CUE Home >> Academic Programs >> Integrated Teaching & Learning (ITL) Program: Struttin’ Their Stuff — Tomorrow’s Engineers Showcase Their Work at the ITL Design Expo

CUE 2006

Integrated Teaching & Learning (ITL) Program: Struttin’ Their Stuff — Tomorrow’s Engineers Showcase Their Work at the ITL Design Expo

One of the ITL Program's favorite definitions of engineering is "building things that benefit society." So it's only natural that we attract students who thrive on building things. Students feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment when they create a successful product, especially when they can show it off to their peers, or even the public.

This probably explains why the ITL Design Expo held at the end of every semester continues to be such a success, attracting hundreds of people to the award-winning Integrated Teaching and Learning Laboratory where most of the projects were built.

Each fall, more than 350 students, most of them new to the college, experience the design process in a hands-on way in our First-Year Engineering Projects course. This general engineering course is required of some majors (mechanical, aerospace, and environmental engineering) and elective for others.

Each of the nine course sections has a different theme for the main design project, corresponding with the expertise of the instructor.

Last fall, for example, project themes included appropriate technology for application in the developing world, assistive technology for people with disabilities, and Lego robots, which require students to build and program their own computers to control robots in a friendly competition. Projects from all sections were then demonstrated at the Design Expo.

Another course taught each fall is Invention and Innovation, in which student teams invent products that they think could be commercially viable. Examples from this year's course include a retractable dog leash carried in the dog's collar to free the owner's hands when the dog is off-leash, goggles that could display important information such as current temperature or lift line status to skiers or snowboarders, a home biodiesel production system, and a battery-free tent lighting system that derives its power from the motion of hiking.

In most departments, seniors spend an entire year on their senior design projects. So, in addition to the first-year projects demonstrated at the Spring Design Expo, seniors get to showcase the fruits of their labors. Past projects have included the Formula SAE race car from mechanical engineering, a solid-state rocket engine from aerospace engineering sciences, biotechnology processing from chemical and biological engineering, and custom software applications that computer science students write for outside customers.

CU-Boulder also has a very ambitious engineering outreach program intended to attract more K-12 students to pursue careers in engineering. Students in these programs have attended the Design Expo for years, but they have recently begun exhibiting their own projects as well. This spring's Design Expo also will feature projects from a First-Year Engineering Projects class being piloted at Colorado Mountain College in Steamboat Springs. This new course enables students to take their entire first two years in engineering at Colorado Mountain College, then transfer to CU-Boulder as juniors.

Each student project at the Design Expo is evaluated by at least two judges from local industry or research labs: "The quality and creativity of the projects continue to evolve," says Josh Engel, a CU engineering alumnus who now works as a hardware engineer at IBM and volunteers as a Design Expo judge. "I believe that the 'hands on learning' concepts provided by the ITL are very valuable as they augment the theory presented in the students' other engineering classes," Engel adds.

A highlight of each Design Expo is the announcement of individual section winners as determined by the judges, and of the People's Choice award, which is selected by a vote of everyone attending the event. Last fall's People's Choice winner was "Skyarms for Spencer," a beautifully crafted arm support for the wheelchair used by a boy with cerebral palsy. Design Expo winners receive only token prizes, but the recognition for a project well done seems to be reward enough.

"The Design Expo provides a wonderful opportunity to share and exchange innovative ideas with other students and professionals, and to apply the principles of engineering design," says engineering student Alena Grabowski. "In education, it is rare to get the chance to apply knowledge to 'real-world' applications and to create a device that can work in the real-world. The Design Expo gives us this chance."