Sophomore year in civil and environmental engineering at Rowan University: Integration of communication, mechanics and design

Engineering clinics are a sequence of project-based learning (PBL) courses taken every semester by all engineering students at Rowan University. The purpose of these courses is to prepare students for aspects of engineering practice, such as solving open-ended problems and contributing to multi-disciplinary teams, which are difficult to teach via traditional blackboard courses. The two four-credit clinics offered during sophomore year (one each semester) have a specific focus on design and communication and are team taught by Engineering and Communication faculty. In these courses, students design teams work on a series of three increasingly complex design projects. This paper describes the sequence of design projects and highlights the integration of communication, and the reinforcement of concepts from traditional mechanics courses (statics, dynamics and solid mechanics) that the students also take during sophomore year. Available assessment data, as well as some ongoing challenges in running multidisciplinary, PBL-based design courses are discussed.