Integration of design and manufacturing processes in first-year engineering curriculums

Current industry expectations of engineering graduates are becoming increasingly more demanding in the areas of design and manufacturing. Their concerns are focused on the fact that graduates are not capable of producing realizable results based on their conceptual designs. One reason for this is their inexperience in understanding interrelationships between the design and manufacturing processes required to fabricate engineering designs. Engineering curriculums tend to overlook design and manufacturing relationships until the senior capstone course sequence. The Padnos School of Engineering offers programs in Computer, Electrical, Manufacturing, and Mechanical Engineering. All students in the programs participate in a mandatory co-op engineering program. Response from the co-op employers has consistently focused on the student's abilities in realizing conceptual designs, the processes required to produce a given design, and the ability to function in interdisciplinary design teams. For all of our students, the first course in the program is Engineering Principles I, a traditional engineering graphics course using CAD. To address the concerns of industry, we have adopted a new methodology for teaching students the design process and the subsequent manufacturing of products. This has been accomplished using 3D solid modeling techniques for design and hands-on CNC milling exercises for producing their designs. Four design and build exercises used in the course, two of these are performed individually and two are completed in teams. Results of the pilot program have been received positively by both the students and the faculty. This paper examines the effectiveness of offering a non-traditional approach to the engineering graphics course, and discusses the types of projects implemented.