2008-2009 MCCDE Annual Report download here

Activities and Findings

Executive Summary

In August 2008, a new PI was assigned to this research grant due to the original PI leaving Purdue University. The project currently remains on schedule and on budget. The research team has bi-weekly telephone conference calls to discuss project tasks and deliverables. Including the PI transition meeting in August 2008, the project team has met in person three times since then (at Fox Valley, Sinclair, and Purdue) and will likely meet in person at least two additional times before the project end date. The project will have multiple objectives completed by the end date of August 2009. However, further dissemination is necessary. Currently the project budget for year 3 has been allocated. In light of increased community college partner participation and responsibility with a new PI being placed on this project, the new PI increased each community college partner’s allotment of overall project funds by $5000. In addition, it is likely that the overall project budget will be slightly under spent when the project period ends. The team then intends to submit a no-cost extension to finish spending down available resources, including the participant stipend funds within the budget. The project has a slight surplus of those funds at this time sine we have only recently begun making concrete plans for and spending participant support dollars.

A major component of this grant project was to create curriculum materials for comprehensive design education. These materials would then be integrated into existing coursework at the partner institutions and be disseminated to the general public through a series of workshops to be held starting in summer 2009 and in the future . The curriculum modules have been completed, and the team is now in the process of creating five integrated learning activities (ILAs) to provide users of these curriculum modules with a way to tie the curriculum modules together in a meaningful way. The ILAs have been completed and have been sent to the project evaluator (Vijay Srinivasan, Columbia University – formerly of IBM) for his feedback. In addition to the curriculum development, the project team will be conducting three faculty development workshops in summer 2009 to disseminate and assess the new curriculum. These workshops will targeted primarily at high school and community college faculty in technology or pre-engineering programs. The workshops will be held at Butler Community College (June 16-17, 2009), Purdue University (July 7-10, 2009) and the NSF Hi-TECH Conference (July 19-22, 2009).

The following list includes the major milestones for the remainder of the project:
• March/April team meeting – site and date to be determined
• ILAs completed – April 1
• Send ILAs to external evaluator – April 15
• Review back from external evaluator – May 15
• Workshop at Butler Community College – June 16-17, 2009
• Workshop at Purdue University – July 7-10, 2009
• Workshop at NSF Hi-TECH Conference – July 19-22, 2009
• August team meeting – site to be determined
• Additional team meetings in August 2009, November 2009, February 2010, and May 2010

In addition to the workshops mentioned above, the following list is a compilation of course titles from the partnering institutions that demonstrates the breadth of coverage these curriculum materials have within our respective institutions. Similar institutions would likely derive similar benefits from those seen here. Courses at the partner institutions served by the activities on this grant include the following:

• 10-606-115 Design of Tooling
• 10-606-119 Statics and Strength of Materials
• 10-606-111 Design Problems
• 10-606-121 Elements of Machine Design
• 10-606-124 Intro to Product Design & Rapid Prototyping
• 10-420-145 Manufacturing Processes, Cold-Machining
• 10-457-103 Manufacturing Processes, Hot-Welding
• OLS 274 Applied Leadership
• OLS 284 Leadership Principles
• OLS 328 Principles Of International Management
• OLS 365 Leading Virtual Teams
• OLS 456 Leadership In A Global Environment
• CGT 116 Geometric Modeling For Visualization And Communication
• CGT 226 Introduction To Constraint-Based Modeling
• CGT 423 Product Data Management
• CADD101 Parametric Modeling Fundamentals
• CADD102 Mechanical Detailing Applications
• CADD204 CADD Product Design Applications
• MDES 110 Introduction to Manufacturing Design
• DRFT 110 Advanced Drafting
• MECH 281 Manufacturing Capstone
• ETD 101 Introduction to Engineering Design
• ETD 297 Special topics - Guitar Design and manufacturing
• ETD 110 Engineering Design and Development
• CAT 258 Project Management
• OTS 302 Workforce Supervision.

Specifically at Butler Community College this semester, we have experienced the following successes:
• Integrated guitar-project content into Advanced Drafting (DRFT-110 ) course offering. 13 students impacted by Integrated Learning Activities and curriculum module content created as part of MCCDE grant.
• Manufacturing Capstone (MECH-281) student created tool paths and CNC code directly from guitar body solid model using CAMWorks software, developed process plan for machining, and investigated/selected appropriate cutting tools and fixturing methods.
• Created three-credit technology elective based on MCCDE guitar project/curriculum (DRFT-165). This course to be offered in Fall 2009 semester. Likely impact is 15 students.
• Conducted collaborative design and rapid prototyping project with Northhampton Community College (PA) based on guitar headstock designs. Ten total students impacted.
• May 8, 2009 – Plant visit to C.F. Martin Guitar (Nazareth, PA) – jointly with Northhampton Community College. Two faculty members and ten students impacted.

Specifically at Purdue this semester, we have experienced the following successes:
• Modules used in product graphics standards course. Impacted 35 students
• Modules used in product data management course. Impacted 20 students

Research and Education Activities
During Year 3 of this project a major focus for grant activities was towards dissemination and evaluation. Curriculum development played a lesser role. To that end, the team developed six integrated learning activities to be used with the curriculum models that were developed in Years 1 and 2. The curriculum modules were developed based on competencies endorsed by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, the focus of which was towards integrated skills development, project management, and communication skills. The competencies were evaluated for applicability to this project by the industry advisory board for the Purdue PLM Center of Excellence. When that was complete, the external evaluator assessed the curriculum modules. The results are described below. The external evaluator is now in the process of assessing the integrated learning activities.

A major recruitment and dissemination activity for Year 3 is the development of faculty workshops to present the curriculum modules for use and evaluation, as well as the integrated learning activities. The external evaluator will also assess the workshop that will be held at Purdue University in July 2009. Additional recruitment and assessment activities, as well as activities and classes for students and industry engagement, are detailed in the Major Findings section below.

Major Findings
The project team has been gathering assessment data since the fall academic term of 2007. Data has been gathered in multiple ways. Students in selected courses at the partner institutions have completed surveys assessing their understanding of the curriculum content developed during this project that has been used in these courses. In addition, our industry advisory board has provided an assessment of the competencies selected as learning outcomes for this project. A third assessment measure that has been conducted has come from our external evaluator. He has provided substantial feedback on the curriculum content developed for this project. His is in the process of assessing the integrated learning activities in preparation of the summer workshops, and he will provide an evaluation of the participant workshop to be held at Purdue University in summer 2009. Following is a summary of formative evaluation to this point, and a summary of he external evaluator’s assessment of the comprehensive design learning modules.

Formative Evaluation of the Midwest Coalition for Comprehensive Design Education Project

MCCDE Project’s evaluation plan had both formative and summative elements that were based on the project’s goals and objectives. The main goal of the project was to implement comprehensive design & manufacturing curricula for the associate and baccalaureate degrees, and continuing education certification.

Evaluation Methodology

Evaluation Questions
The evaluation sought to answer the following questions:
1. To what extent has the project met its objectives?
2. How effective was the curriculum at developing and promoting identified and validated essential skills in fulltime students and part-time continuing education students?
3. Were the curriculum products effectively packaged for marketing and dissemination?

Formative Evaluation Plan
The formative evaluation involves the assessing the extent to which the Midwest Coalition for Comprehensive Design Education Project had been successful in meeting its originally stated objectives. This stage of the evaluation was mainly descriptive. The formative evaluation sought to answer the following questions:
1. Have goals been clearly established? What aspects of the system are expected to improve student learning and motivation and why?
2. How was learner analysis being used to inform the design of the system?
3. How was technology being selected to enhance learning?
4. To what degree were the courses effective?
5. What features were contributing to enhanced learning?

Table 1: Midwest Coalition for Comprehensive Design Education Project Logic

Assessment Design Matrix
The Project Logic Model was used to develop Assessment Design Matrix (Table 2) that identifies metrics that were used in data collection from the five collaborating institutions.

Table 2: Assessment Design Matrix

Curriculum Development Process
Each institution in the partnership designed one or more courses to share and institutionalize. Courses were developed using a module templates (See appendix 1) in a common standard that will eventually facilitate sharing within partner institutions and other interested parties through available digitally at the projects website, http://e-create.org . Each module will be a self-standing unit, containing the basic aspects for teaching content and develop skills, in addition to suggesting educational activities and assessment methods. The templates were a PowerPoint presentation and a Teaching Notes outline.

Partner institutions identified the following as the appropriate outcomes for a the design education program.
1. Apply mathematical and natural science principles into the product design process
2. Ability to apply fundamental engineering principles for effective solution of practical problems in the product realization process.
3. Ability to analyze and develop intelligent electromechanical systems .
4. Apply relevant technology tools within the product realization environment.
5. Develop awareness of the professional and ethical responsibilities for sustainable design, in order to ascertain the impacts of the engineering solution on the global society and environment.
6. Ability to work within a multi-disciplinary collaborative product realization team.
7. Effectively communicate using written, oral and visual means.
8. Demonstrate commitment to continuous improvement and education through independent experiences.
9. Ability to capture customer requirements and generate appropriate design specifications based on market needs and constraints.
10. Apply program objectives to collaboratively develop design solutions in a capstone environment.
11. Validate compliance to design specification through prototyping and testing.
Integrate project management best practices throughout all phases of product design and development
12. Integrate project management best practices throughout all phases of product design and development

The following courses were identified for curriculum development. The institution that was responsible for the development is shown in parenthesis.

Collaborative Design (Sinclair)
Design for Assembly (Mott)
Design for Manufacturability (Sinclair)
Design for Reliability (Butler)
Digital Manufacturing (Purdue)
Leadership and Management in a Global Environment (Purdue)
Product Data Management (Purdue)
Project Management (Purdue)
Prototyping (Fox Valley)
Sustainable Design (Butler)
Systems and Process Simulation (Mott)
Teamwork and Virtual Teams (Fox Valley)

ASSESSMENT TOOLS
The most critical phase of the evaluation was the assessment of project outcomes. The following tools used to assess perceptions of faculty and industrial partners of the project and the measurement of students learning gains. :
1. Student Learning Gains Survey
2. Faculty Survey from the three institutions discussed their experiences and their perceptions as to what made
the partnership a success.
3. Validation of competencies
4. Workshop survey

External Evaluator.
The external evaluator who had experience in manufacturing engineering and was familiar with the work evaluated the project’s deliverables. He participated in partnership meetings, and evaluated the modules and integrated learning modules.

Assessment of Teaching and learning Modules.
The external evaluator assessed the relevance and applicability of the teaching modules developed at the five institutions. (See appendix for MCCDE Reviewer Feedback Guidelines Learning Modules). For each module he
• Made comment and explained briefly with examples to clarify comments.
• Offered suggestions for minor changes.
• For larger changes, offered alternatives or options on how to improve the document.

Below are comments the evaluator mad e on each of the following modules.

1. Product Engineering – Design for Manufacturability, assembly & reliability, sustainable designs.
Comments:
• It would be useful to discuss disassembly (along with assembly), and its link to product disposal and reuse/repair (end of life and sustainability issues).
• Some more discussion on Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) and Root Cause Analysis (RCA) would be appropriate.
• The sustainable design module is a bit soft – it is understandable as we are learning about these issues.

2. Manufacturing Engineering – Systems/Process Simulation, Prototyping.
Comments:
• The title of this area is ‘manufacturing engineering’ – it would be a good idea to have a module on manufacturing technologies.
• The ratings above apply to the two modules presented in this area.

3. Information Technology – Collaborative Design, Product Data Management.
Comments:
• It might be useful to add some material on ERP systems as part of the Information Technology.
• Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) can be covered either in this area or in the Manufacturing Engineering area.

4. Business Environment – Globalization, Project Management, Teamwork/Virtual Teams.
Comments:
• This is probably a big area, and more modules may be needed. It might be a good idea to use some case studies – this might be the most effective way to teach the business issues and environments.

Validation of Competencies
Industry partners were solicited to provide input on the competencies identified for a Product Lifecycle Baccalaureate and Associate degree programs. See appendix for the Competencies Validation Survey for Manufacturing Technology Graduates Working in Product Lifecycle Management. Results of the survey will be included in the final report.

Results
New minors and formal options in Product Realization and Design/Manufacturing have been started at each academic partner.
A total of approximately 600 students participated in identified MCCDE courses and projects during year 2 of the 3-year project. Over 15 faculty participated.
Nearly twelve industry partners have provided $300,000 in parallel research funding and in-kind services.

Collaboration
The Guitar project was developed in a collaborative digital-based environment. Features of the collaborative project included the application of product lifecycle principles to the construction of the guitar. Guitar workshops were held at Purdue University in the summer of 2007 and 2008.

To facilitate the cooperation these Collaboration Tools were used:
• Teamcenter Community
• Skype
• Adobe Connect
Partner Institutions used a variety of software solutions in their collaborative design activities (Table 3).

Assessment of Student Learning Gains
Appendix

Demographics
Fifty nine students participated in the Assessment of Student learning Gains Survey. Most of the participants (60%) were from Purdue University.

Table 4: Distribution of respondents by College

Eighty-nine percent of the respondents were male with only 6 females. The majority of the respondents were in the age group 20-29 years old. There was one participant who was over 65 years. Table 5 show the distribution of respondents by age.

Table 5: Distribution by Age

Although they were not many minorities participating in the survey, a much higher percentage was in the program. Table 6 shows the distribution by race of the respondents.

Table 6: Distribution of respondents by Race

The majority of the respondents were seeking an associates or baccalaureate degree. About 8% of the respondents were seeking graduate degrees (Table 7). Over 50% of the respondents were seniors with about 12% part-time students.

Table 7: Distribution of Respondents by Class Year

The following table summarizes the respondents profile of the surveys, percentages show the proportion of respondents that felt that the program courses helped them develop the following skills and knowledge in the areas listed below

• 62% Applying math principles
• 48.9% Applying science concepts
• 76% Solving problems
• 74% collaboratively develop design solutions
• 54.6% Compliance to design specification through testing
• 15.9% Writing papers
• 48.9% Understand how ideas in this class relate to other PLM
• 34.1% Finding trends in data
• 72.6% Understanding relevance to real world
• 43.2% Appreciating PLM
• 60% Learn independent as a life long learner
• 52% Working effectively with others
• 78.5% Ability to think through a problem
• 80.4 Confidence in your ability to work in class
• 56.9% Feeling comfortable with complex ideas
• 64.7% Enthusiasm for subject
• 68.7% Professional ethics and social responsibilities

Faculty and Staff Survey
Faculty and staff involved in the project were solicited to provide input on the project See Appendix for faculty survey). The survey elicited responses on the following broad categories.

• Participation Benefits
• Participation Costs.
• Satisfaction with the Partnership.
• Sense of ownership.
• Partner institution commitment.
• Curriculum Development
• Project Activities and Outcomes
• Partnership interaction
• Flow of information
• Organizational Barriers
• Perceived Effectiveness.
• Project Progress

The results of the final survey will be available in the final report. The respondents to date were too few to provide valid statistics. However, based on the limited responses, it would appear that there was some consensus that the project achieved most of its objectives and that institutions and individuals on the project had benefitted from participation. There were some concerns about decision making and participation by students.

Training & Development and Outreach Activities

As a dissemination mechanism for this ATE grant, the project team intends to conduct three workshops in summer 2009. They include the following locations:

• Butler County Community College: June 16 – 17, 2009. Primarily focused on high school and community college faculty to have an opportunity to be exposed to comprehensive design curricula.
• Purdue University: July 7 – 10, 2009. Open to all faculty levels and will run concurrently with a guitar-building workshop, which is the learning metaphor for our instructional materials created on this project.
• NSF Hi-TECH Conference: July 19 – 22, 2009. Open to faculty of all levels. Includes a half-day workshop prior to the conference to engage faculty on online collaborative design techniques.

Faculty will leave these workshops with curriculum materials and functional guitar hardware (some of which they have created and manufactured) to take back to their classrooms.

Given the mission of each partner institution, industry engagement and workforce development efforts relative to this grant project have been strong. Each institution has contributed significantly to its academic mission during participation in the grant.

Fox Valley Technical College delivers 80 programs to over 50,000 students each year. FVTC has a successful track of collaboration and joint partnerships to meet education and industry needs, particularly to business and industry. More than 1,700 employers and 21,000 employees are served each year, with 72% located within the district, 20% outside the district but still in Wisconsin, and the remaining 8% out of state. Customers range from large multi-national corporations to small-and medium-sized businesses to governmental agencies and schools. Employer-requested training typically occurs at the employer’s site and is customized to meet their unique needs. FVTC contract revenue generation in recent years was over $7.4 million or over 20% of the total state revenue in Wisconsin Technical College system. FabTech Service Technicain Training Center on Fox Valley Technical College (Oshkosh) Campus FABTECH offers Caterpillar-specific service technician career tracks: Rental, Engine, Construction Equipment, and Electric Power Generation (EPG)/Marine Engine. Students are trained by experienced FVTC instructors and have the opportunity to work on current model Caterpillar equipment, engines and generators using the latest tools and advanced diagnostic technology. http://www.fabco.com/fabtech/default.htm

At Mott Community College, we offeedr the Design for Assembly module as an option in a PLM Certificate program that we developed using Dept. of Labor funds. This initiative is focused on small and medium size companies being encouraged (or directed) to implement a PLM strategy -- either in part or in whole. We have developed a 2 day overview (high level) that breaks the PLM enterprise down into four manageable sections (Concept, Design Development, Process Design, Manufacturing/Service/End of Life) designed as a type of strategic definition. Following this overview we are offering a series of "tactical" PLM components, Design Intent and Parametric Modeling, Design for Assembly/Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Overview of CAE, and eventually a 4 day discrete event process planning product. We are developing this material as part of the Southeast Michigan Community College Consortium (SMC3) -- meaning that we will share this content with 8 other colleges and it may be rolled out across SE MI.

Butler County Community College's Business and Industry Training Institute (BITI) provides customized training to employees of local companies and organizations. BITI is a partner in the Workforce & Economic Development Network of Pennsylvania (WEDnetPA) WEDnetPA is an alliance of 33 educational providers across Pennsylvania that acts as the delivery mechanism for the Commonwealth's Guaranteed Free Training (GFT) program. As a WEDnetPA partner, BCCC serves as the point of contact for businesses in its service area accessing GFT funds. BITI also coordinates a variety of technical offerings to support the apprenticeship programs of local manufacturing operations. In addition, the College's Office of Professional Education & Certificate Programs coordinates a variety of certificate programs, including a 12-week Non-Destructive Testing/Inspection Technologies certificate. NDT methods trained include: Visual Testing (VT), Liquid Penetrant Testing (PT), Magnetic Particle Testing (MT), Radiographic Testing (RT), and Ultrasonic Testing (UT). The training program meets or exceeds the guidelines or requirements of the American Society for Nondestructive Testing (ASNT) documents SNT-TC-1A, CP-189 and NAS 410. Most of the companies impacted by the College's workforce development training programs are small- to medium-sized operations. Business and Industry Training Summary for Butler Community College includes:

• Trained 1,154 incumbent workers through a variety of workforce development offerings, including: AutoCAD, Solidworks, blueprint reading, basic wiring, industrial communications, physics and industrial mechanics.
• Managed $345,000 in WEDnetPA grants to deploy training for local manufacturing businesses.
• Local businesses served: General Electric Transportation Systems, Butler County Manufacturing Consortium, AK Steel, Penn United Technologies, II-VI, Oberg Industries, Cygnus Manufacturing Company, TW Phillips, IDL Worldwide, Bear Metallurgical, Wise Machines, Alpin Surgical Specialties, Butler Technologies, Napco, Preservation Technologies, Sonneborn, TRACO, Standard Bent Glass, Pulva Corp., and Penna Flame Industries.
• Deployed technical courses as part of the established apprenticeship programs of local manufacturing companies, including Cygnus Manufacturing Company and AK Steel-Butler Works.
• December 3, 2008 – BC3 Board of Directors Meeting
• February 9, 2009 – Local Legislator’s Luncheon (Butler County and PA State reps) hosted at BC3
• April 16, 2009 – Local community talk show on WISR radio (1 hour discussion)
• February 20-21, 2009 – National Engineers Week event (~5,400 students, teachers and parents reached)
• March 24, 2009 – Butler Intermediate High School presentation (~600 students)
• April 29, 2009 – BC3 Annual Drafting Contest (~200 students and 21 teachers impacted)

At Sinclair Community College, we have two industry engagement and workforce development activities currently. Currently PDM techniques are being applied to a project of aircraft/ Helicopter prototyping that we are doing for Rolls Royce via Phoenix formations which does trade show exhibits.

At Purdue University, we have engaged in three substantial activities relative to this grant project and workforce development. The first is a Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Certificate Program with The Boeing Company. It has the potential to involve up to 5000 incumbent engineers over the next 3 years. We also intend to develop a series of PLM-oriented seminars (1 or 2 days in duration) to offer management-level education that would help companies develop strategy around and understanding of PLM-related concepts and strategies. Second, we have partnered with Ivy Tech Community College to develop instructional modules for design, digital manufacturing and virtual teaming. The content is parallel to this project, and it is the intent of this group to bring Ivy Tech in as a potential partner for future ATE grants.

Posters:

• President Cordova visit pdf posters
  • General PLM Posters:
    • 01 PLM Poster
    • 02 PLM Global Outreach
    • 03 PLM Hub
    • 04 PLM in Pedagogy
  • Professors:
    • 05 Zhang: A Model-Based Multidisciplinary Correspondent Methodology (MCM) for Design-by-Analogy
  • Graduate students
    • 06 Jovanovic: Digital Manufacturing Curriculum Modules
    • 07 Wan: Collaboration With Industry and Academics
    • 08 Wang: MDO
• Microsoft PowerPoint Poster Templates:
  • Medical Poster
  • Research Poster - Horizontal (48" x 36")
  • Research Poster - Vertical (36" x 48")
• PLM Center of Excellence template:
  • Kart Poster
  • Drill Poster
• MCCDE Poster template can be found here.
  • Curriculum Development
  • Collaborative Projects
  • Collaborative Tools
  • The General Scope of the Project
  • MCCDE Project
  • Guitar Project
  • MCCDE Project logo for the banner
  • NSF Poster board dimensions

Some helpful files:

MCCDE Excel file (February 08 2008).

The files from Purdue meeting can be downloaded here.

All Syllabi from Product Design and Realization identified Purdue COT courses can be downloaded here.

Conferences:

2007 ATE National Principal Investigators Conference

• MCCDE Poster template can be found here.
  • Curriculum Development
  • Collaborative Projects
  • Collaborative Tools
  • The General Scope of the Project
  • MCCDE Project
  • Guitar Project
  • MCCDE Project logo for the banner
  • NSF Poster board dimensions

Meetings:

Upcoming meetings:

• Planning session at Sinclair Community College
• Planning session at Fox Valley Technical College

Past meetings :

• Planning session at Purdue University, September 19 - 21, 2007.
• The files from NSF Midwest Coalition for Comprehensive Design Education meeting held at Purdue can be found on Teamcenter Community in the folders: Documents and Lists: Shared Documents, Curriculum Development, Guitar Project
  • Agenda
  • Collaborative Tools
    • Adobe Connect overview
    • Adobe Presenter
    • Trial download from Adobe web site
    • Teamcenter and Teamcenter Community
    • Skype Training
  • Guitar Workshop (Headstock Solid Works files, 3dxml files and The Guitar Project Teams)
• Planning session at Mott Community College, May 21 – 22, 2007: Agenda
• Planning session at Butler County Community College - March 28-30, 2007: Agenda
• Planning session at Purdue University - September 29, 2006: Results

Conferences and Seminars:

• Guitar Workshop - Purdue University, July 16-20, 2007

Music and instrument lovers from around the country attended a one-week workshop July 16-20 at Purdue where they learned from the pros how to craft, engineer and customize their own solid-body electric guitar. Workshop participants learned the practical and technical aspects of making guitars, with experts on hand from Purdue and professionals in the industry from Fender Guitars, Stewart-MacDonald, Taylor Guitars and others. Mark French, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering technology, led the class. Also participating from Purdue were Brad Harriger, a professor of manufacturing engineering technology, and Richard Couch, director of engagement at Purdue's Center for Advanced Manufacturing. Attendees of the workshop received a complete kit of materials, including a guitar body and neck with much of the machining already completed. Participants had the opportunity to tailor the final shape of the body and neck, as well as add other custom touches, such as paint details (Purdue News, August 23, 2007).

Video about the workshop can be found here.

Purdue, July 20 2007

Useful links:

• American Society of Mechanical Engineers - ASME
• Society of Manufacturing Engineers