MOBILE TOOL TO ENABLE ACCELERATED INFORMATION TRANSFER IN THE MIME CAPSTONE DESIGN CLASS AT OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY

摘要

The school of Mechanical Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering (MIME) at Oregon State University (OSU) offers a Capstone course aimed at preparing students for real world engineering problem solving through group collaboration. Every year, approximately forty groups of three undergraduate engineering students work together to create processes and products. The class model hinges on communication between the team sponsor, advisor, instructor and students. A Google Site based online team management tool has been developed to assist with creating a better communication environment for these groups. Many people these days carry smart phones and tablets. Students, faculty and advisors have been using the tool with their devices. The current version, however, is clunky and not mobile-friendly. Thus, developing a mobile application is a logical step in order to facilitate better communication. This application will be tied into the current Google Sites system being used for the student projects. The goal would be to lower the overall technical effort needed by the students to follow information and events in the classroom which would lead to an increase in their overall productivity. Once completed, the proposed tool will be able to be expanded to encompass all projects, empowering the engineering management community with a powerful communication and management tool.