There is a national need to improve the effectiveness of service courses. In this pilot project, the focus is the electrical systems service course offered to mechanical engineering departments.

Impact and Outcomes

In this project, a studio format and an experience-rich environment combine to dramatically improve student engagement and raise student learning outcomes.

As explained by ME professor Richard Layton, the course is now an integral part of the mechanical engineering measurement thread

Due to the work of this project, measurement thread courses both before and after this course have been enhanced. The prerequisite course now has 300% more laboratory experience. The follow-on course in mechanical measurements is now being enhanced. The result is that the entire measurement course sequence in the mechanical engineering curriculum has been improved.

Caterpillar Foundation has provided $100K in additional funding to augment the scope of the project to include data acquisition and automatic control.

The Kern Foundation has provided $125K in funding to build a second studio classroom (completed Summer 2004) in the ECE Department at Rose-Hulman.

Advisory board members for this project are Ken Connor, ECSE department chair at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Karl Smith, Morse-Alumni distinguished teaching professor at the University of Minnesota, Sudhir Mehta, associate vice-president for academic affairs and professor of mechanical engineering at North Dakota State University, and Gloria Rogers, vice-president of institutional research, planning and assessment at Rose-Hulman.

Ed Wheeler Last modified: April 22, 2010