Engineering Design
Engineering Design is a core engineering course with science applications for SEA juniors. Student in Engineering Design learn how to think and work like engineers: solving the same kinds of problems that engineers face, using the same kinds of methods and techniques, and using the same kinds of design tools and technology.
Engineering Design students do long-term design projects to put their engineering skills into practice. Each design must meet specific constraints, such as size and material specifications, and students design with specific criteria in mind (the characteristics of a good design). Students work in teams and the projects are competitive: they are graded based on how well their projects meet the criteria based on performance tests.
Unit 1: Engineering Design
In their first unit students review the Scientific Method and learn the Engineering Analysis and Engineering Design Methods. Students do case studies or mini-projects for each method to see how the method is used. Students also learn how to give oral presentations and give their first formal presentation. Most of this unit is spent learning to use Onshape, a 3D engineering design app that is used by professional engineers.
Unit 2: Civil Engineering
Students learn the physics of structures, and the engineering involved in construction of structures such as bridges and towers. For their design project they design a two-lane road bridge that can hold the largest load for the least cost. Students use Onshape to create their bridge designs and print blueprints. Then students construct balsa wood models from their blueprints. To test their designs, students add an increasing load to their models until they fail. Recorded live streams of the bridge tests can be viewed on the SEA YouTube Channel. After testing, students study the results, redesign, rebuild, and retest.
Unit 3: Aerospace Engineering
Students learn the physics of rocket flight, and the engineering involved in the construction of rockets. For their design project they create a recoverable, reusable, and inexpensive payload rocket. They first design and test their rockets using simulation app OpenRocket, and then construct models of their designs. To give students Students design their nose cones in Onshape and we print them on our 3D printers. They design their fins in OpenRocket and we cut them out on our laser cutter. They test their models in a series of launches with increasingly heavy payloads and larger engines to see how well their designs work. They want their designs to maximize altitude and time in the air while being recoverable and reusable, and minimizing cost.
Unit 4: Mechanical Engineering
Students learn to code Arduinos, small inexpensive microprocessors, using the C++ programming language, They then code a small mobile Arduino robot to perform simple tasks using its motors and sensors. They also learn to code a robot arm to perform different action sequences using its Robot OS, and then code an attached Arduino to select specific action sequences based on input from its sensors. Their ultimate project has two tasks: a "search" task where the mobile robot must find its own way through all parts of a model building as quickly as possible, and a "rescue" task where the robot arm must pick up a carrier (with its "victim") and place it on a vehicle for transport. Recorded videos of the robot tests can be viewed on the SEA YouTube Channel.