ME228T The Future of Mechanical Engineering Education

Brandon Reynante

Abstract

Mechanical engineering has a long history of perpetuating unsustainable and inequitable systems, and it has one of the lowest representations of women and racial/ethnic minorities of any field or discipline. This situation has been attributed to a “culture of disengagement” — a set of ideologies and practices embedded within engineering culture that frame social and ethical issues as irrelevant, which students adopt through educational socialization. These ideologies are reflected in the dominant engineering design paradigms: design for technology and human-centered design. I believe we need a new design paradigm, one that centers sustainability and social justice. In this talk, I will present a case study of how I implemented this paradigm in a humanitarian engineering program at the University of California, San Diego. The curriculum incorporated various design strategies (design for social justice, circular design) and pedagogies (liberation, maker, service learning) to challenge the culture of disengagement. I focus on one particular project that aims to address the prevalence of poverty and a lack of reliable, affordable lighting in a rural village in the Philippines. Examination of learning outcomes suggest that students developed the requisite mindsets and skills to design socio-technical systems that work toward dismantling oppression and regenerating the environment. 

Biosketch

Brandon Reynante is a PhD candidate in learning sciences and technology design at Stanford University. He is passionate about creating learning experiences that empower people to design and build sustainable and equitable solutions to complex socio-ecological problems. Prior to Stanford, Brandon was a lecturer in a humanitarian engineering program at UC San Diego that partnered student teams with nonprofit organizations to co-create solutions to pressing societal challenges. Before that, he managed and performed analysis-driven design of complex mechanical systems (e.g., clean energy technologies, spacecraft, theme-park rides) at an engineering firm. Brandon holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering from UC San Diego and an S.M. in aerospace engineering from MIT, and he is a licensed professional engineer. 

Nathan Melenbrink

Abstract

In this seminar, Nathan Melenbrink will present his vision for design and manufacturing education. For the past 12 years, he has created and taught novel hands-on skill-building courses in departments ranging from architecture to computer science. He has been involved with teaching and research at a number of institutions, most recently Harvard and MIT. In his courses, students learn electronics fundamentals, microcontroller programming, CNC milling, 3D printing, and sensor and mechanism design. However, of greater importance than the mastery of the individual topics is the synthesis of those skills toward a personal project of the student’s own conception. These courses are open to students of any discipline or skill level, and combine the open-endedness and “freedom to fail” of the design studio model with the technical rigor and guidance that is characteristic of engineering project classes. Nathan will share examples from recent course work, including projects such as kinetic sculptures, drawing machines, novel musical instruments, renewable energy machines, devices for remote sensing and data logging, environmental monitoring and remediation, and devices for home automation.

Biosketch

Nathan Melenbrink is a designer, educator, and digital fabrication specialist. Since 2019, he has taught PS70: Introduction to Digital Fabrication, a new course that he developed at Harvard. Nathan also teaches at MIT, where he leads courses on design thinking and rapid prototyping related to climate and renewable energy. Specifically, as part of a collaboration with the National University of Mongolia, he oversees the design and technical development of a thermal battery aimed at reducing the coal pollution problem in Ulaanbaatar. He has previously taught courses related to design, computation, robotics and CAD/CAM at institutions such as Northeastern, Virginia Tech, and the University of Hong Kong. His past research interests have included distributed robotics for land restoration (supported by Harvard’s Wyss Institute) as well as design for autonomous construction and maintenance (supported by NASA). His industry experience as an architect and computational designer includes offices such as UNStudio, Playze, and ECADI. He holds a Bachelor’s of Architecture from Virginia Tech, a Master’s in Design Studies in Technology from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, and a Doctorate of Engineering from the Institute for Computational Design and Construction at the University of Stuttgart.

Eric Richardson

Abstract

As virtual education rapidly expands, physical design and manufacturing (or “making”) remains a key differentiator of in-person engineering education. Coincidentally, virtual education can create unprecedented room to inject more making into our coursework. When integrated efficiently, making has the potential to enrich virtual and classroom instruction in novel ways.

To become more integrated into our curriculum, making education must become more inclusive: Inclusive of students with differing educational and life experiences, inclusive of the unique problems they want to solve, inclusive of new fabrication tools, and inclusive of people and institutions outside of academia.

The integration of making can also be accelerated by broadening our applications of making: making for enjoyment, making to communicate, making to learn and test, and making to manufacture. Each of these approaches can contribute to engineering education in unique ways.

In this discussion, I will share successes (and failures) of integrating making with engineering coursework. I will also share ideas for future educational initiatives and experiments, recognizing that integration will be a constant, iterative process.

Biosketch

Eric Richardson is an Associate Professor of the Practice at Duke University and the Founding Director of Duke Design Health. His teaching and research focus on design and manufacturing, particularly for underserved populations in medicine. His programs and courses bring together students and faculty from engineering, business, nursing, and medicine. He works closely with institutions like Boston Scientific, Becton Dickinson, Baxter International, NASA, and others to give students exposure to authentic, impactful problems. He has developed and taught courses with institutions in Costa Rica, Brazil, Tanzania, Colombia, Ethiopia, and Sri Lanka to encourage local design and manufacturing. Prior to Duke, Richardson was at Rice University where he was the Founding Director of the Global Medical Innovation Program, which develops and implements medical technology in emerging markets. He also co-created and led the Texas Medical Center Biodesign Fellowship, a program that creates digital health and medical device startups. Before Rice, he was a Principal R&D Engineer at Medtronic in California, where he developed transcatheter heart valves and other cardiac devices that serve over one million patients worldwide. Richardson has several publications, patents, and book chapters related to medical technology, and is involved with several startups.

Matt Ohline

Abstract

Traditional mechanical engineering curricula develops expertise analyzing and modeling a broad range of physical phenomena, which is essential.  However, equally important is expertise taking designs from inception to reality, which involves transforming ideas into functional physical objects and systems.  In a virtuous cycle, the idea informs the analysis, which informs the making, which in turn leads to further development of both the analysis and the realization of the idea.  Graduates of engineering programs that strike the right balance between analysis and making are the most capable, and engineers capable of doing both well are highly valued and sought-after.  In this talk, we will explore lessons learned from many years of efforts to find this balance by delivering project-based mechatronics courses at Stanford – all of which involve making and demonstrating complex prototype designs.  We will discuss best practices for creating projects that result in learning experiences that are impossible to forget, inspire students’ strongest commitments and best efforts, and develop creative confidence, mastery, and in the best cases, a life-long passion for the subject.  We will also examine how these approaches can be applied in emerging subjects in mechanical engineering and manufacturing, as Stanford’s engineering curriculum grows and adapts to meet future needs. 

Biosketch

Matt Ohline is the Senior Director of Process Engineering for Intuitive Surgical’s Endoluminal business unit, where he leads teams of automation, manufacturing, and supplier engineers focused on creating the manufacturing processes and equipment for Intuitive’s newest products that perform robotic procedures within the lung, and scaling the manufacturing of Intuitive’s fastest-growing existing product lines.  This position provides ample opportunities to pursue his interests in ideation, early-stage design, rapid prototyping, DFx/concurrent engineering, automated manufacturing equipment design, precision engineering, measurement systems, and applications of statistical techniques and data analytics in manufacturing environments.  
Prior to joining Intuitive, Mr. Ohline held positions in Stanford University’s Mechanical Engineering Design Group as a lecturer and consulting associate professor, where he taught courses in mechatronics (ME210, ME218), mobile device-mechatronic hybrid systems (ME202), and sensors (ME220).  He also served as the Product Realization Lab’s Director of Mechatronics.  Mr. Ohline is the co-founder of two venture-funded medical device start-up companies:  Neoguide Systems, where he served as CTO (acquired by Intuitive Surgical in 2009), and Treus Medical, where he was CEO.  He holds 33 issued US patents and several international patents. 
Mr. Ohline received his BAS in Mechanical Engineering and English in 1992 from Stanford University, where he also completed his MSME in 1994 with foci in Mechatronics and Combustion.