EGE 1001 HW#5:Â Engineering Disciplines and Grand Challenges
EGE 1001 HW#5:Â Engineering Disciplines and Grand Challenges
EGE 1001 – Fundamentals of Engineering Design
HW#5: Engineering Disciplines and Grand Challenges
Assigned: Week 5
Due: Week 6 – 30 points
Engineering Disciplines and Grand Challenges
Our class engineer has been asked to help with a BIG research project to make a proposal for a think tank grant on tackling one of the Engineering Grand Challenges! If the company that the engineer is working for wins the grant, they will be able to fund a new Grand Challenges department that our engineer hopes to get a job in right out of graduation.
As part of this research, our engineer is assigned to both a group that’s doing general research and to do a focused individual research project. This assignment is for the initial group research, which needs to be presented to the company’s planning committee next week!
Purpose of the assignment:
This assignment has three objectives. First, it is intended to introduce students to the various engineering disciplines within the profession of engineering and relate them to the Engineering Grand Challenges. Second, it is for students to learn how to work together in a team to present a group project. The third purpose of this assignment is to help students develop presentation skills that are critical to effectively communicate technical concepts.
(continue to next page)
Home Group Assignment – part one:
Divide into Home Groups. Your instructor will inform you of the group sizes.
Share your birthdates (not years) with each other. Number-off chronologically from January 1 through December 31.
Expert Group Assignment:
Go to your assigned Expert Group, based on your number.
Expert Groups:
1. Mechanical Engineering & Industrial Engineering
2. Electrical Engineering & Computer Engineering (& Embedded Software Eng.)
3. Civil Engineering & Architectural Engineering
4. Biomedical Engineering & Robotics Engineering
5. (if applicable) Biomedical Engineering & Robotics Engineering
Gather with your Expert Group to do some research. You will be teaching your research to your Home Group later, so you must participate with your Expert Group. Within 25 minutes, gather information about your assigned engineering disciplines. Use any resource available (e.g., laptops, smart phones, ask the instructor, phone a friend, etc.). Investigate the following:
1. How is each discipline defined?
2. What do those types of engineers typically do?
3. What are the traditional areas of industrial and research activity for each discipline?
4. What are some newly emerging areas of involvement and research by each discipline?
5. Anything else that may be useful to understand the discipline.
Strategies for your Expert Group to complete the task may be:
1. Determine a plan of action to complete the task within the allotted time.
2. Split the group so each looks into one of the two disciplines.
3. Share info in the sub-group.
4. Share info among the whole group.
5. Establish a plan to teach the material to your Home Group.
It may be wise to assign a time-manager/taskmaster to keep progress rolling along. You only have 25 minutes total! Be sure you are taking notes, because each student will be reporting your findings to your Home Group.
(continue to next page)
Home Group Assignment – part two:
Return to your Home Group. You have 18 minutes total (~two minutes per discipline) for each student of your group to report their findings. When you are not presenting, take notes and ask questions. Again you may need to assign a time-manager to keep the group on-task. You only have 18 minutes total! Divide your time so that everyone has a chance to share their findings.
At the conclusion of your 18 minutes, your instructor will introduce the Engineering Grand Challenges. Here is a reference to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GGupkdsX5E and website: http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/cms/challenges.aspx. See also the “Introduction to the Grand Challenges†document.
Home Group Assignment – part three:
After learning about the Grand Challenges, your Home Group will be completing the following task:
After being assigned one of the Grand Challenges, investigate the meaning and importance of the Grand Challenge. For the following week, create a 4 minute PowerPoint presentation that will address the following: Explain the Grand Challenge. Determine which of the nine engineering disciplines will be most involved with that challenge. There may be more than one primary discipline at a high level of involvement. Explain your reasons why this (or these) engineering disciplines will have such an impact. Explain how the other disciplines may also have a role in contributing to solving the Challenge. The presenter from your Home Group will be chosen at random next week. Thus, everyone needs to contribute to and practice the presentation.
Your Home Group has 7 minutes in class to complete a preliminary investigation of the Grand Challenge, get contact information, and set-up meeting times to complete the assignment outside of class.
Note: Each group will have a randomly-chosen representative present your four-minute oral presentation using PowerPoint. Each group member must participate in the preparation and practice of the oral presentation. The groups are free to decide how they would like to organize and design their presentations. Be sure that you can present all your material within your four minutes. Otherwise, your presentation will be cut-off at the four minute mark, and that would affect your score. After four minutes, there will be time for questions. Anybody in the group can answer the questions.
(continue to next page)
HW#5: Engineering Disciplines and Grand Challenges
This page to be completed and returned to your instructor. One per Home Group.
List the members of Home Group:
Which Engineering Grand Challenge have you chosen?
What is your plan for completing this assignment by the beginning of class next week? Include your meeting dates and times.
