Practicing Real World Design, Teamwork, and Communicationsthrough Multidisciplinary Systems Engineering Projects

摘要

Students enrolled in the B.S.E.E. with an Aerospace Focus program at the University of NorthDakota (UND) receive a traditional electrical engineering degree, along with aviationcoursework and a private pilot’s license. Cross-campus collaborations with UND’s worldrenownedaerospace program provide the students with many experiential learning opportunitiesthat satisfy EAC/ABET EC2000 design, multidisciplinary teamwork, and communication skilloutcomes. Examples of ongoing systems engineering projects include AEROCam, amultispectral imager designed for flight in UND Aviation small aircraft; AgCam, a two-bandimaging sensor to be installed in the International Space Station for capturing precisionagriculture data; and a radio-controlled Unmanned Aerial Vehicle with a three-meter wingspan,capable of flying four-kilogram scientific payloads. A major benefit of working on thesemultidisciplinary projects is that the students must learn to communicate well in order to besuccessful on a large team, which is virtually impossible to teach without some form ofexperiential learning opportunity. Undergraduates who excel at designing complex electricalsubsystems must also understand the importance of the integration and test process whenbuilding a much larger system containing electrical, mechanical, and software components. Froma “real world” perspective, these projects provide the same technical challenges, teamenvironment, personality conflicts, and ever-changing workforce as industry. Brief case studieswill be provided for these three systems engineering projects, as well as several other projectsinitiated at the University of North Dakota. Judging by the success of recent UND B.S.E.E.Graduates working as systems engineers, the Aerospace Focus program has been a worthwhileendeavor, but it requires an enormous amount of faculty energy.