Work in progress - Developing student design consultants

Multidisciplinary capstone design experiences are generally favored by the professional engineering establishment. While logistically possible to arrange such an experience, particularly at smaller universities, maintaining a reasonable project scope and providing adequate depth of the experience for each discipline can be difficult. One approach involves using student consultants to provide support to multiple projects when there is insufficient content to provide a singular, substantive experience. This approach avoids oversubscribing faculty as de facto team members, while still providing a breadth based design experience for students. For example, electrical design projects at The University of Texas at Tyler frequently require development of a one-of-a-kind printed circuit board, but most electrical students are not familiar with CAD-based layout of artwork, design rules, and the processes used for board development. A process using an engraving laser has been developed for board production, but has required extensive involvement from mechanical engineering faculty. To prepare mechanical engineering students to provide future layout and fabrication assistance, motor drive circuits were developed and tested as part of a course in electro-mechanical systems design. While circuit schematics were provided, every student attempted the artwork and each team developed and tested a circuit board. This paper describes the results, and some lessons learned, from this initial attempt to develop student design consultant capability.