Making the Difference: An Industrial Engineering Capstone Design Experience to Benefit Adults with Disabilities

提案：1403753PI：Mendez-Pineo，Mayra I.标题：改变：造福残疾人的工业工程顶峰设计体验残疾人有许多特殊需求，工程师有潜力做出巨大贡献，提高他们的生活质量。波多黎各大学工业工程系(IE-UPRM)建议为工业工程(IE)高级学生提供基于团队的设计体验，重点是帮助残疾成年人和视障人士。为了实现拟议的目标，设计项目将在几个为感兴趣的群体提供服务或提供就业的非营利性机构开发。与这些机构合作确定了十个设计项目，以设计和实施原型，这些原型将促进独立和自我护理，改善残疾人的安全和生活质量，增强他们的功能能力，开发和增强治疗设备，并提高盲人或视障工人的生产率。很少有学生把重点放在这里提出的项目上。学生将有机会与卫生保健专业人员互动，并扩大他们对IES对人类生活质量的贡献的理解。学生还将有机会增加与设计过程相关的法律和伦理问题的知识。通过这些经验形成的新知识将通过演讲、会议等传播结果，对其他社区产生影响。这将传达这一信息，并应对工程大学在规划顶峰课程项目战略时所使用的程序产生影响。研究团队教授各种需要应用设计项目的课程，并拥有在岛上进行项目时监督和指导本科生的丰富经验。由于IE Capstone课程的内部后勤，该部门包含支持拟议研究项目所需的基础设施和协作网络。这项建议的一个关键组成部分是结合多种形成性和终结性评估活动来评估个人项目的成功、学生在经验和知识方面的收获以及拟议工作的成功。通过设计项目，学生将发展技术和专业技能，为专业实践做准备；培养意识并考虑与设计项目相关的伦理、法律和社会问题；用现实生活中解决问题的经验来补充教育过程，并将早期课程工作的原则、方法和技术整合到解决问题的情景中。学生将获得对残疾成年人需求的认识、情感和知识，拓宽他们的IE知识。由于每年将开展三个项目，参与项目的学生将在课堂上与同事和社区分享他们的项目，因此影响将被放大。作为一家少数族裔服务机构，拟议的项目将扩大拉美裔本科生参与研究活动的范围。为了扩大传播，以增进对科学技术的了解，这项研究工作的成果将通过在国家会议上以及在部门网站、波多黎各辅助技术方案、校园新闻和地方新闻论坛上的陈述来传播。其他分享结果的网站还有：残疾就业政策办公室、残疾官网和国家残疾与康复研究所。

Proposal: 1403753PI: Mendez-Pinero, Mayra I.Title: Making the Difference: An Industrial Engineering Capstone Design Experience to Benefit Adults with DisabilitiesAdults with disabilities have numerous special needs and engineers have the potential to make great contributions and improve their quality of life. The Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez (IE-UPRM) proposes to provide a team based design experience for senior Industrial Engineering (IE) students focusing on outreach to aid adults with disabilities and the visually impaired. To achieve the proposed objective, the design projects will be developed at several nonprofit institutions that offer services or provides employment for the groups of interest. Ten design projects have been identified in collaboration with the institutions to design and implement prototypes that will foster independence and self-care, improve the safety and quality of life of individuals with disabilities, augment their functional capabilities, develop and enhance therapeutic devices, and increase productivity for the blind or visually impaired workers.Technical DescriptionTypical IE Capstone design projects are usually focused on service or manufacturing industries. Rarely, students focus on projects proposed herein. Students will have the opportunity to interact with health care professionals and expand their understanding on the contribution IEs can have on the quality of life of humanity. Students will also have the opportunity to increase their knowledge in the legal and ethical issues related to the design process. New knowledge developed through these experiences will have an impact on other communities by dissemination of results through presentations, conferences, etc. This will convey the message and it should have an impact on the process used by engineering universities in their planning of the capstone course project strategies. The research team teaches various courses requiring applied design projects and possesses ample experience supervising and mentoring undergraduate students while conducting projects in the island. As a result of the internal logistics of the IE Capstone Course, the department contains the infrastructure and collaboration network needed to support the proposed research projects. A key component of this proposal is the incorporation of multiple formative and summative assessment activities to evaluate the individual project success, student gains in experience and knowledge, and success of the proposed work.With the Design Projects students will develop technical and professional skills to be prepared for the practice of the profession; develop awareness and consider ethical, legal, and societal issues relevant to a design project; complement the educational process with real life problem solving experience and integrate the principles, methods, and techniques of earlier course work into a problem solving situation. Students will gain awareness, sensibility and knowledge on the needs of adults with disabilities, broadening their IE knowledge. With three projects to be run each year the impact will be magnified as participating students will share their projects in the classroom with their colleagues and the community. As a minority serving institution, the proposed projects will broaden the participation of Hispanic undergraduate students in research activities. In order to broaden dissemination to enhance scientific and technological understanding, results from this research work will be disseminated through presentations at national conferences as well as in the departmental website, the Puerto Rico Assistive Technology Program, campus news and local news forums. Additional websites to share the results are: the Office of Disability Employment Policy, Disability.gov, and the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research.