Abstract:

The Senior Design Program in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) Department at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS) endeavors to provide an opportunity for students to begin their transition from engineering student to practicing engineer. As with many similar programs, this is accomplished by bringing in external project sponsors with real problems for their organizations that the students, functioning on small teams, address over the span of a full academic year. Most of the project sponsors are for-profit companies, with many of those being engineering companies of some sort. This has proven to be a particularly effective model over the past 21 years since its inception, and has proven very scalable as the program has grown. One of the emphases of the program centers on the development of an appropriate engineering specification, or, a measurable definition of a successful solution for the problem to be addressed. In every case, developing an appropriate engineering specification requires a thorough understanding of the problem, including its domain (technical specifications), but also its context (other necessary attributes of a successful solution that can be culturally influenced). In the more typical projects, sponsored by engineering companies in the United States, the contextual aspects of the problem are easily grasped by the students who typically are culturally closely aligned with the sponsor and the environment in which the problem resides. In addition to these projects, however, “service-oriented” projects are available as options for students so inclined. These projects typically address problems faced by peoples in need in developing countries around the globe. The problems are often not particularly technically challenging, but coming to a solution that will be adopted by the target people, be a lasting solution, is economically sustainable, and effectively addresses the underlying problem is often a significant challenge. The students, as an essential step in fully and appropriately characterizing the problem they are to address, must learn much of the culture, way of life, and physical environment of the peoples they are endeavoring to benefit through their efforts. This necessary learning is greatly enhanced when the students have the opportunity to spend time with the people they are intending to help in their own environment. This paper presents the collaborative relationship that has developed between the MAE Senior Design Program and the Global Livingston Institute (GLI), a non-governmental organization (NGO) based in Denver, Colorado, USA, with a significant focus in Uganda, to provide lasting and sustainable benefit to people in need as well as a life altering opportunity for engineering students at UCCS. In the first year of this collaboration, students from UCCS worked to address a food storage challenge for farmers in the Lake Bonyonyi region of Uganda. As part of the project, the students traveled to Uganda for a fully immersive, albeit short duration, experience. They returned with a significantly enhanced understanding of life on Lake Bonyonyi and were able to incorporate this newfound knowledge into the solution they derived for the farmers there. Every student reported the significant impact this experience had on them, and through the continuing collaboration with GLI, the MAE Senior Design Program is looking forward to affording this opportunity to many more students.

Keywords:

Capstone, engineering design, service project.