The ECSEL Program and the Mechanical Engineering Design Curriculum

The purpose of this paper will be to describe how design has been integrated into the Mechanical Engineering curriculum at the University of Washington. The design education program includes participation in three NSF and ARPA sponsored engineering education coalitions or partnerships, including ECSEL, MEEP and TIDEE. This effort has resulted in a new perspective on how design engineering education should be integrated into the Mechanical Engineering curriculum at the freshman, junior and senior levels. Then a special version of the Mechanical Engineering senior level capstone design class based on the “Focus Based” paradigm will be presented. Finally, recent developments in the Mechanical Engineering curriculum structure and their effect on the design content will be described.