North America

Relational design at age 14?

Georgia Tech puts PLM at the roots of the “STEM”

The equation is simple: Education systems globally produce an estimated 1 million new engineers each year, but the American Society for Engineering Education estimates the world needs 2 million. This shortage is most critical in advanced economies, including those of North America. The situation is especially acute in the United States, where graduating engineers who are not US citizens cannot be employed in a number of expanding industry sectors, including aerospace.

The School of Aerospace Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology (GIT), popularly known as Georgia Tech, recognized the issue several years ago and developed a program to generate more engineers by creating enthusiasm among students for careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), beginning in elementary school. The GIT program leverages a wide variety of Dassault Systèmes brand solutions, including SolidWorks, CATIA, 3DVIA and DELMIA, and reflects the fundamental principles underlying the DS academic framework program “Kindergarten to Employment,” or K2E.

A system approach to technology at school
Georgia Tech’s School of Aerospace Engineering operates a summer enrichment program for upper elementary, middle, and high school students that have two unique characteristics.

Partially sponsored by Agusta Westland and called “Engineering for the 21st Century,” the program offers a distinctive approach to engineering by providing students with the most advanced engineering tools and a unique challenge: The goal is not to test a pre-defined design, but to teach students to create digital designs of unique, one-of-a-kind objects. This reflects the practice of professional engineers engaged in producing original solutions among possible options, unlike a typical academic context where the solution is known before the problem is posed.

The second significant aspect of the program is that it is designed as a system, in the form of a multi-year continuum of gradual learning experiences for students of all ages, from fifth grade to the university level.
(Story continues below.)

“K2E,” a project that transforms the way industry and education work together

“Kindergarten to Employment” is a framework program launched by Dassault Systèmes in 2007 with a dual objective:
  • Attract more middle school students into STEM and sustain their interest and knowledge in these disciplines until graduation, then employment.
  • Encourage specialized attention and knowledge in 3D-based technologies and PLM to provide DS customers with more employable recruitment opportunities.
The program is based upon six simple operating principles:
  • 1.Develop elements of curricula that bring complex system metaphors and the most up-to-date engineering methods into the classroom for students of all ages.
  • 2.Develop this material jointly with educators. So far, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the Embry Riddle Aerospace University, and several middle and high schools in Georgia participate in the program.
  • 3.Focus these developments on selected industries and work together with key players within these industries to validate the practical relevance of content. The program launched in aerospace with Boeing as the initial partner.
  • 4.Organize the deployment of these curricula into all tiers of institutions preferred by the industrial partners for recruitment.
  • 5.Sustain curiosity and motivation of students within this “talent supply chain” through the involvement of role models, marketing, competitions, summer camps, and more.
  • 6.Market by segment of targeted population to increase diversity in the stream of attracted students.

“We want to provide something new every year to a given student,” says Tony Docal, program coordinator for pre-college programs at GIT. “This is a key condition to justify recurring participation, from fifth grade to their application at the university.” During the 2008 summer program, the program used a DS-developed program similar to a video game with the youngest students. “We then progressed to SolidWorks and finally CATIA, which is the standard in the aerospace industry. It worked wonderfully; we had an excess of registrations and our offerings scheme generated surprising recruitment mechanisms.”

In the 2009 summer program, GIT will add 3DVIA Shape and DELMIA as additional steps in the continuum. “With 3DVIA Shape, we will consider architectural subjects with the expectation that it will further increase participation by young women,” Docal says. “The whole system will keep its focus on aerospace, our main discipline of interest.”

Fun meets industry best practices


Dr. Sandeep Agarwal, manager of GIT’s Integrated Product Lifecycle Engineering (IPLE) lab, and Emre Gunduz, CATIA instructor, agree the program teaches students “how much fun engineering can be,” a substantial achievement in creating motivation. After all, computer-based design is not very different from familiar video games. This is fun with a purpose, however: The courses were designed to help students master specific hard skills and discover the need for the precise soft skills typical of the most modern engineering practices: 

 

  • The one-week session for fifth and sixth graders gave them the experience of driving the computer representations, rather than merely responding as they do with video games. Students could design and animate characters and present their work to their parents, who could appreciate that gaming skills make their children familiar with computer-based design technology. Children could also train their spatial perception: the eyes of a character, which might be positioned correctly when viewed from the front, hang some distance from the face when viewed from the side if not properly constrained.
  • During the SolidWorks session, students in seventh to nine grade learned how to define a manufacturable object and used fundamental 3D modeling techniques that referenced mathematical competencies in basic math, unit conversion, algebraic equations, symmetry, 2D geometry and 3D primitives.
  • The two-week CATIA sessions allowed students to use freely selected objects to design as a group. Groups of four or five students defined their own collaborative strategies, addressing concepts that included work packages, reconciliation, scaling, similarities instantiation and kinematics. This program guided them through several key components that characterize relational design, one of the most advanced engineering collaboration methods. For the last day’s presentation to parents, students created formal academic posters using appropriate publishing tools.

The first step in a ten-year program
For Professor Dan Schrage, GIT lead for the K2E project, “this year’s summer camps have been an amazing start, full of encouraging lessons. We know, however, that this is the first step in a long-term process. It will take a decade for today’s fifth through tenth graders to apply for a professional engineering position. Fortunately, advanced high school students are also attracted by the program, and this has already proven to be very positive for us. Indeed, the last day of the CATIA sessions included an interaction between students and our admissions staff. I am pleased that we then received some applications from participants.”

“Our plan is in place to grow this flow of talent and retain it in STEM, in engineering, in aerospace, in our school, and ultimately in our aerospace industry. This is the essence of K2E and we are pleased to be a founding component of this movement.”

Parents and students see the value
“Dear Dr. Sankar, Pete finished a great week at Georgia Tech last Friday. He was thrilled to have the chance to participate in the SolidWorks Design in Motion class. He learned the program really well and has been enjoying using it since the class ended. Thank you so much for getting him on the list of participants!! He is hoping to participate in the CEISMC high-school-level summer programs next summer. It is amazing all the great things Tech is doing for kids. Thank you again. Best regards,” Leigh E.

“Good Morning! I just want to tell you how much my son, Nathan, enjoyed the two-week engineering camp. It was a perfect intro to the field. I was also so very impressed with the program and loved visiting the Georgia Tech campus to see and hear the group project. Thank you again for a very well organized and stimulating summer camp experience. All my best,” Melissa S.

“Hi, Mr. Docal, I am writing to thank you for this great opportunity. I really enjoyed every minute of the internship as well as the CATIA class. I really learned a great deal. Thank you for allowing me to work with Mr. Beyer. It was a great experience. He was a great mentor. Thank you,” Vincent J.

 

GIT’s summer camp structure
is designed to add increments of knowledge for every age from fifth grade to the university level.
In 2009, this gradual structure will offer even more steps, with additional Dassault Systèmes technologies.

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