Project-based learning (PBL) provides students with the flexibility to explore topics of their interests in great depth, but pure PBL is often reserved for the last portion of a typical engineering curriculum. Shorter projects are usually scattered throughout traditional engineering courses but often only supplement lecture material with limited time for self-discovery. Introducing purer PBL earlier in students’ engineering education exposes them to advanced engineering topics, bolsters interest in future classes, and builds an understanding of the interdisciplinary nature of engineering. Moreover, PBL requires students to rigorously develop essential soft skills such as time-management, effective communication, self-motivation, and teamwork. This case study explores the benefits and pitfalls of an early PBL pedagogy by following the journey of a sophomore chemical engineering student at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art with his multi-year fluid dynamics and heat transfer project.&nbsp;The student’s PBL journey began at the end of Freshman year with an intensive, six-week inventing competition at The Cooper Union: Invention Factory. The student and his partner tackled the issue of inefficient air conditioning caused by poor air circulation. They built a novel, door frame-mounted fan that distributed air evenly throughout two connected rooms to effectively cool both rooms with one air conditioner—saving energy in heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC). In the first three weeks, the pair utilized CAD to prototype various designs, researched prior art to ensure novelty, and convinced weekly panels of judges of the invention’s necessity. In the remaining three weeks, the team tested a full-scale prototype in an apartment and proved that the fan worked in practice. To prove that the fan also functioned in theory, the students learned computational fluid dynamics (CFD) through internet tutorials and a graduate student, resulting in a basic animation of the velocity field in an apartment with the fan. They also filed a provisional patent application for their invention. In order to accomplish all of these, the student pushed his soft skills such as finance management, communication, and stress management to the limit. The students also learned the basics of patent law, which is commonly left out of the engineering curriculum.After Invention Factory, the student enrolled in a graduate level CFD course to further validate his invention. He received permission to take the CFD class despite lacking key prerequisite knowledge on thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, and heat transfer. The CFD class followed a PBL approach with weekly mini-projects that explored the different capabilities of the Ansys Fluent CFD program. The student completed two major projects with teammates: designing a car radiator and airplane turbine to meet specific cost, size, and performance requirements. He initially struggled understanding the material, but studying essential concepts outside of class enabled him to complete his class projects. The CFD class exposed him to important topics such as the Navier-Stokes equations and discretization methods—core concepts in future engineering courses.&nbsp;Lastly, the student drafted a technical paper for a peer-reviewed journal regarding the CFD analysis of his door fan invention.&nbsp; Without any guidelines, he initially struggled to plan the entire research process: what question to study, what configurations to test, what data to collect, etc. But with the guidance of a mechanical engineering professor and a physics professor, and additional study of heat transfer concepts, he ran additional CFD simulations and fine-tuned the postprocessing to demonstrate clearly how the fan affected the air and heat transport in the rooms. Finally, he synthesized a journal-quality manuscript validating the prototype design. Without a deadline, the student was forced to practice self-discipline and self-motivation not required in a scheduled class environment.&nbsp;The early introduction of PBL pedagogy accelerated the student’s engagement with the engineering curriculum, and not only developed the student’s knowledge about CFD and heat transfer but also drove learning essential skills necessary for a successful engineering career.

Problem-Based Learning: A Case Study Demonstrating the Benefits of a Post-Freshman Summer Invention Program on Thermal Fluid Sciences Engagement and Professional Development

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/IMECE/IMECE2021/volume/85543

ASME 2021 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE2021)

Supporting the need among researchers worldwide for additional online and multimedia content, ASME now offers the ASME Conference Video Collection. This platform will collect and provide long-term access to conference presentation videos, encompassing all technology areas within ASME's technical conference and events program. About 30,000-40,000 engineers across all mechanical engineering and related disciplines participate in ASME conferences each year. This includes authors of approximately 6,000 to 8,000 technical papers published by ASME, the majority of whom also submit video presentations for our virtual conferences. The video collection will be available as an add-on to existing product packages or as a separate subscription.