Abstract:
In this manufacturing engineering program, the Rapid prototyping and Reverse Engineering course has become even more popular due to public interest and hype driven by both, the Maker and Rep-Rap movements. The course has been taught over the years with the challenge of constant update needs to its content. In addition to the major subject updates to the content, the instructor is employing preparation of short papers on newest developments while channeling students to conduct research, in case they are not actively following the area. Interesting projects and content are found and shared with the class.
Over the years, the course has had two small projects, one addressing the reverse engineering side and other for rapid prototyping. Usually the student teams worked on reverse engineering a simple toy, and the rapid prototyping projects aimed assisting handicapped people with improving quality of life or gaining employment. Designing toys was also employed in corporation with the former Infinitoy Company. In the past, student teams developed ZOOB concept designs and prototyped them for the company. To give students an opportunity for being creative, the construction toy project was brought back. This paper will focus on the open-ended construction toy design project by documenting every step of it. Various assessment processes including outcomes assessment will be included in the conclusion of the paper.
