Applied Engineering Research Methods

Catalog description

This research methods course focuses on the development of competencies required to become a successful professional researcher in engineering fields. While other courses will focus on an engineering topic and provide some insights into the associated research methods, this course aims to provide an overview of research methods used throughout engineering disciplines and provide guidance for when and why different methods should be employed in professional research practice. Students should come into the class with a research area defined and the class will provide students with a framework to conduct their own research through a pilot study and, thereby applying these methods to their professional practice. Course topics include: research ethics, literature review, problem framing, experimental design, qualitative and quantitative data analysis, and data presentation in professional engineering research fields. These topics are central to conducting effective engineering research. Students that complete this course will be able to: Define ethical requirements for application in engineering research; Critique and review literature to identify gaps for future work; Design and implement an experiment; Analyze and defend qualitative and quantitative results; Write and structure effective research papers; And report and defend research decisions and conclusions. Overall the objective of this course is to provide students with the tools to conduct research experiments and defend results in order to prepare them for research at the graduate level.