Duke University is deeply committed to social change whereby education is considered the great equalizer that will improve people’s lives.
The Graduate Capstone course ‘Experiment Design and Research Methods‘ is a hallmark of the master’s experience in Duke MEMS. This MS curricular requirement engages students from the moment they set foot on campus (both physically and remotely!) in an immersive design-thinking project that they select, define, and address. MEng students are encouraged to take this course, though not it is not required. Note that our PhD students can potentially use this course for their qualifying exam requirement.
The Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science (MEMS) is re-imagining the laboratory experience for all engineering students worldwide. Through hands-on experiments that our graduate students design and build themselves, we are changing the way people are educated.
After their first semester with us, every MS student will be trained in skills that have been identified as critical in their academic success at Duke and as practicing engineers and researchers in the years to come. In addition, the projects they work on in this course can then be defended at the end-of-semester Graduate Expo, thereby fulfilling their non-thesis MS degree project requirement.
Current Students and Applicants: To learn more about the Master’s programs in MEMS, visit the Department website. The Graduate Student Portal provides additional guidance for all current MS and MEng students in MEMS.
This website takes you on a journey through the design process of each experiment that our Master’s students identified themselves. They were tasked with rethinking hands-on learning activities that would:
- be cost-effective and composed of easily-accessible parts,
- contain scaffolded learning modules for undergraduate and graduate students,
- develop the skills they would need to perform graduate research in the field of their choice,
- include course content, lectures, sample work, and handouts,
- cover a small footprint and are quickly transportable, and
- be free to download.
About this Course
Description: Students define a hands-on project of their choice that would prepare them for research in their preferred master’s study concentration. The design process is employed to identify a problem, formulate it, propose design alternatives and rank them, produce and test prototypes, refine and iterate on the selected design. The experiments that are developed are incorporated within the graduate and undergraduate curriculum. The course is composed of equal parts design, technical content, and communication skills (including an online portfolio). Projects can be further developed during the subsequent semester to fulfill the master’s project requirement during the Poster Expo.3 credits
- Prerequisites: Graduate standing or second semester in 4+1 Program
- Required course for MEMS MS students
- Strongly encouraged for MEMS MEng students
Objectives: After taking this course, students will be able to:
- apply the engineering design process to an open-ended problem, including iterative prototyping,
- develop teamwork skills through project management,
- communicate effectively through oral and written means,
- apply trouble-shooting to physical and virtual designs,
- perform trade-off analyses (cost-benefit, safety, ethics, etc), and
- create an online portfolio for professional social media
Week Topic 1 Introduction; Course Objectives; Work Session 2 Project Proposals, Task Lists, Work Delegation, Bill of Materials 3 Problem Formulation, Literature Review/Information Gathering 4 Functional Requirements, Engineering Specifications 5 Design Alternatives, Ranking Methods 6 Design Selection, Bill of Materials, Virtual Prototyping 7 Simulation, Experimentation, System Behavior 8 End of First Design Iteration Cycle 9 Reitertation Process; New Considerations; Updated Bill of Materials 10 Prototyping, Building, Instrumenting 11 Experimentation, Data Collection and Reduction 12 Uncertainty and Statistical Analyses 13 Work Session to Finalize Project: One 14 Work Session to Finalize Project: Two 15 Final Deliverables, Conclusions
In Spring 2020, MEMS embarked on an ambitious journey to reinvent personalized education. Rooted deeply in the graduate capstone courses that Prof Sophia Santillan and Prof Nico Hotz developed the previous academic year, this course was developed to further enhance student learning. Prof George Delagrammatikas joined this course in Spring 2020 to assist in the development of hands-on experiences for the students while also bringing team-teaching to the course.
Much like many schools, we are putting our coursework online for you to use at your convenience. The difference at Duke is that we will show you how to build your own laboratory, give you a guided tour through our curriculum, and show you what it means to be a Duke mechanical engineer.
Consistent with the Pratt School of Engineering’s motto, our students are ‘Outrageously Ambitious’ and take on projects that are challenging, inspiring, and are centered around making the world a better place for society as a whole.
We embrace and celebrate diverse ways of thinking about problems, give the students a voice in defining the types of projects they perform, and always include classmates’ feedback in the problem-solving process. Students present their work every week and are required to keep a journal of their work. This website distills their project work for all to learn.
A founding premise behind this course was to develop accessible learning materials for those everywhere, regardless of socioeconomic background, demographics, age, or abilities.
