STEPS Program to host The Colorado School of Mines in International Design Competition and Forum December 2011.
The fourth STEPS/EPICS International Design Competition and Forum will be held at the PI in December 2011. The STEPS Program at The Petroleum Institute and the EPICS Program at The Colorado School of Mines continue their collaborative research initiative, “Preparing Global Engineers: Developing Engineering Design Education Across Cultures,” with these highly successful activities that bring different cultures together to compete in engineering projects and to share views of optimal engineering design methodologies.
The respective first year design courses offered at the PI and CSM are geared toward teaching students strategies for team-based engineering problem solving. Students use their creativity and research to study a problem provided by a client, define its objectives, requirements and constraints and propose designs that meet the defined objectives. While the theory, objectives, and practices of the STEPS and EPICS programs are similar, the respective cultures are vastly different. Recognizing the need for students to understand the global nature of modern engineering and have an awareness of customary practices in different countries and diverse cultures, the collaboration was initiated in 2007. The competition projects are undertaken by student teams in their respective first year design programs; then finalist teams from both schools compete. Criteria for evaluation include innovation, creativity, communications and marketing, graphical skills, and professionalism.
Former competitions have had diverse yet globally applicable projects:
- December 2007 (PI) “Solar Seawater Desalination Devices” The Peace Corps, client
- June 2008 (CSM) “Solar Furnace for Toxic Waste Destruction” ADNOC, client
- January 2010 (CSM) “Environmentally Sustainable Village” Design EPICS, client
Former forums carried the following themes:
- April 2009 (PI)”Team Building, Learning Styles, and Communication Styles”
- January 2010 (CSM) “Cultural Influences on Engineering Design”
Colorado School of Mines finalist team explain their design to Dr. Suzanne Scott,
one of the referees and STEPS mentor.
Petroleum Institute competing team explains their design to two of the referees,
Dr. Kubo (Mechanical Engineering) and Dr. Al Keib (Electrical Engineering)
These are exciting opportunities for all of those who participate. It is apparent, despite differences in culture, that both groups of student teams follow similar strategies for solving the given problems. Both groups also effectively communicate their design ideas using reports, posters and oral presentations. We believe that these competitions are a great learning opportunity for students and faculty from both institutes and our efforts will continue in this collaboration.
PI Toxic Trackers Team accept the winner’s trophy for their design for a solar furnace for the destruction of toxic waste
