Overview:

This card contains the resources necessary to integrate a module into freshman-level engineering courses which teaches students how to create customized designs with a 3D scanner using Entrepreneurial Minded Learning.

This module was developed with the objective of fostering the entrepreneurial mindset through the identification of unmet customer needs and subsequent design of a custom device to meet that customer need. Specifically, in terms of the 3 C’s:

Curiosity

Students demonstrate curiosity about the world around them by becoming empathetic ethnographers during the interviewing of their client to identify an unmet need. Assessing how to reframe the problem as an opportunity to develop a customized design also forces the student to explore a contrarian view to the accepted solution.

Connections

Student teams (of 2 or 3 students from varying engineering programs form a multidisciplinary team) integrate the information regarding the unmet need obtained from the client interview with a scanned 3D model to develop a design that incorporates a customized solution to meet the client need.

Creating Value

Student teams test their novel ideas by communicating their proposed (digital or physical) prototype to the client, obtain formative feedback and iterate on their original design to realize true value for their client.

The module was developed, deployed, and tested in Fundamentals of Engineering Design Projects, a required one-credit hour studio course in which freshman engineering students are introduced to basic engineering concepts and the various engineering disciplines through hands-on design and project work. In addition to the technical learning objectives, this course is intended to introduce the first-year students to the entrepreneurial mindset and professional skillset engineers require to be effective communicators and collaborators. The course is offered in both Fall semesters (6-8 sections of 24 students) and Spring semesters (2 sections of 24 students) and is required of all engineering majors (these include architectural, biomedical, civil, computer, electrical, industrial, mechanical, and robotics engineering). The one credit-hour course meets once a week for 1 hour and 50 minutes.