2022 First-Year Engineering Experience

An International Design Project for First Year Engineering Students at Multiple U.S. Institutions

Presented at Technical Session M5C

Multiple U.S. institutions of higher education are participating in an international design challenge aimed at first- and second-year engineering students. This challenge has been operating for many years through Engineers Without Borders (EWB) organizations in Australia and the United Kingdom (UK). Beginning in 2019, EWB organizations in South Africa, the UK and USA partnered to develop a design challenge and run the associated competition in each of the nations. In the 2020-2021 academic year, five U.S. universities participated in the program and EWB-USA competition. During the 2021-2022 academic year, a total of five schools were involved. In this paper, we give an overview of the program and describe how the schools implemented this design challenge. Several different approaches for the design challenge are described as each school integrated the program into their existing curriculum. In addition, each school describes the motivation for participating in the program and how it fits into their curriculum.

The program, Engineering for People Design Challenge, comprises a collaboration between a community, a local non-governmental organization (NGO), and EWB-UK, EWB-South Africa. Collaboratively, a team develops an extensive design brief that includes a project description—identifying 8 design areas focused on local community needs—along with cultural background on the community. Additional resources provide guidance for instructors and students on how to proceed with the design process and how marking criteria are used to assess the projects. Each participating school is then allowed to submit five top projects to the international competition. An international panel of judges then chooses the top schools to participate in each nation’s Grand Finals based on the project submissions, which can take the form of a design report or video and poster. The top ten teams are selected for the Grand Finals and showcase their project through an idea pitch in front of judges.

The Engineering for People Design Challenge was devised to provide engineering students with an opportunity to practice their skills and address global issues as a means to developing globally responsible engineers. The benefits of this program to our first-year engineering programs are described in this paper. These include meeting accreditation requirements, motivating engineering students—especially women—who seek help- or social-oriented careers, and increasing engineering self-identity. The primary goal of the paper is to inform more faculty about this program, and encourage widespread participation in the U.S.

Authors

Dr. Thomas J. Siller http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0567-0631 Colorado State University [biography]

Tom Siller is an Associate Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Colorado State University. He has been a faculty member at CSU since 1988.
Ms. Erica J Marti http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1773-4599 University of Nevada - Las Vegas [biography]

Erica Marti completed her PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). She holds a Master of Science in Engineering and Master of Education from UNLV and a Bachelor of Science in chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior to graduate studies, Erica joined Teach for America and taught high school chemistry in Las Vegas. While her primary research involves water and wastewater, she has strong interests in engineering education research, teacher professional development, and secondary STEM education. In 2021, Erica received the ASEE Pacific Southwest Early Career Teaching Award and two awards at UNLV for mentoring undergraduate and graduate students. She also received the Peter J. Bosscher Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award in 2019 from Engineers Without Borders and was recognized as a Nevada Woman in STEM by Senator Jackie Rosen.
Cory Budischak http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0986-4297 Temple University [biography]

Cory is a teacher and researcher who strives to reduce the harmful effects of energy production and use. Teaching has always been his central passion. He started as a group tutor in college, which led him to his full time career as an Assistant Professor
Dr. Matt Gordon P.E. University of Denver [biography]

Dr. Matt Gordon is Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering. His research areas include numerical and experimental plasma physics, chemical and physical vapor deposition, electronic packaging, and bio-medical engineering. He has supervised to completion 26 MSME students and 5 PhD students. Publications include 1 book chapter, 32 journal publications, 47 refereed conference proceedings, 29 non-refereed publications, and 27 non-refereed presentations. He is responsible for funds as PI or Co-PI from 52 separate proposals totaling almost $6,500,000. Courses taught include undergraduate finite elements, thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, heat transfer, and engineering economics and ethics, and graduate finite elements, numerical methods, thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, plasma fundamentals and gas dynamics.
Dr. Carlo Salvinelli University of Colorado Boulder [biography]

Dr. Salvinelli is a Teaching Assistant Professor at the Mortenson Center in Global Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder where he teaches courses on humanitarian response and disaster management, international development project management, and field methods for development engineers. He has a BS in Industrial Engineering and a MS in Engineering Management from the University of Brescia, Italy, and a PhD in Geological Engineering from the Missouri University of Science and Technology where he conducted research focused on household water treatment systems for underserved communities. Dr. Salvinelli spent six years working as a practitioner for international NGOs, especially in Central America, where he designed and implemented international development projects, coordinated emergency response efforts, and facilitated international policy dialogues. The projects he managed addressed key development challenges including rural livelihood, water and sanitation access, rural electrification, disaster risk reduction, and natural resources management. His research interests include monitoring and impact evaluation of water service delivery solutions, the development of tools for disaster risk reduction and disaster management, and the coherence between humanitarian and development efforts in response to forced displacement related crises.

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