Redesign of a first year engineering design course lab activity for remote instruction

Abstract This work-in-progress paper presents the transformation of a lab activity for a first-year mechanical engineering design class at xxx university. The changes were designed to cope with the challenges raised by the remote learning environment during the COVID-19 pandemic. This first-year mechanical engineering design course, traditionally taught in person, consists of both lectures and lab activities. Lectures and labs were focused on meeting course objectives such as identifying design problems, modeling a system to meet the desired needs, and introducing the design process through hands-on experience. All the knowledge learned from lectures and labs were reinforced through a robot design project. One important lab is the Force, Torque, and Power Energy (FTPE) analysis, in which students test for and understand concepts such as torque, spring constants, moments, power, and energy for motors, springs, rubber bands, etc. Proficiency in these concepts and skills are also important for their robot project. This analysis provides students with the opportunity to gain hands-on experience measuring and performing experiments that allow them to identify critical design constraints for their robots. In a traditional setting, students would utilize an on-campus design studio, and be given access to measuring and testing equipment, however, the pandemic has made it difficult to perform the lab in the original in-person method. Although a hardware kit was shipped to the students prior to the start of the term, due to budget limitations, a few lower-frequency utilized components (force spring gauges, stall torque measurement apparatuses, and high-speed motor counters) were omitted from the kit. Thus, a modified lab activity using low-cost, more easily accessible materials was needed. This paper describes the modified lab activity in comparison with the original one. Survey responses, assignment performance data, and equipment costs were gathered and assessed to determine the success of this modified lab in terms of cost, and how much the original learning objectives have been achieved.