The University of Texas at Austin
College of Engineering

PROCEED
Project-Centered Education in Mechanical Engineering

The PROCEED section of the web site is currently being revised and updated. For more information, please contact Dr. Phil Schmidt (web page or email), Director of PROCEED.

PROCEED is a department-wide curriculum reform effort initiated in 2000, with the objective of more closely tying all elements of the ME undergraduate experience to real-world engineering. Through the generous support of Ford, Applied Materials, Caterpillar, General Motors, and National Instruments Corporations, PROCEED has supported 15 pilot curriculum-and laboratory development projects during the past 5 years. Most of these pilot projects have now been fully integrated into the core ME curriculum and several new initiatives are now underway.

PROCEED Curriculum Innovations Include:

  • Active involvement of 30 faculty members (approximately half the department) in undergraduate curriculum reform.
  • Integration of project-centered work in 14 courses covering freshman through senior years.
  • Integration of new hands-on labs with respective theory courses.
  • Introduction of new computer modeling projects with PROCEED-supported software in several theory courses.
  • Development of an online student portfolio system.
  • Introduction of videoconferencing with corporate engineers into undergraduate instruction.
  • Development and application of comprehensive quality assessment methods for project-centered instruction.
  • Opening of senior elective sequence to a broad variety of Career Path options.

PROCEED Laboratory/Classroom Renovation and Re-equipping Projects Include:

  • New ME 130L Experimental Fluid Mechanics Lab: purchase of one new wind tunnel and complete rebuild/retrofit of existing wind tunnel, all new instrumentation, and computer integration of measurement systems.
  • New ME 139L Experimental Heat Transfer Lab: development of 7 new labs with brand new apparatus, and introduction of portable "temp kits" based on Labview and associated hardware to permit field experimentation as an integral part of the course.
  • Renovation and retrofitting of thermodynamic systems apparatus to permit introduction of experimental projects in ME 343 Thermal-Fluid Systems.
  • Purchase and installation of rapid prototyping equipment to permit fabrication of student-designed models for ME 302 and the Senior Design Projects Program courses.
  • Two large classrooms and a large conference room equipped for videoconferencing with entire classes and student work groups.
  • Student Prototyping and Reverse Engineering Labs equipped for use in the Senior Design Projects Program and individual projects courses. New scanning electron microscope and x-ray diffraction equipment provided for use in ME 111L (Materials Engineering) and ME 136L (Materials Processing) labs.

PROCEED Links:

New PROCEED Initiatives - Synopses of New Projects, Curricula, and Initiatives.
Faculty/Staff Papers on PROCEED - Synopses of PROCEED Papers Authored by ME Faculty/Staff, with Links to Download the Full Papers in PDF Format.