Innovative design techniques in a freshman class

Abstract

At Wichita State University, we have a three course sequence in the Digital Design area with the first course taken by incoming freshman students. This course entitled “Introduction to Digital Design” is a very popular course among students. The average enrollment each semester is about 60 students. Most of these students go on to take the other two courses in the sequence. In this paper, we will report on different methods used to teach Digital Design to a typical freshman student. The design team concept, which is emphasized throughout the semester, will be presented in this paper. Different innovative ideas used in this class include, use of design teams, peer design team conferences, cost evaluation, and industry interfacing. All of these ideas will be presented in this paper. Comments from students suggest that they find this course to be fun and challenging. What makes this course fun and challenging? How is the design team concept working? Some possible answers to these questions are also presented.