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BS, University of Louisville Engineering education research; Analytical and computational skills in capstone design |
| Assistant Chair and Lecturer of Chemical and Biological Engineering |
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Education research in engineering design Engineering capstone design is a key element of a McCormick education. It is a chance for students to apply their previous engineering knowledge to develop solutions to open-ended problems. Because these capstone design problems are often analytically complex, integrating several disciplinary fundamentals, as well as more general design process knowledge, we often expect a thorough or rigorous solution to include some type of computational or mathematical analysis appropriate to that discipline. However, our experience and our research, show that engineering students often struggle in recognizing when and how disciplinary knowledge (e.g. mathematical analysis inherent in many engineering fundamentals) applies to their particular design solutions. Currently, our research is focused on understanding where students struggle in the process of generating mathematical models for use in developing design solutions. |
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Recent Publications/Presentations Cole, J.L. and McKenna, A.F., “Analyzing Student Generated Evidence for Supporting Design Decisions,” Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) 2010 Annual Conference, Louisville, KY, 2010. Cole, J.L., Linsenmeier, R., McKenna, A.F., and Glucksburg, M., “Investigating Engineering Students’ Mathematical Modeling Abilities in Capstone Design,” Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) 2010 Annual Conference, Louisville, KY, 2010. Younker, J.L. and McKenna, A.F., “Examining Student Use of Evidence to Support Design Decisions,” Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) 2009 Annual Conference, Austin, TX, 2009. |
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Prof. Jennifer L. Cole tel: 847/467-5712 |
