Experiences With A Comprehensive Freshman Hands On Course Designing, Building, And Testing Small Autonomous Robots

2020 · 24 citations

• Computer Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Computer Science

During the past ten years, The Ohio State University's College of Engineering has been aggressively addressing the issue of student retention. A major element in this effort is the development of a first-year engineering program that has moved from a series of related but separate courses for first-year engineering fundamentals to a framework that involves two course sequences with tightly coupled courses. Engineering orientation, engineering graphics, and engineering problem solving with computer programming are now offered in each of two course sequences, 1 one called the Fundamentals of Engineering and the other the Fundamentals of Engineering for Honors. These course sequences retain part of the traditional material but now include hands-on laboratory experiences that lead to design/build projects. 2 Teamwork, project management, report writing, and oral presentations have assumed important roles in both sequences. This paper describes the administrative and teaching experiences with a design/build project course in the Fundamentals of Engineering for Honors sequence that serves as a capstone-like culmination to the engineering honor students' first academic year.