase and the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT) was used to measure creativity. A correlation analysis among the different assessments made by evaluators was performed. The interquartile distance method was used to identify and delete the extreme and abnormal values. Finally, a sensitivity analysis was used in order to demonstrate that even changing the TTCT criteria weights the experiment outcome does not vary. The results obtained in this study shows that the concepts obtained using Brainwriting combined with humorous visual stimulation reach better creativity scores than those obtained without stimulation. Lastly, some hypotheses are suggested in order to explain some seemingly contradictory outcomes.

Keywords: Brainwriting , Creative Thinking , Creativity , Humour , Torrance Test of Creative Thinking

With the rising importance of CAD models for product development and the recent strong promotion of hybrid geometric modeling from within the industry, the focus of teaching methods in current CAD education, as practiced in most institutions of higher education, needs to be reconsidered. From a pedagogical point of view, this situation represents a challenge, as it requires new, innovative teaching methodologies which advance the development of competency going beyond basic domain knowledge and skills limited to operating a CAD system. In this paper, a new and innovative direction for CAD education is offered, which is based on the integration of traditional teaching methods with an educational approach using negative knowledge. Central aspects of framework development and concept translation are presented together with promising results obtained through a multi-method oriented empirical study of this newly developed and now fully implemented approach.

Keywords: CAD model usability , certainty in goal-oriented action , learning from errors , Negative expertise , reflection on performance and outcome , strategic efficiency

Due to the full integration of CAD systems into modern product development and engineering, the competency to create usable geometric models has become an essential requirement for current CAD users. To avoid serious repercussions for future engineering labor, the focus of CAD education needs to be raised from the teaching of knowledge that is merely aimed at operating a system, to the development of basic strategic knowledge. From a pedagogical point of view, this situation represents a challenging task that requires new, innovative teaching methodologies. These new methodologies must facilitate the development of know-how and cognitive ability to organize domain knowledge within a holistic mental model allowing for accurate perception of the significance of circumstances and the possible consequences of actions. In this paper a new direction for CAD education is presented, based on the integration of traditional teaching methods with an educational approach based on negative knowledge. Analysis of first empirical results of this newly developed and implemented approach showed promising results. Improvements were observed in a better understanding of issues related to the usability of CAD models and an increased capability to recognize critical modeling situations and thus prevent the mistakes typically made by novices. Also, successful autonomous attempts could be observed of recovery from situations caused either by an accumulation of small mistakes or by severe modeling errors, which usually require remedial intervention by academic supervisors.

Keywords: Learning from errors , Negative expertise , Normative geometric knowledge , Strategic knowledge

Transdisciplinary research (TDR) has been the subject of discourse in the past few decades, but has bot been studied much in the context of engineering problems. Many engineering problems can be characterized as ill-defined, like open innovation, adoption of new technology, business development, and the adoption of the Industry 4.0 concept. Transdisciplinary engineering research (TDER) is also performed in large projects by multi-disciplinary teams, as in TDR projects, including stakeholders and people from practice. Such projects may last long, often years. In such large projects, the involved disciplines should include both engineering disciplines as well as disciplines from social sciences. In this paper we address the challenges that exist in adopting a TDER approach. Universities need to prepare students to work in TDER projects. We discuss the current situation in transdisciplinary engineering education (TDEE) and identify challenges that need to be addressed for including TDEE in curricula. The paper ends with a summary and ideas for further research.

Keywords: Transdisciplinary engineering education , Transdisciplinary engineering research

Purpose: Learning systematic conceptual design approaches could be difficult for students who are asked to adapt their intuitive design rationale to more abstract and divergent thinking styles. The purpose of this study is to propose a conceptual design approach with a well-defined reference framework and procedure to help students to gradually move toward concreteness and to explore the design space. Design/methodology/approach: The so-called problem–solution network approach has been taken as a reference and upgraded with a specific framework to manage abstraction levels. A first didactical application of the proposal is described, and specific feedbacks from students have been collected by means of an anonymous survey. Findings: Despite the limited course time allotted for the argument, students' feedbacks revealed that the proposed abstraction framework is useful to learn systematic conceptual design and to support the understanding of creative design thinking. Research limitations/implications: The proposal has been applied on a single class of MS engineering students in a course where only a part of the available time was allotted to conceptual design activities. However, the received positive feedbacks are encouraging and allow pushing toward more comprehensive applications and investigations. Originality/value: The proposal shown in this paper uses acknowledged concepts of abstraction and function to propose a new integrated framework to manage abstraction levels in problem solving activities. The framework has been implemented in a very recent conceptual design approach based on problem–solution co-evolution, which has been proposed to overcome the flaws ascribed to classical function-based methods.

Keywords: Abstraction , Design education , Design strategies

The introduction of Low Emission Zones, urban areas subject to road traffic restrictions in order to ensure compliance with the air pollutants limit values, set by the European Directive on ambient air quality (2008/50/EC), is a common and well-established action in the administrative government of cities. The impacts on air quality improvement are widely analyzed, whereas the effects and benefits concerning the noise have not been addressed in a comprehensive manner. The definition, the criteria for analysis and the management methods of a Noise Low Emission Zone are not yet clearly expressed and shared. LIFE MONZA project (Methodologies fOr Noise low emission Zones introduction And management - LIFE15 ENV/IT/000586) addresses these issues. The first objective of the project, co-funded by the European Commission, is to introduce an easy-replicable method for the identification and the management of the Noise Low Emission Zone, an urban area subject to traffic restrictions, whose impacts and benefits regarding noise issues will be analyzed and tested in the pilot area of the city of Monza, located in Northern Italy. Further objectives include the monitoring and the analysis of the effects, due to the introduction of the Noise Low Emission Zone, on air quality improvement and on the wellbeing conditions of the inhabitants of a selected pilot area, the identification of the type of interventions that can induce beneficial and synergistic effects, such as those relating to the planning of traffic flows and the adoption of low-noise pavements, and the active involvement of the population in the definition of a more sustainable lifestyle. Background conditions, structure and objectives of the project will be discussed in this paper.

Keywords: Environmental noise , Low Emission Zones , Sound urban planning

Industry 4.0 represents one of the most challenging themes for engineering design and also for engineering education. At this moment there are few studies in the field of engineering teaching that aim to investigate how the educational needs of students and of the industrial workforce are changing. On this basis, this research would like to investigate which are the necessary skills and expertise young engineers require to be ready for the Industry 4.0 framework. In particular, a questionnaire was developed to analyze this situation. It has been administered to students enrolled in the first and second year of the engineering undergraduate degrees held in three Italian universities: Brescia, Udine and Cassino. During two different academics years, a total of 463 students participated to the survey. The questions were aimed to investigate some key issues of Industry 4.0, and the students' digital belief and behaviors at their entrance in the university education system. The collected answers provided a picture of the actual situation in these three universities with some relevant considerations about engineering education. So, the fundamental question that authors want to answer is “Are the Italian engineering students effectively ready for Industry 4.0 or do we still work on it?”

Keywords: digital skills , Engineering Education , Industry 4.0 , questionnaire , student skills

The very rapid evolution of digital technologies and the "Internet of Things" phenomenon are today some of the most important issues that product designers have to face. Consequently, today designers need to understand and manage these new technologies in order to exploit their potential into innovative products. Therefore, it is recommendable that designers focus their activities on the design of the meaning and on the user interaction of products, in order to create smart products that are easy-to-use and enjoyable. In order to address all these issues, the authors set up an experimental workshop in which students with different backgrounds in design-related disciplines were asked to collaborate to the design of a domestic product that allows new tangible interaction with live-data streams. In addition, students were asked to develop the functioning prototype of their design solution, by using rapid prototyping and physical computing techniques. The students were able to develop working prototypes of products that are capable of communicating information derived from real-time data streams. Some of the most representative results of this workshop are presented in the paper.

Keywords: 3D printing , Design education , User centred design

The paper discusses the problem of the correct identification of the Objective Function and the associated SNR function that designers must choose when employing the Taguchi method in product design, considering this step as the basic element to quantify the uncertainty of the device performance prediction. During product design, when many design aspects must still be understood by the design team, it is important to identify the most suitable “loss function” that can be associated with the characteristic function. The second step considers the variability of the characteristic function. The Taguchi method considers many Signal to Noise Ratio functions whereas in the paper the use of a unique function is suggested for all kinds of loss function. The discussion is argued in the context of so-called parameter design, with the perspective of identifying the best ranges of variation of the parameters that designers have identified as influential on the characteristic function, and also to adjust those ranges in order to obtain twofold results: reduce Bias between the mean value of the characteristic function response and the target value; obtain less variability of the characteristic function. The discussion of a case of study will point out the approach and the use of a unique Noise Reduction function.

Keywords: Loss Function , Noise Reduction , Signal to Noise ratio , Taguchi method

Design education is a highly debated topic since decades, yet the focus on multi-disciplinary classes has gained a paramount importance due to the multi-disciplinary nature of today's global challenges. This paper contributes to the discussion through the description of the Design Methods and Processes course at Alta Scuola Politecnica, an original educational experience jointly developed by Politecnico di Milano and Politecnico di Torino with a highly selected number of MS students from Architecture, Industrial Design and all branches of Engineering. After positioning this discussion with respect to the relevant literature, the paper describes the educational model of this course and the reflections made after 5 years of implementation. Students show to catch the essence of the design workflow thanks to the educational path structured as a problem-analysis-and-solving process. However, dealing with multi-disciplinary task demands a careful composition of students' teams since it can positively/negatively affect the learning experience as well as students' motivations.

Keywords: Design education , design practice , educational background , multi-disciplinary design , team working

With a steadily increasing use of CAD systems within digital prototypes in product design and development, the capacity to create viable geometric models that can be used in various computer-aided engineering processes is becoming an indispensable necessity. However, with the current trend of commercial CAD systems increasingly to promote hybrid geometric modeling environments, this requirement poses a new challenge for education, as it requires a teaching strategy that goes beyond the sum of subject learning in surface modeling and solid modeling. In this paper, a novel teaching approach is introduced, which integrates negative knowledge as one crucial element in combination with traditional teaching methods to support competency development that reaches beyond the acquisition of basic modeling skills and domain knowledge.

Keywords: curriculum design , hybrid geometric modeling , learning from errors , Negative expertise , shape engineering , transversal abilities

In the twenty-first century, meeting our technological challenges demands educational excellence, a skilled populace that is ready for the critical challenges society faces. There is widespread consensus, however, that education systems are failing to adequately prepare all students with the essential twenty-first century knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in life, career, and citizenship. The purpose of this paper is to understand how twenty-first century knowledge and skills can be appropriately embedded in engineering education finalised to innovative product development by using additive manufacturing (AM). The study designs a learning model by which to achieve effective AM education to address the requirements of twenty-first century and to offer students the occasion to experiment with STEM (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) concepts. The study is conducted using the quality function deployment (QFD) methodology.

Keywords: additive manufacturing , and mathematics , engineering , engineering education , learning/training model , Quality function deployment , science , technology , twenty-first century skills

In today's world, it has become very common to find engineers working on multinational projects. As a result, educational institutions need to prepare students to succeed in this global working environment by providing educational experiences, where the required professional skills can be acquired. The authors have used multinational design projects as a project-based learning activity to prepare students with global competencies. However, as any other learning activity, the pedagogical effectiveness of those projects depends largely on the intrinsic motivation and interest of students. Therefore, the main goal of this paper was to determine the level of motivation of engineering students participating in a multinational collaborative design project, and make a comparison of such indicator based on gender, geographical location, and class standing. For this purpose, a survey based on the intrinsic motivation inventory was administered to students before starting their participation in the multinational project. The data collected provide information in five constructs: interest, perceived competence, pressure, perceived choice, and value. These constructs provide an indication about students' motivation when undertaking a multinational collaborative project. The engineering design collaboration included students from six different countries, and their responses to the questionnaire were analyzed. A total of 164 responses were considered valid, their responses were statistically analyzed for internal consistency, and proper constructs are selected. Results indicate that there was a high level of motivation to participate in the project, with few significant differences based on geographical location and class standing, not gender. This paper yields good information about students' interests, beliefs, and feelings when participating in an international collaborative project.

Keywords: gender comparison , interest and value , international collaboration , multinational project , Student motivation

Nowadays global collaborative environments in the corporate world require engineers with professional global competences. In response to such need, different active-learning initiatives have been introduced in academia to prepare engineering students with the necessary knowledge, skills and attitude to be competitive in the global market. Consequently, multinational design projects have been used by the authors as means of introducing professional global skills to engineering students while exposing them to a project-based learning experience. This educational activity faces many challenges including cultural and academic background differences, language and time zone barriers, and issues with communication tools among others. Therefore, this activity is expected to motivate students so they can start developing the professional skills that will help them to overcome difficulties and to carry out the project successfully. This work studies the motivation of students before and after participating in a multinational design project and makes a comparison of this parameter's results based on the effect of gender. To accomplish this objective, the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI) was adapted to the multinational experience and administered to the participating students. For this study, three motivation constructs are taken into consideration: (a) interest/enjoyment, (b) perception of choice, and (c) perceived competence. Results are discussed based on the research questions posted for this work, and some reflections based on the results are presented.

Keywords: Gender differences , International collaboration , Multinational project , Student motivation

Most universities have introduced 3D CAD education and training in their engineering courses in recent years so as to respond to the actual needs of the industrial world for high-skilled design engineers. It is well demonstrated that the effectiveness of such courses depends on teaching an effective design approach rather than training for the use of specific commercial CAD tools. Since open-source CAD software has emerged in many fields as a promising alternative to commercial off-the-shelf systems, the present paper investigates the possibility for universities to adopt open-source instruments to effectively support their educational goals. Open-source 3D CAD systems are quantitatively evaluated by an original Compliance Index which considers the design tools typically used to model and draw industrial products and their weights in accomplishing the design tasks. The results obtained for the evaluation of a set of open-source CAD systems are presented and critically discussed.

Keywords: 3D CAD , CAD teaching , Open source 3D CAD , Software evaluation

This work presents an interactive self-learning tool named Technical Drawing Learning Tool-Level 2—TDLT-L2—for teaching manufacturing dimensioning to engineering students. The tool was designed for the students enrolled in the first year of the Bachelor in Management and Mechanical Engineering of the Universities of Brescia and Udine. It consists of a simple interactive tool, based on video and drawing animations, aimed at demonstrating the connection between real and simple machining processes and workpiece dimensions on technical drawing. TDLT-L2 is currently available in two versions: as a standalone application for Windows or Android based operating systems and as a set of interactive PDF documents. It was conceived as the first module of a package of tools that will be developed, based on the learning levels proposed in the Technical Drawing Evaluation Grid—TDEG. A preliminary evaluation of TDLT-L2 effectiveness was done involving the Management and Mechanical engineering students of Udine in some dimensioning exercises. The statistically considerations done on the obtained results confirmed the validity of the tool as a self-learning instrument with an average increase of marks of about 8.8%. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 24:519–528, 2016; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/cae; DOI 10.1002/cae.21728.

Keywords: engineering education , manufacturing dimensioning , multimedia application , self-learning tool , technical drawing

According to several literature sources, Product Planning is acknowledged as a primary driver of future commercial success for new designed products, and it is schematically constituted by the identification of business opportunities and the selection of most promising alternatives. Despite the recalled relevance of Product Planning, it emerges that a marginal quantity of companies have adopted formal methods to carry out this task. The paper attempts to provide a major understanding about such a limited implementation of Product Planning techniques and other open issues emerging from the analysis of the literature concerning the initial phases of engineering design cycles. The presented study investigates the claimed benefits of methods described in the literature, the level to which such tools are diffused through educational programs in Technical Institutes, the expectations and the demands of a sample of enterprises with respect to new tools supporting Product Planning. It emerges that, whereas existing methods strive to fulfil relevant properties according to the perception of the companies, limitations come out in terms of the transfer of the proposed techniques and their perceived reliability.

Keywords: Design education , Fuzzy front end , Idea generation , Industrial survey , New product development , Review of design methods

Today's students enter engineering colleges with different technical backgrounds and prior graphics experience. This may due to their high school of provenience, which can be technical or non-technical. The prior experience affects students' ability in learning and hence their motivation and self-efficacy beliefs. This study intended to evaluate the role of prior high school graphics experience in first-year engineering students' self-efficacy beliefs in an introductory engineering graphics course. It also intended to evaluate the relationship between such freshmen's self-efficacy beliefs and their performance. Two assessment instruments were used in this study. The first is the eight-item Course Interest Survey (CIS) Confidence subscale, which was used to assess self-efficacy beliefs. The second is a multiple choice questionnaire designed on the course topics, which was used to assess performance. Ninety-nine students of the University of Brescia (Italy) participated in the experiment. Significant differences in selfefficacy were found between engineering freshmen from the technical high school versus engineering freshmen from the non-technical high school. A significant relationship between self-efficacy and performance was found only for engineering freshmen from the technical high school.

Several studies report that many novice engineers result to be skilled in CAD but poor in knowledge of the basics, visualization and spatial skills and ability in freehand sketching. There is a debate on if such lack of fundamentals dues or not to the increasing role of CAD and the decreasing role of manual drawing in the basic courses of engineering graphics. This study aimed to investigate the issues related to the use of CAD and manual drawing in teaching engineering graphics fundamentals by a review of the literature of the Engineering Design Graphics Journal and the International Journal of Technology and Design Education from 2000 to date. It was found that current students: have a lower initial level of knowledge and experience; have little chance to develop sketching and visualization skills if trained only by CAD; and their assessment usually focuses more on CAD skills than on the knowledge of the basics. Solutions proposed to such issues are: introductory courses of manual drawing at college and high schools; assessment of students' initial skills; and tests more focused on the knowledge of the rules and basics of engineering graphics language.

Keywords: Computer aided design (CAD) , Design education , Design learning , Engineering drawing , Pedagogy