A report on integrating design projects in mechanical engineering

Mechanical engineering students at North Carolina A&T State University take concurrent courses in mechanism and engineering design followed by a course in machine design. Each course entails design projects. To reduce the burden on students of multiple, short-term projects and to give students the experience of developing a long-term project in more depth than is usually required in an individual course, a single design project was developed to span all three courses. The design project was selected to address a need in developing countries for debris removal in street gutters to reduce the health problems associated with flooding. Students designed machines for street-gutter debris removal. Students at North Carolina A&T State University and the University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana, collaborated in accordance with a previously established memorandum of understanding for faculty and student exchange. In this paper is presented a report on this experiment in integrating design projects in mechanical engineering. The problem is defined, students are profiled, and technical issues, logistical issues, and methods addressing these issue are discussed. Lessons learned by students and faculty about cooperative learning and international collaboration are discussed. An informal assessment of integration of this type is given.