Multimedia Design Case Studies

Design Case Studies is one of the new courses that has been developed through the National Science Foundation Coalition, SYNTHESIS, to initiate systemic reform of undergraduate engineering education. The course is designed to update and enhance the case study method of teaching by using multimedia technology and hypermedia to combine live video examples of current engineering processes to illustrate that design is an interdisciplinary, cooperative and dynamic process. These extensive case studies cover all aspects of the life cycle of selected engineered products in which exemplary design practices have been followed. The case studies provide useful examples of design synthesis, interplay between technical and societal factors, industrial practice, multiple engineering disciplines and business considerations. These multimedia case studies, a component of the NSF Synthesis Coalition to improve engineering education, are available for distribution to other coalition campuses. Selected cases will be made downward extensible for use in high school and precollege programs to spark students interest in engineering. The Multimedia Design Case Studies course has been taught at Tuskegee University as a design elective course since Fall 1993.