Virginia Tech Engineering

Mechanical Engineering Senior Design Project Expo

The nearly 300-member Virginia Tech mechanical engineering class of 2013 will be exhibiting their project designs Friday, May 3, as a final deliverable of the two-semester capstone design course.  Thirty-eight teams have been working since August 2012 on projects ranging from bio-inspired locomotion to an electric powered motorcycle designed for a 140 MPH top speed.

The design teams are paired with a faculty adviser who is considered a subject matter expert in the design domain required of the project.  These teams meet weekly with their adviser and more frequently among themselves to produce a “product realization” from an idea.  The course is structured to take students from identifying customer needs, defining target specifications and generating concepts to analyzing candidate designs and finally building and testing their final products.  Success is measured by how closely the tested product meets the original project goals.

Throughout the year the students are evaluated in written and oral presentations, with presentations given to a design review panel consisting of faculty and industry representatives.  The inclusion of industry reviewers provides a balanced assessment of the teams’ work, where real world constraints of schedule and profitability are seen as important indicators of success.

The event kicks off at 1 p.m. at Hancock Atrium.

Event: The Story of America’s Most Prolific Motorcycle Designer

Craig Vetter, internationally acclaimed motorcycle designer and member of the American Motorcycle Association Hall of Fame, will guest lecture to approximately 1,000 first-year engineering design students as part of the class, ENGE 1114 class. The public is invited to attend the lecture. Vetter’s visit also will include working with students within the Department of Engineering Education, the Center for e-Design, the Ware Lab, and team members of the Virginia Tech BOLT team and the Motorcycle Eco Challenge Team.

When: 3:30 PM, 7 May 2013

Where: 300 Cowgill Hall

Contact: Richard Goff
Email: richgoff@vt.edu
Phone: 5402319537

Sponsor: Department of Engineering Education

College regrets, software course edition

Everyone has their college regrets: That missed gal or guy, too much partying or not enough, sleeping though that direly important final exam, or missing a journey or trip because one got sick or did not have the money.

The blog site TechSchool.com has its own version of high-ed remises in the article “10 technology classes we wish we took in college.” Virginia Tech’s “Introduction to Software Design” course, part of the computer science curriculum, is on the list.

Blog author Justin Boyke writes that the course, listed as CS 1114, “gives students a full picture of the fundamental concepts of object-oriented programming.”

Part of the College of Engineering, CS 1114 is taught by Stephen Edwards, associate professor of computer science. He says, “Enrollment in the course has been increasing noticeably over the past few years (the biggest this semester than in quite a while), but that could be because interest in computer science is increasing nationwide.”

Edwards adds that the course breaks from the pack because it previously focused on students learning programming while writing their own web applications, for instance, a personalized version of Facebook one could demo to friends and family, but has taken a new route: “This year, students are instead writing Android applications that they can install and run on their own phones or tablets,” he says.

“The semester ends with a ‘capstone’ project where students design and write their own Android game programs, with class-wide awards given for best artistic design, best game concept, etc.,” said Edwards.

“Again, this is a way to connect classroom learning to the day-to-day experiences with computing that students see in their lives outside of class.”

Read about CS 1114 and the other nine missed classes here: http://www.techschool.com/blog/technology/10-technology-classes-we-wish-we-took-in-college.