Freshman/Senior Design Education*

This paper describes experience with a change in the aircraft design course at Virginia Tech. In the past this course was the so-called ‘capstone’ design course for seniors. In the spring semester of 1993 freshmen were included on the design teams. There were several purposes for the change. First, as part of Virginia Tech’s participation in the NSF-sponsored SUCCEED coalition, we wanted to increase freshmen enthusiasm for engineering, and thus improve retention rate. We also wanted freshmen to understand the need to take all the engineering science courses required in the sophomore and junior years. Finally, we wanted to prepare students for the senior-level design course, which students were finding difficult because the orientation was so different from the engineering science courses. The results of this experience have been completely positive. Both the freshmen and senior members of the design teams want to see this approach continued. Finally, it appears that the quality of course did not suffer. Design teams with freshmen members placed first and third in the AIAA/General Dynamics Undergraduate Team Aircraft Design competition.