Using Private Industry Based Projects to Teach an Air Conditioning Technical Elective Course

This paper will present the use of private industry based projects to augment the teaching of a senior level thermal design Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning and Refrigeration (HVAC/R) technical elective. The university is based upon a polytechnic curriculum whereby learn-by-doing and well prepared graduates are the primary objectives of the Mechanical Engineering department. The particular course addressed is a senior level HVAC/R course which has 3 hours per week of lecture content, and weekly laboratory session of 3 hours. The projects describe herein are used to augment the laboratory portion of the course, and act a synthesizing agents allowing students to experience real-world problem solving first hand. The industry based projects are solicited form local industry representatives, whereby mentors from the engineering company are assigned to direct a team of students to complete a given set of action items during the duration of a semester concluding in an end of semester customer design review. The key to this type of learn-by-doing is the active engagement and willingness on behalf of the industry mentors to take time to guide the students via bi-weekly face to face or web based tag up meetings. This type of experience is invaluable for the students, since it demonstrates the importance of establishing a network of mentors in order to foster life-long learning in the students chosen field of study. The technical skills addressed via this method of experiential leering include: development of plumbing and instrumentation schematics of proposed HVAC/R systems, experience using building energy computer programs to compute heating and cooling loads, become conversant with ASHRAE specifications and building code standards and practice, preparation of design matrices and selection/ procurement of HVAC/R equipment (ductwork, air handling units, cooling towers, control systems etc.) The soft-skills addressed by this form of experiential pedagogy include: working in teams, communicating with the customer, preparing reports, preparing presentations, communicating needs and concerns as the project progresses, program management skills (budgeting, scheduling, time allocation, team coordination). The technical and soft skills honed in this manner serve to be value added resume building materials and portfolio archives for the students. This paper will also show how the ABET Student Outcomes 1 through 7 are addressed by using the type of experiential pedagogy outlined herein. Assessment rubrics and statistics for the class will be shared. Assessment also include review of the students during the design review by the engineering mentors and sequent debriefing and feedback of the student teams performance. Metrics in the category of job placement will also be presented, i.e. for the particular course in one semester 50% of the students were presented with job offers in the HVAC/R well before the semester had ended.