Abstract
The subject of spur gear design problem in mechanical engineering (ME) deserves significant attention since the subject relies heavily on the combination of complex mathematics formulas, graphs, and tables. Many students are facing difficulty in understanding the subject of spur gear design in Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN). Hence, a study was conducted to enhance the learning experience of UNITEN's ME students in the subject matter. In this research, the deterministic, divide, and conquer algorithms were employed to improve the problem-solving technique. The combination of these algorithms provided room for students to make assumption based on their input rather than having the computer to do all the calculation and as well as to break down the complicated problems into sub problems. Additionally, it was designed to examine the effectiveness of using computer-aided software to improve the learning experience and comparing it to the conventional approach.
TopBackground
Since the introduction of the Outcome Based Education (OBE) into the engineering programs by the Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM), all engineering programs in Malaysia such as civil engineering, electrical and electronic engineering and as well as Mechanical Engineering program have to be OBE compliance in order to obtain full accreditation from BEM. Hence, Bloom’s Taxonomy was developed in 1956 by Benjamin Bloom to measure and categorize the Outcome-Based Education (Eisner, 2000). Researchers has also found various problems in the teaching and learning process of engineering subjects which are further discussed in the section titled “Problems in Teaching and Learning Engineering Subjects.”
Key Terms in this Chapter
Divide and Conquer Algorithm: Works by recursively breaking down a problem into two or more sub-problems of the same or related type, until these become simple enough to be solved directly. The solutions to the sub-problems are then combined to give a solution to the original problem.
Machinery Design: Serves innovators in mechanical design, design engineers and managers in OEM, processing, and R&D with technical content.
Quasi-Experiment: Is an empirical interventional study used to estimate the causal impact of an intervention on target population without random assignment. Quasi-experiments are subject to concerns regarding internal validity, because the treatment and control groups may not be comparable at baseline.
Spur Gear: Are the most common type of gears. They have straight teeth and are mounted on parallel shafts.
Deterministic Algorithm: In computer science, it is an algorithm which, given a particular input, will always produce the same output, with the underlying machine always passing through the same sequence of states.