Thank you very much for your comment! All projects were developed based on specific needs of potential users or based on ideas from people who work with adults with disabilities. This directly impacted their work mainly in the design phase of their projects where they considered the particular needs that were identified.

Hi Christopher. All the students had an opportunity to speak directly with the end users as part of the design process. End users, engineers, therapists and capstone course mentors had the opportunity to participate in the process of selecting design criteria and establishing priorities for the design outcomes. Depending on the design process selected by students the mentors and end users had to evaluate the final prototypes using quantitative criteria based on design specifications as well as satisfaction. All the designs were created for a particular end user (client or therapist) who was given the prototype for use. 

Since the time period for the analysis was tied to capstone projects we had initial customer satisfaction feedback. Also the project had quantitative analysis of student grades as well as qualitative feedback from student perceptions and attitudes as part of the end project. As an outcome of the project we have incorporated some of the assessment instruments developed into the exit survey for our Industrial Engineering program graduates, focusing on well being and ethics. Results show that these types of projects have an impact in student sensibility, awareness and empathy toward others and broaden student perspectives about the Industrial Engineering field.

All sounds great, Cristina.  Thank you for both of your responses.  Will these measures be published?  Measuring sensibility, awareness, and empathy would be helpful in all STEM disciplines!  

Dear Christopher,

Thanks for your interest in the measures. You can find related data to assessment questions on a publication titled: An industrial engineering design experience reflecting upon moral development and well-being (https://dire.uprm.edu/handle/20.500.11801/28) that stemmed from project measures. Also in the following link you can see our report for the Student Self-Reflection and Questionnaire Assessment Results from the Project Report 

Hi Pati,

I am glad that you asked. In the project website you can find the individual project summaries the blueprints or product designs, instruction manuals and project posters for most of the projects. Please visit: http://engineering.uprm.edu/inin/research/nsf-g...