In 1987, as a
co-op placement, I was hired by the University of Waterloo’s Engineering
Education Research Center to work on a variety of projects to enhance the
effectiveness of engineering education. Over thirty years later, I continue to
be fully immersed in this most interesting of fields.
I use the
word “interesting” ambiguously. Of course it is interesting in the sense that
the work we do appeals to me. But it is also interesting in the proverbial “may
you live in interesting times” sense.
Research in engineering education is too
often a contradiction in many institutions. The word research, more often than
not, applies to those familiar, hard-core technical activities where we derive
one equation or another, or concoct a novel configuration of obscure
theoretical concepts, to achieve some equally obscure functional goal. Research
into education, however, often draws upon an interesting mix of engineering
sciences and technology, and social science methodologies, and as a consequence
such research tends not to be celebrated works among the core discipline-based
technical societies.
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| The ASEE Conference is an ideal showcase for inventive solutions in engineering education. Above: a stylized view of the Helicopter - Car Chase Challenge presented at the Quanser Innovation Hub. |
ASEE: Focused
on Research into Improved Engineering Education
The one
exception is the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE). A large part
of this venerable society’s existence focuses on the promotion and enrichment
of formalized research into the improvement of engineering education.
This past
June, the ASEE held its annual meeting in Atlanta and drew upwards of 4000
academics to share their respective passion for engineering education. As in
previous years, Quanser made a significant contribution, including our
conventional display, our Innovation Hub
in which we showcased the next rev of our visual hardware-in-the-loop
application, and a variety of session activities that related to a range of
contemporary topics in the field.
In many ways,
the ASEE conference is the ideal showcase for the inventor spirit within
Quanser. Here, the participants genuinely relish seeing weird new ideas and
putting our collective imagination to the test. And this was the intent of the
Quanser Innovation Hub.
The Quanser
Innovation Hub: Fun Can Lead To An Effective Learning Experience
Our
Innovation Hub was well received and sported a new mantra that we conceived for
this conference: Imagine. Think. Compute. Build. The demonstration tied a two
player video game – a helicopter pilot (the chaser) and a car driver (the
chasee) – with a real time control loop tied to a Quanser 2 DOF Helicopter and the
new QUBE™-Servo products.
Not only did we engage the audience with the richness
of experience, but we also invited real students from the University of New Mexico to showcase their contributions in the development of this system.
Overall, we wanted to illustrate how fun can lead to a much more rigorous and
effective learning experience.
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| Visitors to the Quanser Innovation Hub could hardly believe this helicopter - car chase challenge was actually a rigorous, control learning experience. Watch the video below to see their reaction. |
Another
highlight was the proliferation of Quanser applications among other vendors. In
addition to our two showcases, we had friends from National Instruments,
Dassault Systemes, and Maplesoft among others, demonstrate unique applications
of Quanser equipment married to their respective offerings. This resulted in a
diversity of views and uses of Quanser devices in creative and innovative ways.
A Forum for
Passionate Debate
Aside from
the exhibits and the demonstration of the engineering education community’s
technical capacity, the ASEE is also renowned for its ability to catalyze very
passionate discussions and debates on education and education methodologies.
For me, some
of the highlights include a session that I was invited to on the topic of the
“Flipped” classroom -- i.e., let students learn the basics using the many
off-campus media options now available, and use valuable on-campus time for
direct engagement with faculty, and group activities. This, of course is the
reverse of the traditional approach at a university.
It was a great opportunity for me to reflect
on the greater role that hands-on labs will have in the very near future. In a
flipped world, one of the best things that an educator can do is to use the
on-campus time to allow students to work with real systems and real complexity
and of course that’s where Quanser can make a significant contribution.
Researching a
Common Language to Communicate Complex Engineering Concepts
I also was
impressed by a particular student poster presentation by Chirag Variawa, a
current Ph.D. student in Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto.
He presented his dissertation topic entitled “An Automated Approach for Finding
Course-specific Vocabulary”. His research essentially developed an algorithmic
way of identifying and managing a proper lexical and semantic foundation for
the highly specialized courses, – in human-understandable terms, find a better
way to establish a common language to communicate complex engineering concepts.
As much as I like very multidimensional, richly layered approaches to
education, a robust and consistent vocabulary is one of those things that seems
to make all the difference in any complex, human-to-human endeavor, but is
sometimes disregarded in pedagogical circles as somewhat pedantic and
inelegant. I was delighted to see this young man transform the pedantic into a
genuinely interesting project.
Flashing back
to the late 80’s, the ASEE annual conference was also the very first time that
a company (the legendary DEC in this instance) paid me to stand at a booth and
demonstrate interesting things. That experience was the first time that I was
able to connect the dots between my life as a student, to my emerging life as a
researcher, and a foreshadow of my life as a citizen and professional.
Yes, the
optimal design of C2
continuous parametric surfaces may look great on an academic CV (this was my
dissertation topic by the way), but applying the same level of intellectual
vigor on a topic that one is really passionate about, that is important to a
broad cross-section of society, and often triggers activities that are
genuinely fun, is ultimately, for me, the best research. I am very glad that
the ASEE continues to support and celebrate such activities.
- Tom Lee
Chief Education Officer, Quanser
To learn more about Quanser's Innovation Hub presentation, click below.
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