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Case Studies That Define Mechanical Engineering Challenges

Mechanical Engineering

Mechanical engineering is key in creating and perfecting the machines and systems we rely on every day. To truly grasp its complex challenges, it’s useful to look at detailed case studies.

These studies not only show how engineering works but also highlight why keeping people safe, coming up with new ideas, and making ethical choices matter so much.

Let’s explore some major events that tested mechanical engineering. We’ll look at the fix of the Hubble Space Telescope, how Mars Rovers were made to move on another planet, why the Tacoma Narrows Bridge fell apart, the nuclear crisis at Fukushima Daiichi, and the massive oil spill from Deepwater Horizon.

Each story breaks down how mechanical engineering played a role and what we can take away from these incidents to prevent future mistakes and guide new breakthroughs in the field.

The Hubble Space Telescope Repair

Mechanical engineers faced tough problems when fixing the Hubble Space Telescope. To tackle these, they combined deep knowledge with creative thinking. They carefully checked the telescope’s parts to find what was broken.

Then, they came up with special tools and steps for the astronauts to fix the telescope in space, where conditions are very difficult. They used a method called finite element analysis to make sure the telescope would be strong enough after the repairs, and they made sure that new parts could be swapped in easily.

Their detailed planning and work didn’t just get Hubble working again; it also made sure the telescope could keep working for a longer time. This shows how important mechanical engineering is in solving tough problems with machinery in space.

Mars Rover Mobility Dilemmas

Building Mars rovers is a tough job for mechanical engineers. They have to make sure these rovers can move smoothly over Mars, which has a very rough surface with lots of rocks, sand, and big hills. Engineers work with advanced robot technology, new types of materials, and knowledge about other planets to solve these problems.

They test their designs over and over to see how the rover parts will handle the ground on Mars. The parts have to be really strong and not wear out quickly, even when they hit unexpected bumps.

Also, the rovers need smart computer systems that can figure out the lay of the land by themselves and change their path to avoid getting stuck or broken. This is super important because if something goes wrong with the rover, it could mess up the whole mission to Mars.

Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse

The Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse is a key example for mechanical engineers of why it’s essential to consider how wind affects bridges. When the bridge fell apart in 1940, it showed that suspension bridges can swing and twist dangerously in the wind.

The bridge’s narrow shape, the solid pieces it was made of, and not enough side support were big reasons why it moved so much and then broke. This disaster made it clear that testing bridges in wind tunnels was necessary.

As a result, bridge design changed a lot. Engineers started using special devices to stop bridges from swinging too much and created stronger design rules. These changes help make sure that big bridges can stand up to wind without getting damaged.

Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster is a crucial lesson in the need for strong and reliable engineering. On March 11, 2011, a huge earthquake, with a strength of 9.0, shook Japan and caused a major failure at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. This event showed how important it is for machines and structures to be able to survive natural disasters like earthquakes and tsunamis.

After the earthquake, a tsunami followed, which made things even worse. The power plant lost power, which meant the cooling systems for three of its reactors stopped working. Without cooling, these reactors overheated and their cores melted down. This was a tragic example of what can go wrong when we don’t carefully think about the risks of building in areas where natural disasters can happen.

Later on, experts looked at what went wrong and found that the power plant wasn’t built to handle a tsunami of that size, and the emergency plans weren’t good enough for such a disaster. Now, the Fukushima disaster is a key example that engineers study. It shows the link between planning ahead, considering the environment, and the serious problems that can happen if we don’t.

Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Engineering

In April 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig failed disastrously, causing a huge oil spill in the ocean. This event was significant because it showed how much we needed to improve our deep-sea drilling technology and how we respond to such disasters. Engineers had to look closely at how they build and check the safety of underwater equipment, such as blowout preventers, which are supposed to stop leaks. They also needed to make sure oil wells were designed to be very strong and could handle emergencies.

The spill made it clear that we must do better at predicting risks, watching over drilling as it happens, and creating tools that can handle the tough conditions at the bottom of the sea. After the spill, experts worked on making better plans for how to deal with such problems, which included using more advanced robots that can work underwater and creating better ways to quickly block leaking oil wells.

Engineers learned a lot from what happened with the Deepwater Horizon. They are using those lessons to try to make drilling in deep water safer, to reduce the chance of another big oil spill. This means continuing to develop new technology and safety measures that can prevent or quickly stop leaks if they do happen.

In summary, every case study shows different problems that mechanical engineers have to deal with.

For example, fixing the Hubble Space Telescope needed very accurate work, and getting the Mars Rover to move on Mars took a lot of creativity.

The fall of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and the nuclear accident at Fukushima Daiichi teach us that strong design and having a backup plan are very important.

The oil spill at Deepwater Horizon reminds us that safety features and thinking about the environment are essential.

These examples show that mechanical engineering involves many different areas and that it’s important to keep coming up with new ideas and to watch out for possible risks.

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Engineering Case Studies

Engineering Case Studies: Home

What are case studies.

Case studies (also called "case histories") are accounts of real engineering situations and projects that provide a context for engineers and others to explore problems. Case studies typically involve complex issues where there is often no single correct answer--you may be asked to select the "best" answer given the situation. Case Studies are found in many places, including book collections, scholarly articles, educational videos and the websites of professional organizations, and more.

Case studies allow you to:

Explore the nature of a problem and circumstances that affect a solution

Observe theories applied in a real-life situation

Learn about others' viewpoints and how they may be taken into account

Define your priorities and make your own decisions to solve the problem

Predict outcomes and consequences

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Engineering Ethics Cases
Markkula Center for Applied Ethics
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Engineering Ethics

The following series of engineering ethics cases were created by interviewing numerous engineers from Silicon Valley and beyond.

The cases have been written, anonymized, and honed to highlight the ethical content from each interview. While these cases are meant for engineering students and professionals for their professional development, nearly all of the cases occur in the context of business, and therefore are also relevant for those seeking business ethics cases.

These cases are suitable as homework and/or for classroom discussion. The goal of this project is to acquaint engineering students and professionals with the variety of ethical experiences of engineering as practiced “in the field.” By becoming familiar with problems faced by other engineers we hope to thereby prepare those reading these cases if they too encounter difficult ethical dilemmas in their work.

Cases range from the mundane to the deadly. While we do not reveal how each particular case turned out, in general they turned out well – the people involved made the right decisions. But this is not to say that all of these right decisions came without personal cost. A few of the engineers did face negative repercussions and a very few even needed to find new employment. However, overall the interviewees were satisfied with how events turned out, even if they faced negative repercussions for their good decisions. They understood that doing the right thing is good in itself, regardless of the personal consequences they may have faced.

The engineering ethics cases can be sorted into the following categories:

Academic Ethics
Bioengineering
Business Ethics
Civil Engineering
Computer/Software Engineering
Electrical Engineering
International
Mechanical Engineering
Science/Research Ethics

A quality assurance engineer must decide whether or not to ship products that might be defective.

An intern at a power electronics startup faces unkind comments from a fellow engineer. She suspects that her colleague is prejudice toward female engineers.

A chemical engineering professor discovers that a colleague has taken credit for his research.

A bioengineering researcher discovers an error in protocol and feels pressured not to report it to her supervisor.

A graduate student suspects her research adviser has earned tenure under false pretenses.

A computer startup company risks violating copyright laws if it reuses a code that is the intellectual property of another company.

A recently promoted manager at an industrial engineering company discovers that factory workers are asked to work more than eight hours a day without getting paid overtime.

Full transparency might prevent a project leader from closing a deal with a valuable client. Should he still clarify the situation to his client?

A manager at a consumer electronics company struggles over whether or not he should disclose confidential information to a valued customer.

A medical researcher is asked to trim data before presenting it to the scientific advisory board.

A technical sales engineer feels pressure to falsify a sales report in order to prevent the delay of her company's IPO.

When a computer filled with personal data gets stolen, a data company must decide how to manage the breach in security.

Employees of a computer hardware company are angered by a manager that demonstrates favoritism.

A project engineer believes his company is providing the wrong form of technology to an in-need community in East Africa.

A computer engineer is asked to divulge private medical data for marketing purposes.

Environmental engineers face pressure to come up with data that favors their employers.

In this ethics case, a woman is displeased with her work role at a computer hardware company.

A systems engineering company employee quits after getting pressured to falsify product testing paperwork.

A manager at a nonprofit mechanical engineering firm questions how responsible her company should be for ongoing maintenance on past projects.

An engineer for an environmental consulting firm must decide whether or not he should encourage his client to go with a more environmentally sustainable construction plan.

A genetic engineer feels a responsibility to educate colleagues on the truth behind stem cell research.

An engineering manager gets pressured to bribe a foreign official in order to secure a business venture in East Africa.

An African-American electronics design lead wonders whether his colleague's contentious behavior is motivated by racism.

A medical company asks blood sample suppliers to sign an ethically questionable consent form.

A quality assurance tester gets pressured to falsify data about a new product from a major cell phone company.

Should a production engineer prioritize a customer's desires over safety?

A female intern at a construction company faces disrespectful treatment because of her gender.

A new hire at an electronics startup struggles to decide between telling the truth and maximizing the company's profit.

A fellow for a global services program faces an ethical dilemma when a colleague asks him to falsify receipts.

A researcher of regenerative medicine meets a man who is eager sign up for potentially dangerous human testing.

A bioengineer's research leads to the discovery that a patient might have prostate cancer.

Two support engineers at a South Bay audio visual electronics startup question the fairness of a supervisor's decision.

An employee overseeing data analysis on a clinical drug trial has concerns about the safety of a client's drug.

The engineering ethics cases in this series were written by Santa Clara University School of Engineering students Clare Bartlett, Nabilah Deen, and Jocelyn Tan, who worked as Hackworth Engineering Ethics Fellows at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics over the course of the 2014-2015 academic year. In order to write these cases, the fellows interviewed numerous engineers and collected nearly 40 engineering ethics cases from Silicon Valley and beyond. The Hackworth Fellowships are made possible by a generous gift from Joan and the late Michael Hackworth.

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This is more of a student guided learning chapter. Since this is not a typical textbook section that consists of an instructor lecturing the student, this chapter might at times seem incomplete. It is intended to be incomplete as it is up to the student to complete it with guidance from a live teacher (whether in-person or over the internet). The basic idea is simple: a real engineering project is discussed in detail by the teacher in a manner that is consistent with real world activities as opposed to a more typical lecture (which has its place, just not here).

The case study herein is to design and construct a detector characterization laboratory which will include examination of said design using professional papers (examples of pre-peer reviewed papers can be found at: https://arxiv.org ). The student is expected to do all the research to prepare for discussion each day as if they were in a meeting to determine the direction of the engineering project. This is a participatory activity. In general there are really no wrong or right answers as long as they are within the scope of the research (if we ask what a chair is and you say it is a coffee cup...then yes that is wrong - but to say a chair is a couch is open to debate which should then occur among your classmates). It is expected that the instructor will be sufficiently skilled 1 in the subject matter to be able to take over the conversation and help the student navigate the subjects that they are not ready to handle as freshman. Lectures might occur when these type of road blocks emerge, but they should be infrequent.

The intend of this excursion is to build something to highlight different engineering disciplines. This particular case study centering on detectors will highlight electrical engineering, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, optical engineering, system engineering, chemical engineering, and materials engineering. There is no reason a different case study (say bridges) could be done, but it should follow the methodology highlighted here.

1 Note if the instructor is not sufficiently skilled in detector characterization then we would suggest the instructor modifies this to something he is skilled in, like a, the design of a bridge or water treatment plant, etc.

13.1: Example case study involving detectors characterization This is an example problem with criteria that is modifiable for the student led case study in engineering. It is expected that each student would write a large report (say 25 pages or so) to show their understanding of the discussion. Figures should be included including CADs.
13.2: Information for example case study involving detector characterization This is a hodgepodge of links etc. to help the student with the assignment posed in the last section. This section is meant to be edited constantly.

Case Studies

Can transform your classes, join the project: entrepreneurially minded engineering case studies, are you telling stories to your students.

Stories are an authentic and meaningful way to help connect theory to practice. Stories of persistence and passion, setbacks and successes can help you make entrepreneurially minded learning (EML) a part of mainstream engineering education.

Case studies provide you with built-in show and tell stories to use in your courses. Here's how you can get involved with the project:

Two Ways to Get Involved

Adopt an entrepreneurially minded (em) case study create a new em case study.

Click on an option below, or keep scrolling to read more about the project and the project team.

Adopt an EM Case Study

Engineering Unleashed has a collection of case studies detailed on cards, as well as access to Dr. Jonathan Weaver’s (University of Detroit Mercy) original cases.

How to adopt an EM Case Study:

Each card contains a Discussion box.
Pick a card to use.
Enter feedback and ask questions in the Discussion box.

We can then include your experience in the Instructor Tips section of the card.

View the case study collection .

Create a new case study.

We are looking for new case study topics and the entrepreneurially minded engineers (EMEs) involved. Some of the key attributes of a great case study story include:

Clear and obvious evidence of the 3C’s of Curiosity, Connections, and Creating Value.
A storyline that is relevant, exciting, and/or intriguing to undergraduate engineering students.
A diverse pool of EMEs.
Technical content appropriate for one or more engineering disciplines.
Stories that can be broadly shared (e.g., no intellectual property concerns).

We are offering a $1,000 finder’s fee for leads that result in published cases, whether or not the finder is involved in the production!

Interested? Contact Ken Bloemer .

About the Project

This series of entrepreneurial mindset case studies were developed by Ken Bloemer , Ph.D., Director Visioneering Center, PI, University of Dayton, Jonathan Weaver , Ph.D., Professor Mechanical Engineering, University of Detroit Mercy, Kenya Crosson , Ph.D., Associate Dean Faculty and Staff Development, University of Dayton, Andrea Peterson , KEEN Program Coordinator, University of Dayton, and various faculty from the University of Dayton and KEEN Partner Universities.

What is the purpose of the Entrepreneurially Minded (EM) Engineering Case Studies?

We have developed and are developing a number of EM engineering case studies designed to be integrated into existing engineering courses.

These case studies are intended to illustrate ways that entrepreneurially minded engineers (EMEs) have capitalized on their knowledge of specific engineering topics covered in typical undergraduate courses.

Often when we think of engineering case studies, we think of catastrophic failures like the Space Shuttles Columbia and Challenger, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, and the Titanic. While there are certainly lessons to be learned from these, successful engineering ventures beginning with the identification of an unmet need to the delivery of a value-added solution offer an abundance of entrepreneurially minded learning (EML) opportunities.

Who from the Network would benefit from the case studies?

The intended audience is primarily engineering faculty and students, but also business faculty and students, entrepreneurially minded student clubs, etc.

Why did you decide to work on this project? Was there a missing need this fills for your campus, faculty, and or students?

As a student I always appreciated learning from teachers’ stories, be they from their own experience or from the telling of others’ experiences. Stories are authentic experiences that help connect the theory to practice and helped me understand the relevance of what I was learning.

As such, they are stories of passion and persistence, setbacks and spectacular value-adding successes. They are stories that help all involved develop an entrepreneurial mindset and the opportunity to impact skillsets.

We also wanted to provide significant development opportunities for our faculty that would consist of working intentionally with a select company to identify EM Case Study opportunities (that we would help develop) and identify other relevant examples of engineering in action for their courses. Unfortunately, this proved too lofty of an objective because of faculty time constraints, company intellectual property concerns, and a lack of consistency in the resulting case studies.

We then developed a smaller case study team that is focused on developing top tier EM Case Studies with topics and EMEs that we hope will appeal to faculty and students alike.

What are your goals and visions for this project?

Our vision for this project is twofold.

First, it is to directly support our shared mission of graduating engineers with an entrepreneurial mindset so they can create personal, economic and societal value through a lifetime of meaningful work.

Second, but still highly correlated to the first, is to help make EML simply a part of mainstream engineering education by including teaching with case studies.

Other disciplines, most notably business and law, have been successfully teaching with cases for a long time. The idea of case studies in engineering is not new, but it certainly has not yet become mainstream. We hope that when you, dear reader, check out a case or two, you too will see the EML potential within.

How will this project help you, your campus, faculty, or students?

Let me provide a couple of specific examples of how these cases will impact students and faculty.

When students are working on project-based learning assignments, they routinely do quick designs and want to get right into ordering parts and fabricating their prototype. Students and faculty alike often don’t understand the value in developing low/no cost crude prototypes first.

In the case of Skycam, inventor Garrett Brown conceives of the idea, invites three friends over, and prototypes and tests the concept in his kitchen. He positioned each person and himself in a corner of his kitchen, gave each a spool of thread with a simple winding handle, and tied a key to the ends of the four thread spools and hung it in the middle.

They then experimented letting out and winding in the thread to move the key up and down, and all across a rectangular box of space in his kitchen.

Through this exercise, he validated that his concept could work, and they learned critical items about control of the highly complex Skycam system, the spooling mechanisms, and key safety criteria - and all for less than $2!

Another case features Mike Nuttall , one of the three co-founders of world-renowned design firm IDEO, as he discusses the Design Thinking product development approach. Here students learn the critical importance of the Empathize step, that includes competitive product research, gaining a deep understanding of customer needs, wants and desires, other research, and in the case of students, getting out of the classroom, and experiencing the problem/opportunity, extreme users, workarounds, and more.

We have yet another case, Glyde , that does an excellent job at this step where the engineers ride along with the beer delivery guys for hundreds of hours before they initiate the actual prototyping of the hand truck.

Interested? Have questions? Contact Ken Bloemer .

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Searching for Case Studies in Engineering: Getting Started

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Crowe, S., Cresswell, K., Robertson, A., Huby, G., Avery, A., & Sheikh, A. (2011). The case study approach. Bmc Medical Research Methodology, 11(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2288-11-100

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Case Studies

Case studies occur frequently in engineering because, by nature, engineering analyzes (studies) situations that already exist (cases). This document explains how to use a basic engineering problem-solving method to structure case studies, but the structure may also apply to other engineering reports (including undergraduate theses). This document focuses on a particular logical structure that is important to engineering. (For format, see Type of Documents / Short Reports ) Michael Jordan (not the basketball player) describes the basics of the problem-solving method this way:

Understanding the situation being faced;
Analyzing the specific problem to be tackled;
Creating, analyzing, and refining a solution;
And further evaluating, improving, and implementing. [1]

The method is known as: Situation — Problem — Solution(s) — Evaluation

Each of the logical components here consists more of questions than “how-to” because the goal of this web page is to help you think through the logic structure of this pattern.

1. Situation: Even when a client (or professor) defines a situation, engineers need to understand it in their own terms:

What are the needs of the client?
What are the constraints of the situation (time, resources, laws, technology)?
What are the background facts?
What are the key questions that need asking?

Example: What happens when the Client doesn’t tell you everything?

If an engineer responding to the Request for Proposal (RFP) below did not think through the whole situation, she might end up in big trouble. An RFP asks contractors to bid on a particular project. Getting the job without understanding the situation can be disastrous. This RFP describes the government’s responsibilities in a research project to test ABS brakes using an “instrumented car” (a car outfitted with sophisticated measuring equipment):

An instrumented vehicle, Pontiac 6000 STE, has been developed and will be provided to the contractor without charge by Transport Canada . A separate contractor has been engaged to perform hardware modifications to the various systems in the vehicle if they are required and approved by the scientific authority. Costs associated with any approved modifications, and the maintenance of the data collection system will be the responsibility of Transport Canada , unless the contractor has been negligent in the use of the system. [2]

All of this sounds good at first–someone else is worrying about maintaining the systems inside a rather expensive vehicle–BUT what about systems outside the vehicle? Such things as pop-up stop signs and means of altering the slipperiness of the track will be needed. Since these are outside the car, who pays? If those bidding on this contract do not state their understanding of the situation clearly, they could win a bid but lose a bundle. Showing a clear understanding of the situation is the first step to a clear report.

Where it fits: Typically this will fit into the introduction or background sections of a report.

2. Problem: Before you can solve a problem you need to know what it is. Defining a Problem clearly is crucial to finding a solution. In defining the problem, you need to explain the factors that affect the problem. Consider not only what the client says the problem is, but what the client might not recognize. Here is a statement of a problem, taken from an assignment in MIE 561S, Health Care Systems:

Sunnybrook’s Chronic Pain Clinic experiences two problems:

In its present mode of operation, it loses money on initial consultations.
Patients’ waiting times for initial consultations are perceived as being too long and should be shortened without significant expenditure.

Unless the number of consultations can be increased by 15% using the same resources, the pain clinic is in danger of being shut down.

This problem statement is not complete. In fact, it is the problem as defined by the client, which is really just the situation. The writer needs to analyze the problem: the problem here might in part be defined as inefficiency in initial consultations.

Sunnybrook’s Chronic Pain Clinic loses money on initial consultations and suffers from long patient waiting times for initial consultations. Unless the number of consultations can be increased by 15% using the same resources, the pain clinic is in danger of being shut down. The loss of money and the waiting times are related because two of the four doctors do not manage to see their patients within the allotted one hour consultation. This means not only that these doctors are unable to see as many patients as the other two doctors, but that those they do see have to wait well past their scheduled appointment. The problem, then, is to eliminate inefficiency in initial consultations without compromising the level offer.

Part of defining the problem is seeing it in terms of what has been done before. These questions might help you explain the full background to the problem:

What are the parameters that have been set for your analysis?
What is happening in the situation now?
What are the shortcomings of the current or previous ways of handling the situation?
What changes have been made in the situation? or are expected?

These questions might lead to an additional paragraph in our example to clarify and refine the definition of the problem. Here the writer goes on to consider how one parameter physicians’ financial benefit might affect the current situation.

(cont’d from above example)

If inefficiency is a factor, understanding the physicians’ relationship to the clinic becomes important. First, financially, the four doctors who provide service in the pain clinic do so out of interest in the field. They derive little financial benefit from their involvement; in fact, they incur a significant opportunity cost for not performing other, more lucrative procedures. Their pay is not proportionally dependent on the number of patients they examine; instead, it is a percentage of the total revenue generated by a pool of twenty-six physicians performing a variety of roles at the hospital. For this reason, personal income cannot influence physician behavior.

This example is only part of what goes into a problem definition, but it shows how the writer can refine his problem definition by limiting the possible parameters for solutions.

Where it fits: Typically, the Problem definition is also the purpose of the report; therefore, it will follow the situation, or sometimes, precede it. Notice that the problem and the situation overlap. This is predictable because the problem arises out of the situation.

3. Solution: University assignments often expect you to come up with alternatives; hence, you may need to examine more than one solution. Ultimately, to be effective, any solution must:

Solve the problem. Obvious, but explain: How does the solution work?
Explain how the solution can be derived from the available data. How does it fit with what we know?
Fit clearly into the available research on a topic. What research supports it?

As you might guess, this section could be a huge part of the body of a report.

4. Evaluation: Before engineers can implement a solution, it needs to be refined. The first step in refining any solution is an evaluation. You need to think your way around the solution just as if it were an object you were walking around. Ask as many questions as possible. Here are a few:

Is the solution you suggest likely to be successful?
What limitations might prevent total success? (eg. does it depend on people being trained?)
What must a company do to make your solution work? (funding? training? design? safety measures?)
If you are proposing more than one solution, which one(s) do you recommend be implemented? In which order? (short term vs. long term; most important vs. less important; necessary vs. optional)

Where it fits: Typically, the evaluation comes just before the recommendations. Once you have evaluated several options, then you can make a recommendation. It may also be incorporated into the recommendations.

References:

[1] Jordan, Michael P. 1988. “How can problem-solution structures help writers plan and write technical documents?” Solving Problems in Technical Writing. Ed. Lynne Beene and Peter White. Toronto: Oxford. [2] Supply and Services Canada . 1989. RFP 045SZ.T8080-9-4780/B.

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Case Studies

Analysis of a Diesel Engine
Experimental Determination of the Mechanical Equivalent of Heat
Refining the Mechanical Equivalent of Heat
Analysis of a Residential Heat Pump

Ethics Case Studies

Mount Dioxin
Calculating and Comparing the Output Power and the Indicated Power of a Simple IC Engine
Comparison of the Anemometer Mass Flow and the Thermal Mass Flow
Calculating Q (Heat)
Drag Measurements for Ten Geometric Bodies
Drag Measurements on Round and Wing Tubes
Hydraulic Jump through a Sluice Gate
Optimal Drafting Position for Marathon Runner
Experiments on a Series of Symmetrical Joukowski Sections
Nusselt Number Correlation
Heat Transfer in a Triangular Duct
Nuclear Plant Heat Exchanger Problems
Torsional Pendulum: Determining Mass Moments of Inertia
Space Crank Application
The Story of Eighty-Four Minutes
Bolt Torque, Preload, and Strength
The Problem of the Perverse Pinion
Hunting Problems on a Dam Controlled Gate

Welcome to the Mechanical Engineering Case Studies website. Select your course from the list at the Left to begin.

This web site is being developed to give undergraduate Mechanical Engineering students real engineering examples and experimental data in their lecture courses. This is done by using design calculations or experimental data completed by ME seniors in their design courses, lab courses, honors thesis, and Co-op (with permission from the company). Results from graduate student research or published experimental data are also used. This allows students to become familiar with data analysis and the inherent uncertainties in experimental measurements before entering the laboratory courses.

The case studies are formatted as a homework assignment. In some cases, the entire case study would be assigned for homework. In other cases, there are several similar sets of data and only one set of data would be assigned for homework. Each case study includes a description of the objectives, the experimental facility, and the experimental procedure used to obtain the data. When possible, photos and video clips are used to show the facility and experimental procedure. From the web site, students can download engineering drawings of the models used in the experiment and spreadsheets containing the experimental data. The web site describes the data analysis required in the assignment. Included in the data analysis may be nondimensionalization, statistical analysis, plotting the experimental data, and comparison of the experimental results with correlations found in the text.

In this case study web site you will also find several ethics case studies and several links that have been found for particular classes. A statistics tutorial gives a review of the statistical analysis that is used in several case studies.

If you are interested in contributing additional case studies, or have any comments or suggestions regarding this site, please contact Professor Laura Pauley ( [email protected] ).

Welcome to the Statistics Tutorial. To learn more about a statistical function, click on one of the links below.

Variance and Standard Deviation
Binomial Distribution
Poisson Distribution
Normal Distribution
Student's T Distribution
Chi-Square Test

Browse Course Material

Course info.

Prof. Lionel C. Kimerling

Departments

Materials Science and Engineering

As Taught In

Electrical Engineering
Electronic Materials

Learning Resource Types

Principles of engineering practice, case studies.

Case Study and Project Reports will be presented by the assigned Teams. The process is as follows:

Prof. Kimerling will lead a short in-class discussion on the approach for each Case Study or Project. Q&A is encouraged to clarify specific details.

The Instructors and TAs will moderate online Discussion Forums: within this Forum students should post their team’s tentative outline, develop concepts, discuss sources and preliminary findings. Instructors and TA will provide feedback within this Discussion Forum.

An optional office meeting with Prof. Kimerling is available if desired by any Group.

On the day of presentations, each Group must present a 20 minute presentation of 5-6 slides. Each member of the Group must present one slide from this presentation. Slides must be posted to the Web site the night before.

Students are expected to bring hard copies of all presentations to class.

Corrected slides and a final 2-page report must be posted to the Web site two days after presentation.

Grade assignment for the Case Studies and Projects will account for the following:

presentation and writing skills
clarity and rationality of the design execution
presentation of background, issues, alternatives and conclusions

All student work is presented with permission of the authors.

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How an Engineering Case Study Report is Organised

A case study analysis is usually presented as a report and will therefore contain many of the features and structure of reports in general. This section will briefly describe each section, its purpose and structure.

Before reading this section you might like to try this Quiz to see how much you already know about writing reports.

The title page presents routine information and hints at the report's content through an informative title. Design your title page to be simple yet functional and appropriate for your audience. Common elements to include on the title page include:

Your Institution's name
Title of the report
Author/s (include student number if appropriate)
Name of person or group to whom you submit the report
Course name (or department/group or committee name)
Date of submission

Executive summary

The executive summary is usually read by senior management. The manager will use the information in the executive summary to decide what action to take and who will carry it out. An executive summary should include an overview of the whole report and is longer than an abstract for a professional journal. It can be from one to a couple of pages, but try to keep it under 2 pages if possible. Headings can be used but there is no need to number these. In your own words present clearly and briefly:

the topic area of the report
the report's primary aim/s
state what was achieved (key finding)
a summary of your approach
significant findings
a summary of the report's recommendations

Contents page

Readers can use this to get a sense of how the report is structured and can skim the contents page for relevant sections to read. Include heading, subheading and page numbers. Usually in large reports a decimal numbering system for headings and subheadings are used. If it is a large report with many tables and figures in the body, a list of figures and a list of terminology or symbols can be included after the contents page.

Introduction

The introduction is very important as it sets the context for the report. Summarise the brief (your task), briefly outline the case and focus on its significance for the reader, state the report's aim(s) and describe how the report is organised. Readers use the introduction to locate the aim of your report and to decide which sections of the report they need to read. While you may include the key problem you have identified and its significance, it is not usual to detail findings or recommendations in the introduction.

Case study report body

The previous sections (title page, executive summary, contents, tables of figures, introduction) are preliminary sections.

It is difficult to give a single precise description of how a case study report should be organised as many models and variations exist. Organisation will depend on the type of report (eg; design, management), the type of case study investigation (eg; historical, problem orientated), and even the discipline or field you are writing in. Ultimately, the writer decides how best to organise and explain the case, the methodology and the recommendations. The following descriptions are examples only and are drawn from the field of risk management.

Historical case study

An historical case study's body sections may be organised as follows:

Context — Describe the case or situation being investigated. Focus on the facts of the situation.
Approach - Use topic based headings and a chronological sequence to give a summary and discussion of contributing factors (usually focusing on a specific time period in the past) that lead to and resulted from the situation described in the case study. Refer to theories, relevant publications or prior cases to explain and justify your interpretations of the situation. Problems and solutions and previous recommendations that were made are highlighted and briefly commented upon (eg; which problems were eventually solved and how they were solved, or which problems continued and why they remained unsolved).
Conclusion - Try to answer the following questions. What else has been achieved since the situation occurred? Have all recommendations been implemented? What may happen in the future?

Problem-orientated case study

A problem orientated case study's body sections may be organised as follows:

Headings should be informative and descriptive providing a clue to the contents of the section.

Describe the context of the case. Present the central issue you will be analysing, what decisions have already been made, what communication processes are occurring in the situation. Focus on the facts.
Explain your methodology. Identify problems that are demonstrated in the case (use visuals if appropriate) and also explain and justify your choice of analysis tools (eg SWOT, PEST, Force Field…),
Present summaries of your findings (put details in the appendices) and indicate how you decide what is acceptable/not acceptable as a solution.
Present an action plan for the recommendations. Recommendations in a case study report should be fairly detailed. Include an action plan that details who should take action, when and how (eg; specifications, steps to follow), and how to assess the action taken. For example, in a case study report you may decide the likelihood of 3 scenarios pose the greatest risks for your company but each poses a risk in unique ways. For each scenario clearly state who is responsible, what action they should take and how they can assess the recommendation.

Conclusions

Every report should include a concluding statement/s on the subject of the report. Restate the aim of the report and state how you have achieved it. Present the main findings and key recommendations in a summarised form for the reader's benefit. You should also restate the limitations of the report.

Appendices provide additional or supporting information that while not essential to understanding the main facts and recommendations, may be of interest to the expert reader and are evidence of your research and analysis. Appendices can be tables of raw data, detailed calculations, design drawings, maps, copies of a questionnaire or survey etc. Appendices are normally listed as Appendix A, Appendix B, Appendix C, and so forth. Give each appendix a clear informative title. Appendices and reference lists are supplementary sections of a report.

Reference list

This is a list of all the sources of information you have referred to in the report. Many schools in engineering recommend the author date system. See Referencing for more information on reference styles. We recommend you check with your course facilitators on their preferences.

See next: Activities for recognising report sections

Engineering & science.

Report writing
Technical writing
Writing lab reports
Honours thesis writing
Writing the case study
Recognising report sections
Case study activity
What is the marker looking for?
How can I improve my writing?
^ More support

News and notices

Ethical and Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence at UNSW Published: 17 May 2024

Study Hacks Workshops | All the hacks you need! 28 May – 25 Jul 2024

All authors should refer to the following guidelines and templates as they write their case.

Case Writing Guideline

Case writing guide (PDF)
Case summary template (docx)
Case plan template (docx)
Case study template (docx)
Case module template (docx)
Case summary example (PDF)
Case plan example (PDF)
Case study example (PDF)

Release and copyright forms

Case release form (docx)
Copyright license agreement (docx)

Engineering Case Studies

Getting Started
Finding Case Studies in the U-M Library
Case Studies That Are Freely Available

Selected Case Studies Books

Finding books on case studies.

This page lists a small selection of engineering case studies ebooks available to you through the U-M Library.

You can find case studies in several engineering disciplines in books available to you at the library. To look for case studies, use Library Catalog Search . Include the phrase "case studies" as part of your search.

For example, the search string "case studies" AND "aerospace engineering" will return a wide array of aerospace engineering related books that include case studies.

<< Previous: Case Studies That Are Freely Available
Last Updated: Sep 19, 2023 11:21 AM
URL: https://guides.lib.umich.edu/engrcasestudies

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Writing A Case Study

Case Study Examples

Brilliant Case Study Examples and Templates For Your Help

15 min read

An Overview of Case Studies

A case study is a research method used to study a particular individual, group, or situation in depth. It involves analyzing and interpreting data from a variety of sources to gain insight into the subject being studied.

Case studies are often used in psychology, business, and education to explore complicated problems and find solutions. They usually have detailed descriptions of the subject, background info, and an analysis of the main issues.

The goal of a case study is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the subject. Typically, case studies can be divided into three parts, challenges, solutions, and results.

Here is a case study sample PDF so you can have a clearer understanding of what a case study actually is:

Case Study Sample PDF

How to Write a Case Study Examples

Learn how to write a case study with the help of our comprehensive case study guide.

Case Study Examples for Students

Quite often, students are asked to present case studies in their academic journeys. The reason instructors assign case studies is for students to sharpen their critical analysis skills, understand how companies make profits, etc.

Below are some case study examples in research, suitable for students:

Case Study Example in Software Engineering

Qualitative Research Case Study Sample

Software Quality Assurance Case Study

Social Work Case Study Example

Ethical Case Study

Case Study Example PDF

These examples can guide you on how to structure and format your own case studies.

Struggling with formatting your case study? Check this case study format guide and perfect your document’s structure today.

Business Case Study Examples

A business case study examines a business’s specific challenge or goal and how it should be solved. Business case studies usually focus on several details related to the initial challenge and proposed solution.

To help you out, here are some samples so you can create case studies that are related to businesses:

Here are some more business case study examples:

Business Case Studies PDF

Business Case Studies Example

Typically, a business case study discovers one of your customer's stories and how you solved a problem for them. It allows your prospects to see how your solutions address their needs.

Medical Case Study Examples

Medical case studies are an essential part of medical education. They help students to understand how to diagnose and treat patients.

Here are some medical case study examples to help you.

Medical Case Study Example

Nursing Case Study Example

Want to understand the various types of case studies? Check out our types of case study blog to select the perfect type.

Psychology Case Study Examples

Case studies are a great way of investigating individuals with psychological abnormalities. This is why it is a very common assignment in psychology courses.

By examining all the aspects of your subject’s life, you discover the possible causes of exhibiting such behavior.

For your help, here are some interesting psychology case study examples:

Psychology Case Study Example

Mental Health Case Study Example

Sales Case Study Examples

Case studies are important tools for sales teams’ performance improvement. By examining sales successes, teams can gain insights into effective strategies and create action plans to employ similar tactics.

By researching case studies of successful sales campaigns, sales teams can more accurately identify challenges and develop solutions.

Sales Case Study Example

Interview Case Study Examples

Interview case studies provide businesses with invaluable information. This data allows them to make informed decisions related to certain markets or subjects.

Interview Case Study Example

Marketing Case Study Examples

Marketing case studies are real-life stories that showcase how a business solves a problem. They typically discuss how a business achieves a goal using a specific marketing strategy or tactic.

They typically describe a challenge faced by a business, the solution implemented, and the results achieved.

This is a short sample marketing case study for you to get an idea of what an actual marketing case study looks like.

Here are some more popular marketing studies that show how companies use case studies as a means of marketing and promotion:

“Chevrolet Discover the Unexpected” by Carol H. Williams

This case study explores Chevrolet's “ DTU Journalism Fellows ” program. The case study uses the initials “DTU” to generate interest and encourage readers to learn more.

Multiple types of media, such as images and videos, are used to explain the challenges faced. The case study concludes with an overview of the achievements that were met.

Key points from the case study include:

Using a well-known brand name in the title can create interest.
Combining different media types, such as headings, images, and videos, can help engage readers and make the content more memorable.
Providing a summary of the key achievements at the end of the case study can help readers better understand the project's impact.

“The Met” by Fantasy

“ The Met ” by Fantasy is a fictional redesign of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, created by the design studio Fantasy. The case study clearly and simply showcases the museum's website redesign.

The Met emphasizes the website’s features and interface by showcasing each section of the interface individually, allowing the readers to concentrate on the significant elements.

For those who prefer text, each feature includes an objective description. The case study also includes a “Contact Us” call-to-action at the bottom of the page, inviting visitors to contact the company.

Key points from this “The Met” include:

Keeping the case study simple and clean can help readers focus on the most important aspects.
Presenting the features and solutions with a visual showcase can be more effective than writing a lot of text.
Including a clear call-to-action at the end of the case study can encourage visitors to contact the company for more information.

“Better Experiences for All” by Herman Miller

Herman Miller's minimalist approach to furniture design translates to their case study, “ Better Experiences for All ”, for a Dubai hospital. The page features a captivating video with closed-captioning and expandable text for accessibility.

The case study presents a wealth of information in a concise format, enabling users to grasp the complexities of the strategy with ease. It concludes with a client testimonial and a list of furniture items purchased from the brand.

Key points from the “Better Experiences” include:

Make sure your case study is user-friendly by including accessibility features like closed captioning and expandable text.
Include a list of products that were used in the project to guide potential customers.

“NetApp” by Evisort

Evisort's case study on “ NetApp ” stands out for its informative and compelling approach. The study begins with a client-centric overview of NetApp, strategically directing attention to the client rather than the company or team involved.

The case study incorporates client quotes and explores NetApp’s challenges during COVID-19. Evisort showcases its value as a client partner by showing how its services supported NetApp through difficult times.

Provide an overview of the company in the client’s words, and put focus on the customer.
Highlight how your services can help clients during challenging times.
Make your case study accessible by providing it in various formats.

“Red Sox Season Campaign,” by CTP Boston

The “ Red Sox Season Campaign ” showcases a perfect blend of different media, such as video, text, and images. Upon visiting the page, the video plays automatically, there are videos of Red Sox players, their images, and print ads that can be enlarged with a click.

The page features an intuitive design and invites viewers to appreciate CTP's well-rounded campaign for Boston's beloved baseball team. There’s also a CTA that prompts viewers to learn how CTP can create a similar campaign for their brand.

Some key points to take away from the “Red Sox Season Campaign”:

Including a variety of media such as video, images, and text can make your case study more engaging and compelling.
Include a call-to-action at the end of your study that encourages viewers to take the next step towards becoming a customer or prospect.

“Airbnb + Zendesk” by Zendesk

The case study by Zendesk, titled “ Airbnb + Zendesk : Building a powerful solution together,” showcases a true partnership between Airbnb and Zendesk.

The article begins with an intriguing opening statement, “Halfway around the globe is a place to stay with your name on it. At least for a weekend,” and uses stunning images of beautiful Airbnb locations to captivate readers.

Instead of solely highlighting Zendesk's product, the case study is crafted to tell a good story and highlight Airbnb's service in detail. This strategy makes the case study more authentic and relatable.

Some key points to take away from this case study are:

Use client's offerings' images rather than just screenshots of your own product or service.
To begin the case study, it is recommended to include a distinct CTA. For instance, Zendesk presents two alternatives, namely to initiate a trial or seek a solution.

“Influencer Marketing” by Trend and WarbyParker

The case study "Influencer Marketing" by Trend and Warby Parker highlights the potential of influencer content marketing, even when working with a limited budget.

The “Wearing Warby” campaign involved influencers wearing Warby Parker glasses during their daily activities, providing a glimpse of the brand's products in use.

This strategy enhanced the brand's relatability with influencers' followers. While not detailing specific tactics, the case study effectively illustrates the impact of third-person case studies in showcasing campaign results.

Key points to take away from this case study are:

Influencer marketing can be effective even with a limited budget.
Showcasing products being used in everyday life can make a brand more approachable and relatable.
Third-person case studies can be useful in highlighting the success of a campaign.

Marketing Case Study Example

Marketing Case Study Template

Now that you have read multiple case study examples, hop on to our tips.

Tips to Write a Good Case Study

Here are some note-worthy tips to craft a winning case study

Define the purpose of the case study This will help you to focus on the most important aspects of the case. The case study objective helps to ensure that your finished product is concise and to the point.
Choose a real-life example. One of the best ways to write a successful case study is to choose a real-life example. This will give your readers a chance to see how the concepts apply in a real-world setting.
Keep it brief. This means that you should only include information that is directly relevant to your topic and avoid adding unnecessary details.
Use strong evidence. To make your case study convincing, you will need to use strong evidence. This can include statistics, data from research studies, or quotes from experts in the field.
Edit and proofread your work. Before you submit your case study, be sure to edit and proofread your work carefully. This will help to ensure that there are no errors and that your paper is clear and concise.

There you go!

We’re sure that now you have secrets to writing a great case study at your fingertips! This blog teaches the key guidelines of various case studies with samples. So grab your pen and start crafting a winning case study right away!

Having said that, we do understand that some of you might be having a hard time writing compelling case studies.

But worry not! Our expert case study writing service is here to take all your case-writing blues away!

With 100% thorough research guaranteed, our online essay service can craft an amazing case study within 24 hours!

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About the Database
Creating Persistent Links

Creating a Persistent Link:

Engineering Case Studies has an option for persistent links inside each resource.

To locate the persistent link, select the resource you wish to share. Beneath the resource, you will see an option to "embed/link":

From here, you can choose to copy the persistent link from the pop-up window:

Using Engineering Case Studies

The analysis of engineering failures is an essential part of many engineering curricula today. This focus enables modern engineers and scholars to learn what not to do and how to create designs with a greater chance of success. Key to learning is establishing the nature of each failure—structural, corrosive, electrical, etc.—and understanding that element.

The engineering field needs a comprehensive and authoritative resource to provide in-depth, impartial analysis of key engineering failures. Engineering Case Studies Online is a collection that will grow to include 250 hours of video and 50,000 pages of text resources to meet this growing need. Content is displayed alongside targeted learning objects designed to facilitate detailed understanding of the causes and impact of these failures. Materials in the collection include:

• Feature-length video documentaries of major failures.

• Monographs explaining cases in detail and describing key engineering concepts and issues.

• Simulations depicting precisely what went wrong.

• Primary footage of accidents, including related news segments.

• Audio footage and transcripts.

• Testimonies from participants, victims, and witnesses.

• Images, accident reports, blueprints, and other key archival content whenever available.

• Bibliographies of authoritative materials from newspapers, Web sites, and journals.

• Specially written cases that explore engineering ethics.

The collection provides in-depth coverage for more than 50 of the most frequently taught and seminal case studies around the world together. Example cases include:

All materials in Engineering Case Studies Online are carefully cultivated by expert editors, with the assistance of an advisory board of engineering librarians and faculty. Materials come from a wide range of content partners, including the Digital Rights Group, BBC, Future Media, TVF International, as well as leading academic publishers such as Princeton University Press, John Wiley & Sons, Harvard University Press, and engineering associations such as the American Society of Civil Engineers.

More than 60 percent of video material in the collection was produced since 2000, and new content is added regularly. The database is global in focus, and originates from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, with selections from across Europe and Asia. And because Engineering Case Studies Online addresses cases from a variety of angles, including their legal and ethical implications, the collection has broad applications for fields including architecture, business, law, urban planning, health and safety, environmental studies, science, sociology, media, and technology.

Last Updated: Apr 24, 2024 12:00 PM
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Hertz CEO Kathryn Marinello with CFO Jamere Jackson and other members of the executive team in 2017

Top 40 Most Popular Case Studies of 2021

Two cases about Hertz claimed top spots in 2021's Top 40 Most Popular Case Studies

Two cases on the uses of debt and equity at Hertz claimed top spots in the CRDT’s (Case Research and Development Team) 2021 top 40 review of cases.

Hertz (A) took the top spot. The case details the financial structure of the rental car company through the end of 2019. Hertz (B), which ranked third in CRDT’s list, describes the company’s struggles during the early part of the COVID pandemic and its eventual need to enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The success of the Hertz cases was unprecedented for the top 40 list. Usually, cases take a number of years to gain popularity, but the Hertz cases claimed top spots in their first year of release. Hertz (A) also became the first ‘cooked’ case to top the annual review, as all of the other winners had been web-based ‘raw’ cases.

Besides introducing students to the complicated financing required to maintain an enormous fleet of cars, the Hertz cases also expanded the diversity of case protagonists. Kathyrn Marinello was the CEO of Hertz during this period and the CFO, Jamere Jackson is black.

Sandwiched between the two Hertz cases, Coffee 2016, a perennial best seller, finished second. “Glory, Glory, Man United!” a case about an English football team’s IPO made a surprise move to number four. Cases on search fund boards, the future of malls, Norway’s Sovereign Wealth fund, Prodigy Finance, the Mayo Clinic, and Cadbury rounded out the top ten.

Other year-end data for 2021 showed:

Online “raw” case usage remained steady as compared to 2020 with over 35K users from 170 countries and all 50 U.S. states interacting with 196 cases.
Fifty four percent of raw case users came from outside the U.S..
The Yale School of Management (SOM) case study directory pages received over 160K page views from 177 countries with approximately a third originating in India followed by the U.S. and the Philippines.
Twenty-six of the cases in the list are raw cases.
A third of the cases feature a woman protagonist.
Orders for Yale SOM case studies increased by almost 50% compared to 2020.
The top 40 cases were supervised by 19 different Yale SOM faculty members, several supervising multiple cases.

CRDT compiled the Top 40 list by combining data from its case store, Google Analytics, and other measures of interest and adoption.

All of this year’s Top 40 cases are available for purchase from the Yale Management Media store .

And the Top 40 cases studies of 2021 are:

1. Hertz Global Holdings (A): Uses of Debt and Equity

2. Coffee 2016

3. Hertz Global Holdings (B): Uses of Debt and Equity 2020

4. Glory, Glory Man United!

5. Search Fund Company Boards: How CEOs Can Build Boards to Help Them Thrive

6. The Future of Malls: Was Decline Inevitable?

7. Strategy for Norway's Pension Fund Global

8. Prodigy Finance

9. Design at Mayo

10. Cadbury

11. City Hospital Emergency Room

13. Volkswagen

14. Marina Bay Sands

15. Shake Shack IPO

16. Mastercard

17. Netflix

18. Ant Financial

19. AXA: Creating the New CR Metrics

20. IBM Corporate Service Corps

21. Business Leadership in South Africa's 1994 Reforms

22. Alternative Meat Industry

23. Children's Premier

24. Khalil Tawil and Umi (A)

25. Palm Oil 2016

26. Teach For All: Designing a Global Network

27. What's Next? Search Fund Entrepreneurs Reflect on Life After Exit

28. Searching for a Search Fund Structure: A Student Takes a Tour of Various Options

30. Project Sammaan

31. Commonfund ESG

32. Polaroid

33. Connecticut Green Bank 2018: After the Raid

34. FieldFresh Foods

35. The Alibaba Group

36. 360 State Street: Real Options

37. Herman Miller

38. AgBiome

39. Nathan Cummings Foundation

40. Toyota 2010

Do Engineering Students Know How to Use Generative Artificial Intelligence? A Case Study

Conference paper
First Online: 01 June 2024
Cite this conference paper

Miguel Á. Conde ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5881-7775 26 &
Jesús-Ángel Román-Gallego ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2058-6219 27

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 14724))

Included in the following conference series:

International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction

In the context of engineering education, the utilization of generative artificial intelligence (AI) holds significant promise for enhancing learning experiences. This article presents a compelling case study designed to assess the proficiency of engineering students in employing generative AI, particularly focusing on ChatGPT. Students from diverse engineering disciplines and academic levels engage in a knowledge questionnaire, with one group utilizing ChatGPT and the other leveraging unrestricted internet resources. The study not only investigates the effectiveness of generative AI as a learning tool but also explores its impact on problem-solving skills. Towards the end of the questionnaire, students are surveyed using a validated instrument to gauge their perceptions and experiences regarding the use of ChatGPT and generative AI in the realm of engineering education. This research contributes valuable insights into the integration of generative AI as a pedagogical tool, shedding light on its potential to shape the future of engineering instruction.

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Conde, M.Á., Román-Gallego, JÁ. (2024). Do Engineering Students Know How to Use Generative Artificial Intelligence? A Case Study. In: Zaphiris, P., Ioannou, A. (eds) Learning and Collaboration Technologies. HCII 2024. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14724. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-61691-4_16

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A Path to Understanding: A case study in cultivating empathy through communication and cultural barriers

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Abstract – In service-learning projects, engineering students work with community partners on projects that reflect situations that professional engineers may face. Grounded in life experiences, the challenges and obstacles vary based on the project and the particular needs of the community partner. This case study presents several barriers that a team of second-year engineering students worked to overcome, to understand the design problem, and to engage in empathetic design. The four students developed an assistive drumming device for a young Indigenous child who has a rare metabolic disorder. Communication barriers arose due to geographic distance, cultural differences, and because there were multiple stakeholders in the chain of communication between the students and the user. To understand more about the metabolic disorder, drumming, and the user’s cultural context, the students performed extensive research, spoke with key knowledge-holders, and attended cultural events. These additional steps contributed to a successful design, and the case study demonstrates how empathetic design encourages students to persist until a solution is found. Lastly, we offer recommendations to help students practice empathetic design.

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The following websites are useful for people interested in machine learning with Python.

Minnesota Supercomputing Institute

The Minnesota Supercomputing Institute has a YouTube channel with a number of tutorials on it. In addition, they regularly offer tutorials and other events. Check out their webpage for current offerings.

Tutorials available on their YouTube channel include:

Python for Scientific Computing
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Programming with Python
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Programming with Python: Making Choices and Creating Functions
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Below we provide a selection of resources for Python, a general purpose programming language that has become popular for use in data science. One reason for that popularity is the existence of a number of packages for Python that implement various mathematical, statistical, and machine learning-related functions. Another attractive feature of Python is the widespread use of Jupyter notebooks that allow for interactive programming in Python (as well as other languages). Jupyter notebooks are also an easy way to share code and create tutorials for various programming tasks. Of course, Python programs can also be created using standard editors used for programming languages. There will be more on this below.

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The first task in getting started with Python is to get access. You can do this by installing it on a machine you have access to, such as your personal computer, or you can get access through a computing facility in your organization.

Access Python without installing it on your personal machine

Option 1: Google Colab This puts you directly into a Python notebook, which has a link to an introductory video, and to a new Jupyter notebook. Other links on the side of this notebook have links to examples, etc. If you just want to see the webpage, you can hit the cancel button at the bottom of the notebook. Colab allows you to get started with coding in Python right away. Access to Python's packages and GPUs is provided in this environment, but it is not intended for running compute-intensive programs.

Option 2: MSI Jupyter Notebook Server Those who have an account at the Minnesota Supercomputing Institute can go directly to the Jupyter notebook server. You must have an MSI account to use MSI resources. You must also connect either from a machine on a UMN network or via VPN. See the MSI website for additional documentation . You can perform moderate-size tasks using this option, but for programs that use more resources, you should create and submit jobs via the batch system at MSI.

Option 3: Code in the Cloud from Anaconda Anaconda also provides an environment that you can use to install and use Python and its packages. If you just want to have access to a Jupyter notebook and play around with learning and light use of Python, this could be another possibility. You will have to create an account with Anaconda.

Install Python on your personal machine

We recommend installing Anaconda as it will install Python and also install other regularly used packages for scientific computing and data science. It will also help make sure all your packages remain compatible with one another. Much of the functionality of Python, like R, Matlab, and other languages, comes from the packages.

The Anaconda website also provides a webpage for Getting started with Anaconda .

Anaconda takes a fair amount of space on the disk and time to install, so if you have an older computer with limited disk space or a limited internet connection, you should consider lighter-weight options such as Miniconda .

Alternatively, you can download Python from python.org . In that case, you will probably want to use a package manager such as pip , which comes with Python if you install it from python.org. This gives you more control but requires more understanding of Python, its packages, and how they are managed.

Learning to program in Python

For those unfamiliar with Python 3 and Jupyter notebooks, this is a relatively easy environment to learn. Learning Python 3 will help you advance your knowledge of data analytics, as most big data platforms and data mining/machine learning projects require a working knowledge of Python. The following resources can help you learn Python and get started in using Python for machine learning.

Learn Python (book wesbite)
Google's Python Class (website and videos)
Python for Data Analysis, 3E (book website)
W3Schools Python Tutorials (a collection of short Python tutorials on various aspects of the Python language)
Data Analysis with Python and Pandas (videos) Pandas is a Python package for handling and analyzing data.
Learn to Program with Python (videos)

Running Jupyter Notebooks

If you have installed Anaconda, you can run Anaconda Navigator and then click on the Jupyter notebook icon to start the Jupyter notebook. (Once you become familiar with a Jupyter notebook, you may want to run JupyterLab, a more advanced Notebook Interface.)

You can also log onto the MSI Jupyter notebook server.

How to Use Jupyter Notebook: A Beginner's Tutorial (webpage)
Running the Notebook (webpage) For those not using Anaconda

General Machine Learning

An introduction to machine learning with the Python library, scikit-learn
Machine Learning for Absolute Beginners , 3e by Oliver Theobald. 2nd Edition, 2017.
Stanford machine learning playlist on YouTube by Andrew Ng
Introduction to Statistical Learning , by James, Witten, Hastie, Tibshirani, and Taylor. (Available to download with R or Python.)
Introduction to Data Mining , 2nd edition by Tan, Steinbach, Karpatne, and Kumar, which has three chapters available online, two of which provide a basic introduction to Classification and Clustering.
Mathematics for Machine Learning . Deisenroth, Faisal, and Ong.
Understanding Machine Learning: From Theory to Algorithms , Shalev-Schwartz and Sai Ben-David. Choose the download option on the bottom left.
The website, KDD Nuggets , has many resources, including additional links to Free Books for Machine Learning .

Deep Learning with Python

Deep Learning , by Goodfellow, Bengio, and Courville An online book that gives a good, although demanding, introduction to deep learning.
Dive into Deep Learning , by by Zhang, Lipton, Li, and Smola. This interactive online book includes concepts, exercises, and code.
Practical Deep Learning for Coders . This interactive online book also includes concepts, exercises, and code. It now has a part 2, From Deep Learning Foundations to Stable Diffusion .
Deep Learning . This website features instructors Yann LeCun and Alfredo Canziani teaching a course on deep learning in Spring 2020 at the NYU Center for Data Science. It includes YouTube videos, slides, and Jupyter notebooks. The course concerns the latest techniques in deep learning and representation learning.
Welcome to the UVA Deep Learning Tutorials! The University of Amsterdam has a set of Python notebook tutorials for deep learning. These tutorial notebooks are fairly self-contained but are accompanied by videos available on YouTube.
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Electrical Engineering Case Study Essay Example
How to Make Engineering Case Study: Tips and Ways
(PDF) Case Studies in Engineering
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How to Create Awesome Engineering Case Studies for Your Business
Engineering Case Studies

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VIDEOO CASE STUDY ENGINEERING IN SOCIETY ALIF (F1047) DAN AFHAM(F1028)
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Case topic suggestions
The Engineering Cases group believes that through cases, students will improve their ability to learn and retain concepts in their courses, on work terms and in their professional lives. One of the best means to create case studies is by converting them from student-generated work reports. As a result, it is in our best interest to ensure that work reports submitted to our
Writing a Case Study Report in Engineering
Welcome to this online resource on writing a case study. While it was developed for risk management students, it may also be useful for other students writing a case study in engineering at UNSW. There are activities included and I encourage you to spend some time reflecting on the tasks before looking at comments. Time to read and complete ...
Case Studies That Define Mechanical Engineering Challenges
In summary, every case study shows different problems that mechanical engineers have to deal with. For example, fixing the Hubble Space Telescope needed very accurate work, and getting the Mars Rover to move on Mars took a lot of creativity. The fall of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and the nuclear accident at Fukushima Daiichi teach us that strong ...
How to Make Engineering Case Study: Tips and Ways
Learn how to write a case study in engineering with this comprehensive guide. Find out the definition, structure, format, and examples of different types of engineering case studies, and get online help from professional writers.
Engineering Case Studies: Home
Case studies allow you to: Explore the nature of a problem and circumstances that affect a solution. Observe theories applied in a real-life situation. Learn about others' viewpoints and how they may be taken into account. Define your priorities and make your own decisions to solve the problem. Predict outcomes and consequences.
Engineering Ethics Cases
The engineering ethics cases in this series were written by Santa Clara University School of Engineering students Clare Bartlett, Nabilah Deen, and Jocelyn Tan, who worked as Hackworth Engineering Ethics Fellows at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics over the course of the 2014-2015 academic year. In order to write these cases, the fellows ...
13: Student led case study in engineering
13.1: Example case study involving detectors characterization. This is an example problem with criteria that is modifiable for the student led case study in engineering. It is expected that each student would write a large report (say 25 pages or so) to show their understanding of the discussion. Figures should be included including CADs.
Story: How Case Studies Can Transform Your Classes
Some of the key attributes of a great case study story include: Clear and obvious evidence of the 3C's of Curiosity, Connections, and Creating Value. A storyline that is relevant, exciting, and/or intriguing to undergraduate engineering students. A diverse pool of EMEs. Technical content appropriate for one or more engineering disciplines.
Searching for Case Studies in Engineering: Getting Started
What are Case Studies in Engineering. A "case study" is a research approach that is used to generate an in-depth, multi-faceted understanding of a complex issue in its real-life context (Crowe et al., 2011). Keywords: Case Study, Case Studies, Case Review, Case Design, Case (s)
Case Studies
Case Studies. Case studies occur frequently in engineering because, by nature, engineering analyzes (studies) situations that already exist (cases). This document explains how to use a basic engineering problem-solving method to structure case studies, but the structure may also apply to other engineering reports (including undergraduate theses).
Mechanical Engineering Case Studies
Statistics Tutorial. Welcome to the Mechanical Engineering Case Studies website. Select your course from the list at the Left to begin. This web site is being developed to give undergraduate Mechanical Engineering students real engineering examples and experimental data in their lecture courses. This is done by using design calculations or ...
Case Studies
Students are expected to bring hard copies of all presentations to class. Corrected slides and a final 2-page report must be posted to the Web site two days after presentation. Grade assignment for the Case Studies and Projects will account for the following: presentation and writing skills; clarity and rationality of the design execution
How an Engineering Case Study Report is Organised
Introduction. The introduction is very important as it sets the context for the report. Summarise the brief (your task), briefly outline the case and focus on its significance for the reader, state the report's aim (s) and describe how the report is organised. Readers use the introduction to locate the aim of your report and to decide which ...
PDF Case Studies in Engineering Economics for Electrical Engineering Students
engineering students. The paper provides an introduction to each case along with an overview of the necessary economic theory and concepts. Then for each case study the paper outlines the suggested student activities, project assignment alternatives, along with detailed mathematical solutions. Keywords: Engineering economics, Case studies.
CASE STUDIES IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
1.3 Case Study Details 15 1.3.1 Performance T rend 15 1.3.2 IP Turbine Enthalpy Drop 16 1.4 Case Study Findings 17 1.5 Decision Making and Actions 18 1.5.1 Value 18 1.5.2 Decision Making and Actions - Alternatives 19 1.5.3 Decision Making and Actions - Making a Plan 20 1.6 Closure 20 1.7 Symbols and Abbreviations 21 1.8 Answer Key 21
PDF Case Studies Under Your Nose: Using Campus Projects as Case Studies for
Support for Case Studies as a Method for Teaching & Learning: Significant research has been done showing the effectiveness of case studies as a teaching method. In 1999, the Journal of Engineering Education published an interesting research paper entitled, Teaching Real-World Issues through Case Studies, by P.K. Raju and Chetan S. Shankar.
Templates
All authors should refer to the following guidelines and templates as they write their case. Case Writing Guideline Case writing guide (PDF) Templates Case summary template (docx) Case plan template (docx) Case study template (docx) Case module template (docx) Examples Case summary example (PDF) Case plan example (PDF) Case study example (PDF) Release and copyright forms Case
Selected Case Studies Books
Pursuing Engineering Ethics through Real-World Case Studies provides in-depth analysis with extended discussions and study questions of case studies that are based on real work situations. Organized by the canons of the ASCE Code of Ethics, this book is intended for practitioners, consultants, government engineers, engineering educators, and ...
28+ Case Study Examples
Example of Case Study Suitable for Students. Title: Energy Efficiency Upgrade: A Case Study of GreenTech Office. Introduction: GreenTech Office embarked on an energy efficiency upgrade to reduce its environmental impact. This case study delves into the facts and figures behind the initiative's success.
Engineering Case Studies
The engineering field needs a comprehensive and authoritative resource to provide in-depth, impartial analysis of key engineering failures. Engineering Case Studies Online is a collection that will grow to include 250 hours of video and 50,000 pages of text resources to meet this growing need. Content is displayed alongside targeted learning ...
Using Engineering Cases in Technology Education
students through the employment of design case studies is a logical solution. Design Case Studies Defined. Although design case studies have been used in engineering schools since the late 1960s, the term may be new to those in the field of technology education. Design case studies have a variety of definitions, depending on the source. The
PDF Case studies Engineering Economics
This collection of case studies is designed to be used as educational material in the teaching of business economics to engineering students. Many engineering students are primarily interested in the technical disciplines and perceive "economics" as uninteresting and more or less irrelevant to the solution of technical problems.
Top 40 Most Popular Case Studies of 2021
Two cases about Hertz claimed top spots in 2021's Top 40 Most Popular Case Studies. ... Master's in Technology Management One-year business & leadership program designed exclusively for Yale College engineering students; Joint Degrees Environment, Global Affairs ... Besides introducing students to the complicated financing required to ...
Do Engineering Students Know How to Use Generative ...
In addition, it is necessary to mention the clear lower number of female students in engineering (about a 26% in the case study) something common and already pointed out by several authors . For the case study it is more relevant in Computer Science Degrees than in other engineering (between a 1,5%-1,7% in computer science subjects vs a 33% ...
Case Study: Business Simulations Give Engineering Students a New
In this case study, we'll explore how Oklahoma Baptist University used a business simulation to build engineering students' teamwork and business acumen. About the School. Oklahoma Baptist University (OBU) is a small university located in Shawnee, Oklahoma.
A Path to Understanding: A case study in cultivating empathy through
Abstract - In service-learning projects, engineering students work with community partners on projects that reflect situations that professional engineers may face. Grounded in life experiences, the challenges and obstacles vary based on the project and the particular needs of the community partner. This case study presents several barriers that a team of second-year engineering students ...
Case of Study-Based Learning in Process and Product Engineering Course
This work describes a successful learning methodology implemented in the "Process and Product Engineering" course at the University of Castilla-La Mancha. The methodology involves active student participation in lectures and seminars, focusing on case studies related to process design, simulation, and mass balance reconciliation. Additionally, tutoring sessions are provided to facilitate ...
ML/AI Self Study Links
ML/AI Self Study Links. We are building an annotated list of useful online resources for people who would like to learn more about data science, no matter what their discipline is. If you are aware of good online resources that you think we should include, please email us. The following websites are useful for people interested in machine ...
Captivating university students' digital literacy competence: Learning
This qualitative study executes a case study approach using photovoice (PV) to investigate students' experience and competence development in information and data literacy since (PV) can be used to portray changes and experiences while acquiring a specific competence. ... (EAP) courses for engineering undergraduate students. The class ...
Engineering cells to broadcast their behavior can help scientists study
Using microscopes, we can detect and record the unique signals individual cells are broadcasting and then decode them to recover the dynamics of these cellular processes. We have only begun to ...

Case Studies That Define Mechanical Engineering Challenges

The Hubble Space Telescope Repair

Mars Rover Mobility Dilemmas

Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse

Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster

Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Engineering

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Contents page

Introduction

Case study report body

Historical case study

Conclusions

Reference list

See next: Activities for recognising report sections

News and notices

Case Writing Guideline

Release and copyright forms

Related links

Engineering Case Studies

Selected Case Studies Books

Brilliant Case Study Examples and Templates For Your Help

An Overview of Case Studies

Case Study Examples for Students

Business Case Study Examples

Medical Case Study Examples

Psychology Case Study Examples

Sales Case Study Examples

Interview Case Study Examples

Marketing Case Study Examples

“Chevrolet Discover the Unexpected” by Carol H. Williams

“The Met” by Fantasy

“Better Experiences for All” by Herman Miller

“NetApp” by Evisort

“Red Sox Season Campaign,” by CTP Boston

“Airbnb + Zendesk” by Zendesk

“Influencer Marketing” by Trend and WarbyParker

Tips to Write a Good Case Study

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