Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

An Energy Cube Project For Teaching Engineering Design Process, Fionnuala Farrell, Shannon Chance, Micheal O'Flaherty

Conference papers

This year, the College of Engineering and the Built Environment at our institute inaugurated a new Common First Year design project module that helps inform students in the selection of a specific engineering discipline. Each student, prior to selecting their bachelor’s specialism, completes three group-based design projects: a bridge design project (to familiarise students with civil and structural engineering), a RoboSumo project (involving robotics, programming, electrical and electronics engineering), and an Energy Cube project (introducing fundamentals of mechanical, manufacturing and design, and building services engineering). This paper focuses on how the engineering design process was taught via the Energy Cube. …

Introducing New Engineering Students To Mechanical Concepts Through An “Energy Cube” Project, Micheal O'Flaherty, Shannon Chance, Fionnuala Farrell, Christopher Montague

Conference papers

The objective of this paper is to describe a problem based learning module, called the “Energy Cube”, offered by Technological University Dublin that is designed to teach mechanical, building services and manufacturing engineering concepts to first year engineering students.

The Energy Cube project gives students hands-on experience in areas ranging from heat transfer, lighting and energy efficiency to industrial and product design. In the Energy Cube, students design and construct (using cardboard, clear plastic, and glue) a model of a building that admits as much daylight as possible while being energy efficient and aesthetically pleasing.

The students, working in teams …