Abstract:

The talk will deal with the use of a service-learning approach to motivate the students during the end-of-degree project. Particularly, it wil deal with the difficulties of finding a particular problem to be solved with an individual that can benefit from the final solution. Students are more used to solving general problems and practical cases similar to those they will find in the real environment of their future work but they do not face during the degree any real problems to be solved by them. Moreover, contact with the associations and institutions that can help them is also a great challenge for the students.

The three students working on this project have been in touch with associations and individuals who face a real problems in their daily lives due to different physical handicaps, thus reducing their inclusivity. The problems that can be solved through collaborative design and manufacturing by 3D printing can benefit from the potential of this technique that does not need any minimum of units to be worthwhile and, consequently, it is indicated to produce single parts that fulfill the individual requirements of any person with different adaptation requirements.

Depending on the problem they are facing, students have an initial interview with the association or directly with the potential users to identify the main characteristics of the difficulties they need to face in their daily lives. Afterwards, they do an initial design and they use their knowledge about manufacturing technologies to refine the design to be easily manufactured. Finally, they need to test the solutions with the users to see if they have successfully solve some of the difficulties they face and, consequently, improves their inclusivity.

Keywords:

Service-learning, active methodologies, industrial engineering, end-of-degree project.