Mankato Class

Today was the first day of our Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GDT) class in Mankato. The class is for eight hours not including homework and goes on the next two ,days. Today, we got a an introduction into GDT, and tomorrow, we will improve on what we have already learned. One big thing we learned was how to dimension parts using a machine called a Coordinate Measurement Machine (CMM). This machine allows you to measure parts in three axises (x,y,z). To calculate surface tolerances the probe of the machine is touched multiple points on a part in a certaint order. When the sensor touches the part it records the position of the sensor. Then the data is sent to the computer where it builds the part in the computer from the points you gathered off your part. After you are done you can see your the part on the computer with dimensions.

proofed by: Austin and Alex

Spring Break Update

Today started off our spring break vacation. We hit the road, headed toward Mankato, where we will take our GD&T class for three days before the real vacation starts. On the way here we stopped at Green Mill and ate dinner with 5 prospective students with whom we interacted and informed of the technical side of IRE.
After the next three days of our class here in Mankato we will set out towards the west coast.
I have decided that I will post pictures of town water towers or signs along the way to show where we have been.
Today, on our way south, we made a stop in Grand Rapids, MN.

Out of the Office Events

Here at IRE, we reward and get rewarded for hard work and diligence. There are various activities that are available for us to participate in if we so choose--one of them being curling. Last night was the third time this year we got to go out and learn something different than most of us are used to. With the help of some generous members of the Curl Mesabi Curling Club, we were able to go from hardly being able to walk on the ice with a slider, on to hitting our targets and having some competitive games.

Getting out of the office and the apartments like this makes for a good breakup of our typical day. It also is good because it provides us an opportunity to interact with people and groups of individuals that we wouldn't typically socialize with. This provides IRE students the opportunity to better our people skills--developing us as professionals and individuals while having fun.

Proofed By: Tyler, Austin, and Alex

Learning Plan

What exactly is a Learning Plan? What should it include?

To answer this question takes a little background. If you consider the last two years of an engineering degree, the knowledge and skills a student learns can be broken into some unit. For example, a student might be expected to learn 1/4th of their competencies in a semester, if they have four semesters in their last two years.

At IRE our unit is a project. If a student does x projects in their time at IRE, then each project should represent 1/x of their learning. Right now we are in the process of making visible to the students what 100% of their learning should look like. To do this we have identified all of the technical knowledge and professional competencies that they should acquire/attain. To quantify this we use "arrows" to represent a continuum from 1-10. A continuum from novice to expert. We use Bloom's Taxonomy to show low level learning at 1 and high level synthesis/evaluation at 10. We consider that "work-ready" should equate to a 6 which is higher level analysis. Our expectation is that an IRE graduate will attain a 6 or higher in the vast majority of the nearly 100 "arrows".

As the students prepare a work-plan to describe how they will meet the clients needs for a project, they are also preparing a learning-plan to show what learning they will need to do during the project cycle. This learning plan should account for 1/x of their IRE learning. Included in the learning plan:

• What technical and professional competencies are being addressed?
• What is the student's individual starting level in that competency?
• What is the student's target level for the end of the cycle?
• What learning activities will be used to empower the student to achieve this new level? In other words what resources are needed - faculty, external expert, peer, research, self learning.
• What assessments will be employed to guide the learning?
• What are the different kinds of evidence that will demonstrate that the learning has been achieved?

This process must be interactive with our faculty so that students can get assistance in planning and in identifying potential resources as well as what things don't the students know that they don't know (unknown unknowns).

Right now we are in J1. The first industry project in the junior year. The learning plans are being developed in conjunction with the design work plans.

Power Trowel Solution Application

Austin and myself were assigned to work on the power trowel project. Yesterday we met with our client who was kind enough to lend us a small power trowel to use in the design process along with a sample of the solution we will be using to get a good understanding of its characteristics. We have a few different ideas we plan to explore to make the project a success. We are planning to make the system as low maintenance as possible, so we are trying to avoid using batteries that will run down quickly. Instead, we are trying to create a charging system for the batteries using the power trowel's engine. It has already become apparent to us that we may be able to take our design to the Minnesota Cup competition.

Proofed by: Cory Moran

New Projects

Last week we received our new projects. They encompass a wide array of the engineering profession, including mechanical, electrical, and biomedical engineering. Monday, my group and I met with a local business owner to discuss the requirements for our project. We told him of the three main ideas we had come up with during the previous few days. He was excited by all of them and encouraged us to explore all three. We spent the majority of today investigating the feasibility of our initial design. We quickly modeled it using Pro-E, a three dimensional modeling software. We were able to animate our design to see how different size linkages, crankshafts, and pedals would affect the way the whole system worked.

Proofed by: Tyler Bartek

Welding Lab

On Friday, everyone spent the day at the Mesabi Range Eveleth campus. We were split up into two groups, the first group included the members of the raft cart group, the second included members of the sauna group and Blandin group. As a member of the first group, we spent the first hour having the welding instructor Tom Baldwin show us how to wire feed weld aluminum alloy 6061. After showing us both push and pull techniques each member made quite a few practice beads. After each member got the basics down, we began fabricating the cart. Within a 4 hour period, the cart went from a stack of drawings and a pile of tubing and parts, to an almost fully completed product that requires only an couple additions by this Friday. During the raft cart fabrication time, the other group of students learned how to wire feed weld steel. This Friday, the groups will switch so all students will learn the same techniques.