{"id":714,"date":"2018-01-31T11:31:14","date_gmt":"2018-01-31T11:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/?p=714"},"modified":"2018-01-31T11:40:36","modified_gmt":"2018-01-31T11:40:36","slug":"reflecting-on-a-hundred-years-of-engineering-design-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/reflecting-on-a-hundred-years-of-engineering-design-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflecting on a hundred years of engineering design education"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have always known that my grandfather Thomas Clinch was a railway engineer, but I was only recently given some reports from his engineering degree at Imperial College (1921 \u2013 1923). The first thing I noticed about the reports is how beautifully presented they were\u00a0 \u2013 everything written in longhand script, with accurate hand-drawn figures (see pictures below) \u2013\u00a0they really\u00a0are a relic of a bygone age.\u00a0 But, looking more closely at the contents, I realised that not much has changed in the teaching of mechanical engineering design and analysis in the intervening 97 years.<\/p>\n

The projects he undertook during his course were well designed to engage students.\u00a0 How exciting to plan a railway line across Hyde Park, and undertake a land survey in the park!\u00a0 And the tractor gearbox design project introduced new technology developments of that time.\u00a0 I made a quick review of the history of ploughing (not something I expected to be doing this week), and it is clear that Thomas undertook his studies right at the transition between steam ploughing and modern tractor ploughing.\u00a0 Steam ploughing, widely used from the 1860s until the 1920s, used a static steam powered traction engine to pull the plough across the field using a winch and cable. Modern ploughing, where the plough is pulled by a tractor with an internal combustion engine, was not widely used until later in the 1920s.\u00a0 This design project describes a petrol tractor, still pulling the plough using a winch while the tractor remains static. With hindsight, we know that this was a design dead-end; but at that time it must have\u00a0been seen as a modern development\u00a0using the\u00a0new\u00a0technology of the day.<\/p>\n

I am currently busy authoring course materials for one of the Open University\u2019s core engineering modules. Thomas Clinch\u2019s laboratory experiments in beam bending and buckling, as well as his project to design the gearbox of a 2-speed tractor, would fit in well with the materials I\u2019m writing today. He follows the same detailed design and analysis methods that are still used for engineering analysis. So, what has changed in the teaching of mechanical engineering design changed over the last 100 years?<\/p>\n

Of course,\u00a0probably\u00a0the biggest change is the rapid development of engineering technology \u2013 new materials, precision manufacturing, and integration with computers, electronics and sensors. But from a teaching perspective, perhaps the rapid development of computer based tools has been even more important.\u00a0 Specialist software like Computer Aided Design and Finite Element Analysis allow the design of complex products that would have been very difficult to design and analyse using hand calculations alone. More generally, word processors and spreadsheet tools have reduced the need for neat handwriting and hand calculation. But they also bring a risk that students believe\u00a0that\u00a0everything can be solved using computer software, and they lose their \u2018feel\u2019 for the magnitude of stresses and strains in engineering analysis.\u00a0 Modern engineering design teaching needs to maintain the balance between conventional analysis and computational tools, ensuring that students understand why analytical methods are still relevant to them.<\/p>\n

At the Open University, we also need to ensure that distance learning students have the opportunity to participate in hands-on experiments. The residential schools give students excellent hands-on experience through an intensive week of practical work, \u00a0and we are also introducing experiments in the Open Engineering laboratory (https:\/\/learn5.open.ac.uk\/course\/view.php?id=2<\/a>) that allow students to undertake practical experiments online, from their own homes.<\/p>\n

So, as I continue to write my course materials, I will keep in mind the engineers of the past who had to rely on hand calculation methods, and make sure that computational tools are used to enhance rather than replace the traditional methods. I\u00a0hope I can also\u00a0develop activities that will continue to engage students and reinforce their learning.\u00a0 I just wish I could sit down with my grandfather and show him how we design today using 3D CAD and finite element analysis – I think he would have been amazed at the changes, but would probably also have had something wise to share about the old ways too.<\/p>\n

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I have always known that my grandfather Thomas Clinch was a railway engineer, but I was only recently given some reports from his engineering degree at Imperial College (1921 \u2013 1923). The first thing I noticed about the reports is how beautifully presented they were\u00a0 \u2013 everything written in longhand script, with accurate hand-drawn figures […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[35,54],"class_list":["post-714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-design-education","tag-design-education","tag-engineering-design"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":740,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714\/revisions\/740"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}