Purdue News
Purdue News
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November 26, 2001 Engineering students to display prototypesWEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue University mechanical engineering seniors are designing and building prototypes ranging from life-saving clothing for firefighters to a portable device that keeps insulin fresh for diabetics on the road. The students, proving that they are ready to join the world of professional inventors, will display their inventions 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Friday (11/30) in Room 263 of the Mechanical Engineering building. "These are not trivial exercises," said Issam Mudawar, professor of mechanical engineering. "These are actual cutting edge projects." The students produce their inventions as part of a rigorous course in which they must demonstrate that they are capable of conceiving, designing and building working prototypes. Their projects included a garment designed to help keep firefighters cool, innovative air conditioning systems and a portable device to keep insulin from spoiling for diabetics on the go. The work is done in Mudawar's course, ME463: Engineering Design, and the projects can be viewed online. "The theme here is to turn our engineers into real inventors, and not just abstract inventors, through a true research-and-development effort," Mudawar said. Students completing his course have gone from Purdue directly into industry and research programs. "It's what we call our capstone course," Mudawar said. "The idea is to incorporate all the things that they have learned over the past four years in designing useful hardware." The students work in teams of four or five. "During a relatively short period of time, one semester, they have to go through the entire research and development process, just like a small high-tech team," Mudawar said. "They brainstorm wild ideas at the beginning. "Then they have to arrive at some consensus, start the design process and machine it in the shop themselves. They have to build, instrument, test and analyze it." Failure is not an option. "It is very intense," Mudawar said. "I have always maintained the requirement that failure is unacceptable. I cannot have a team come to me at the end of the semester and say, 'We failed, but we have some good ideas for future projects.' They would fail the course. Fortunately, that has never happened since I started this initiative three years ago." A particularly rewarding experience is watching students develop into full-fledged engineers, regardless of their grade-point average, he said. "You find students who don't necessarily have a good GPA doing incredibly well in this," Mudawar said. "I purposely avoid learning about their GPA in advance because I want to be pleasantly surprised at the end, and I usually am." He said the students learn first-hand that, "'If I am placed in the right environment, I can invent. I can be very successful.' And many of them do become very successful." Writer: Emil Venere, (765) 494-4709, venere@purdue.edu Sources: Issam Mudawar, (765) 494-5705, mudawar@ecn.purdue.edu Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
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