This project involves The Ohio State University, Penn, Drexel, NJIT, and The Cooper Union. Dr. Gary Kinzel at OSU has coordinated the project since its inception.

The project was conducted in several phases. First, planning meetings were held with the PIs from the participating universities. PHASE I (Fall 1996) consisted of each university team creating a conceptual design of a robotic arm for children in wheelchairs. In October, the first student face-to-face meeting took place at Penn to formulate the design criteria for the robotic arm. Throughout the project, video conferencing between teams has occurred on a regular basis. In January 1997, the second student meeting took place at The Cooper Union. Each team presented its design, and the students formulated the collaborative tasks that would comprise PHASE II.

PHASE II (Spring 1997) involved the concurrent engineering design and prototyping of the robotic arm. There were three more student meetings. At the final meeting at Drexel University, there was the final presentation of the robotic arm prototype.

The Project Deliverables include:

• A functional prototype electro-mechanical arm
• A project report
• Enhanced tutorials (disk and manual) written in Authorware
• Instructional modules for Concurrent Engineering courses (reading Powerpoint slides, multi-media supplementary material on CD ROM).

The project has directly impacted two courses at The Cooper Union: ME163 Mechanical Engineering Projects and ME164 Capstone Senior ME Design. The project is being evaluated through student interviews and through the Gateway Coalition Workshop.

Two workshops also resulted from the project. "Teaching Concurrent Design and Manufacturing: A Gateway Coalition Workshop" was held at Penn and Drexel in Philadelphia on August 18-19 and at The Cooper Union and NJIT in New York on August 21-22. The workshop covered the technical details of the course modules. The modules teach procedures for conducting concurrent engineering projects involving students from a number of universities. The participants also discussed the course modules for teaching concurrent engineering, instructional, and infrastructure issues.

For more information about the project or the workshop, contact:

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