Nondestructive evaluation of aircraft skin: Product design and development in the Sophomore Engineering Clinic

The four engineering departments (Electrical, Mechanical, Chemical and Civil) at Rowan University rely extensively on semester-long project modules called `Clinics' to provide practical applications for coursework taught within the respective departments. The engineering clinics are typically team-taught by faculty from more than one discipline; the student project teams are also multidisciplinary. The focus is on product design and development; students and faculty bring skills acquired from their respective disciplines to bear on the design process. This paper describes a Sophomore level clinic experience wherein students and faculty from the Electrical and Mechanical Engineering departments collaborated to design and develop a portable device that could be used to nondestructively inspect aircraft skin for cracks.