Course assesment and changes from the Fall 2008 offering

Several changes have been implemented this semester in response to issues that came about in the first offering by Prof. Zabaras of this course in the Fall of 2008. In particular:

• Number of homework sets: The required number of homework sets was increased from 4 to 12 to account for the multiple introductory topics that need to be covered and considering that having homework due bi-weekly was not educationally useful as most students will not engage in homework tasks until one or two days before the due deadline. While the effort needed by the students to work on their homework has been increased significantly, it is to some degree compensated by their enthusiasm in learning the class topics and by encouraging them to work in groups of 2 or 3.



• Integration of analytical and computational FEM homework tasks: To be sure that a balanced theory, implementation and practice is delivered to the class, each homework set requires (a) analytical (hand calculations) emphasizing the course fundamentals, (b) FEM use of existent MatLab programs that follow line-by-line the course lecture materials, (c) extension of FEM MatLab programs to address capabilities not provided (e.g. adjust a finite element program to address a different but related type of problems, include different type of elements, introduce adaptive error calculations, etc.)



• Design using FEM: Two lectures and corresponding lecture notes emphasizing the integration of FEM analysis with open ended design applications have now been integrated with the course. A homework set completely devoted to the integration of optimization design and FEM is now a required part of the course. This emphasis to design is restricted to covering basic topics of optimization theory and its integration with linear FEM analysis.



• FEM and Fluid Mechanics: To account for the fact that several students in 2008 decided to select a fluid mechanics oriented FEM project, this year we are introducing at least 2 lectures on FEM modeling of incompressible flows and advection-diffusion and one homework set completely devoted to FEM implementation of fluid mechanics.



• Transient FEM analysis and Dynamical Systems: Several students selected in the Fall of 2008 to work for their final projects on transient problems including forced and free vibrations of structures. Many motivated these projects from related team project activities. This year we are introducing 2 lectures on these topics and a homework set completely devoted to transient heat conduction problems, transient dynamical problems, and in computing natural frequecies and modes of vibrations of discrete and continuum structures.



• Integration of MatLab and ANSYS: While every homework set includes the use and extension of carefully developed MatLab based FEM programs that follow the lectures and lecture notes, we also now include in each homework one designated problem that needs to be solved both with MatLab and Ansys. This is not only for comparison purposes but also for preparing students in the use of commercial FEM codes in their final projects and their professional careers.



• Recitation is now integrated with the homework and final project: The weekly recitation coordinated by Dr. R. Bhaskaran is now mandatory. To motivate the students to attend, the ANSYS oriented problem in each homework is discussed during recitation. When appropriate, Dr. Bhaskaran is also discussing Ansys related problems from forthcoming homework. This allows the recitation to be ahead of the class schedule thus creating the opportunity for being completely devoted for the last third of the semester in providing help to the students on their design and analysis projects.



• Final projects coordination: In the first offering of the course it became clear that the majority of the class will not work on their project until the final few days before the deadline. To resolve this problem, the following is now in place: (a) The abstract for each project is due by October 15th. The topic defined in this abstract cannot be altered. (b) Two draft progress reports are due electronically by October 31st and November 15th. The final project report needs to be based on these draft reports. (c) Clear guidelines are provided to the students (and in particular those that will be receiving design credit) as to the type of work expected in the projects and its relation with the course material in particular homework. More details on this can be found under final project description on the course web site.

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