MENU
  • ASEE Logo
  • Give
    Give
    ASEE Donations...
    Classified Volunteer
    Login
  • Join Login Volunteer Classified Give
    Give
    ASEE Donations...



About
  • Overview
    • Mission, Vision, Goals
    • Public Policy Statements
    • Constitution
    • Bylaws
    • Organizational Structure
    • Investment Policy
    • Financial Policy
  • Our History
  • Staff Contacts
  • Leadership
    • Board Of Directors
    • Academy Of Fellows
    • Past Board Members
    • Advisory Committees
    • Representatives to External Organizations
    • Executive Director's Message
    • Meeting Minutes
  • Volunteer
  • Careers at ASEE
  • Privacy Statement
I Am A...
  • Member
      Login Required
    • Your Member Page
    • Membership Directory
    • Financials
    • Volunteer for Task Force
      • COVID Recovery
      • Engineering Culture
    • No Login Required
    • Awards
    • Divisions, Fellows, and Campus Reps
    • Sections and Zones
    • Resources
  • Prospective Individual/Organizational Member
    • About ASEE
    • Individual Membership
    • Institutional Membership
    • Major Activities
  • Donor
  • Prospective Partner or Sponsor
  • Advertiser
  • Fellowship Seeker
    • About Fellowships
    • High School
    • Undergraduate
    • Graduate
    • Post-Doctoral
    • Other Programs
Events
  • Conferences and Meetings
    • 2022 Annual Conference & Exposition
    • 2021 Virtual Annual Conference & Exposition
    • 2020 Virtual Annual Conference & Exposition
    • Section & Zone Meetings
  • Council Events
    • Conference for Industry and
      Education Collaboration (CIEC)
    • CMC Workforce Summit
    • Engineering Deans Institute (EDI)
    • Research Leadership Institute (RLI) (Formerly ERC)
    • Engineering Technology Leaders Institute (ETLI)
    • EDC Public Policy Colloquium (PPC)
  • Featured Events
    • Frontiers in Education
    • NETI
    • CoNECD
    • First Year Engineering Experience
    • Workforce Summit
  • Future Conference Dates
Publications
  • News
    • Newsletters
    • eGFI
    • Division Publications
  • Journals and Conference Papers
    • Overview
    • Journal of Engineering Education
    • Advances in Engineering Education
    • Conference Proceedings
    • Section Proceedings
    • Zone Proceedings
    • PEER
    • Plagiarism
  • Monographs and Reports
  • Prism Magazine
  • Data
    • Profiles of E&ET Colleges
    • Case Study Series: Engineering-Enhanced Liberal Education
Impact
  • Public Policy Statements
  • Data Analysis
  • Annual Reports
  • Diversity
Education & Careers
  • Academic Job Opportunities
  • Course Catalog
  • Engineering Education Research and Innovation
    • Engineering Education Community Resource
  • PreK-12
    • eGFI Teachers
    • eGFI Students
  • Engineering Teacher PD Endorsement
Calendar
2020 Annual Conference
The ASEE 2020 Virtual Annual Conference content is available.
See More....
  • International Forum
    • Past Forums
  • 2020 Research Leadership Institute(RLI) (Formerly ERC)
    • Overview
    • Registration
    • Housing
    • Program Schedule
    • ERC Past Conferences
  • 2018 Engineering Technology Leaders Institute (ETLI)
    • Engineering Technology Leaders Institute (ETLI)
    • Registration
    • Housing
    • Program Schedule
    • ETLI Sponsorship Options
  • 2017 Global Colloquium
  • Pre K-12 Workshop
    • Call for Proposals
    • Registration
    • Housing
    • Sponsors
    • Program Schedule
    • Past Conferences
  • STEP Grantees Meeting
  • Annual Conference
    • Past Conferences
  • International Forum
    • Past Forums
  • 2020 Research Leadership Institute(RLI) (Formerly ERC)
    • Overview
    • Registration
    • Housing
    • Program Schedule
    • ERC Past Conferences
  • 2018 Engineering Technology Leaders Institute (ETLI)
    • Engineering Technology Leaders Institute (ETLI)
    • Registration
    • Housing
    • Program Schedule
    • ETLI Sponsorship Options
  • 2017 Global Colloquium
  • Pre K-12 Workshop
    • Call for Proposals
    • Registration
    • Housing
    • Sponsors
    • Program Schedule
    • Past Conferences
  • STEP Grantees Meeting
  • Annual Conference
    • Past Conferences

2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Enhancing 3D Modeling with Augmented Reality in an After-school Engineering Program (Work in Progress)

Presented at FPD and DEEDs Joint Postcard Sessions

3D printing is increasingly being used in manufacturing and engineering design processes. To be able to design and 3D print a feasible product it is essential to learn how to 3D model. Using 3D modeling software, students can build and iterate on their 3D designs. While these technologies make just-in-time manufacturing of designs and components feasible, they also raise new cognitive challenges: students need to develop visualization and evaluation skills to assess the feasibility of their 3D models during iterative design processes. 3D modeling software alone does not help in developing these skills. Towards this end, this research reports on the use of Augmented Reality (AR) to support middle school students’ to improve their visualization and evaluation of 3D models in engineering design processes.

We report on a 3-week long after-school engineering experiences program built around Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (drones). Participating youth are middle school students from low income families (n = 12). These youth are tasked with understanding the capabilities of the UAV and augmenting it in order to address a societal need: delivering supplies via drone to a remote village impacted by a natural disaster. The UAV curriculum is developed around a realistic storyline in which students consider the needs of a small town to monitor conditions of a nearby volcano. Throughout the lessons, conditions change resulting in students needing to plan and implement survey and rescue activities using the UAVs. Embedded in this curriculum are several design challenges that students must address in order to use their drones effectively to support the town’s isolated residents. Here, we focus on a specific design challenge where students augment their drone with custom-built “skyhooks” for supply delivery. They start by sketching skyhooks in 2D and end with choosing a 3D model of the skyhooks to complete the challenge of delivering supplies to the disaster area. In the intermediate design steps, the students use an AR application to help them visualize the transition from 2D models to 3D models with the drone augmented to the scene.

Our research examines how using 3D modeling with AR can enhance youth design cognition. We hypothesize that students will be able to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of their 3D models with the help of the AR application, and they will make better and more informed design decisions that result in successful delivery of supplies to the disaster area. We collect both product and process data in the form of artifacts generated during design iterations, pre and post activity mental rotation tests, screen-recordings of the AR application, surveys, and interviews. Mental rotation tests will be used to determine the degree to which using these technologies enhance youths’ spatial reasoning. Surveys and interviews ask youth to reflect on their use of engineering design processes to solve problems. Additionally, interview and survey data will provide insight into student reasoning about design features and how their evaluation of their evolving artifacts influence design iterations.

Authors
  1. Miss Srinjita Bhaduri Orcid 16x16http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0178-2513 University of Colorado, Boulder [biography]

    Srinjita Bhaduri is a Research Scientist at the Institute of Cognitive Science at University of Colorado Boulder. Her research examines how educational technology can improve student engagement and learning, often focusing on underserved populations.

  2. Katie Van Horne Ph.D. University of Colorado, Boulder
  3. Mr. Peter Gyory University of Colorado, Boulder
  4. Ms. Hannie Ngo
  5. Prof. Tamara Sumner University of Colorado, Boulder [biography]

    I am also a Professor at the University of Colorado, with a joint appointment between the Institute of Cognitive Science and the Department of Computer Science. I am currently serving as the Director of the Institute of Cognitive Science. I lead an interdisciplinary research and development lab that studies how computational tools – combining cognitive science, machine intelligence, and interactive media – can improve teaching practice, learning outcomes and learner engagement. My research and teaching interests include personalized learning, learning analytics, cyberlearning environments, educational digital libraries, scholarly communications, human-centered computing, and interdisciplinary research methods for studying cognition. I have written 140 articles on these topics, including over 80 peer-reviewed scholarly publications.

Download paper (663 KB)

Are you a researcher? Would you like to cite this paper? Visit the ASEE document repository at peer.asee.org for more tools and easy citations.

» Download paper

« View session


  • Follow Us
  • twitter
  • facebook
  • youtube
  • instagram
  • linkedin
  • 1818 N Street N.W. Suite 600, Washington DC 20036

  • Telephone: 202.331.3500 | Fax: 202.265.8504

  • © 2025 Copyright: ASEE.org All rights reserved. Privacy Policy.