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adfa, p. 1, 2011.
© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011
PDM field study and evaluation in collaborative
engineering education
Andreas Probst1 (), Detlef Gerhard2, Martin Ebner3
1HTL Ried, Austria Andreas.Probst@eduhi.at
2Technische Universitaet Wien, Austria
3Graz University of Technology, Austria
Abstract Collaboration in general but especially between students of Austrian
Federal Secondary Colleges of Engineering (HTL) is becoming more and more
important. Therefore, the joint diploma thesis has been introduced into the cur-
riculum. Furthermore, joint student projects have become a crucial topic within
the subject of mechanical engineering design. Because of the worldwide activi-
ties of most companies, being able to collaborate within a huge team is seen as
an essential for future jobs. To support the collaboration process in engineering
education, a product data management (PDM) system was introduced to several
Austrian HTLs within projects carried out in the Sparkling Science program of
the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research. In the academic year
2016/17 a field study was started to figure out how to enhance collaboration be-
tween students by using this kind of software and methods. The outcome of this
study will be to find out about the level of collaboration within students’ design
projects.
Keywords: Engineering Education, Engineering Collaboration, PDM, CAD
1 Introduction
There are several major techniques and methods in engineering design education
which are being tested in pilot projects and will be incorporated into student design
lessons at Austrian HTLs in the near future:
Mechanical design education in interdisciplinary teams [1]
PDM and PLM techniques [2]
3D printing , scanning and reverse engineering
Internet of Things (IoT) [3]
Systems engineering [4]
This paper gives an overview of the introduction of PDM into mechanical engineering
design lessons at Austrian HTLs as well as the conducting of a field study to gather
information on the level of collaboration within students’ projects.
ICL2017 – 20th International Conference on Interactive Collaborative Learning
27-29 September 2017, Budapest, Hungary
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Draft – originally published in: Probst, A., Gerhard, D., Ebner, M. (2017) PDM field study and evaluation in collaborative engineering
education. In: Conference Proceeding of ICL2017 – 20th International Confer-ence on Interactive Collaborative Learning. Budapest,
Hungary, pp. 1-9
2 Research design
The purpose of this research paper is to describe a field study which is being con-
ducted to measure the quantity and quality of collaboration within students’ engineer-
ing design projects. The first part of the study, called "HTL internal" will be done by
approximately 100 students and their corresponding teachers of several HTLs
throughout Austria. The main task is a short collaborative engineering design task by
designing shafts and gear-wheels into a given gearbox by groups of up to four stu-
dents. During these tasks all students have to make notes concerning frequency of
arising difficulties such as interface issues, as well as the necessary time to solve these
problems. Additionally, their teachers are documenting the design task and the occur-
ring problems such as non-working computers. After the study is completed, there
will be a measurement of the degree of collaboration by evaluating the PDM data-
base. The second part is a survey amongst HTL students, teachers and industry staff
with collaboration and PDM background to find out about the importance of PDM for
collaboration in engineering. Qualitative interviews are carried out to get a clear pic-
ture of industry's demands of collaborative education. The research results will be
presented in this research paper and additionally will be discussed with members of
the nationwide HTL working group for mechanical engineering design in Austria
(http://www.3d-cad.at). The results may influence the next generation of the HTL
curriculum.
3 Activities to introduce PDM to mechanical engineering design
education
3.1 Research activities
Since 2006 two research projects concerning PDM have been carried out with TU
Wien. Figure 1 shows the two projects BLUME (Basis PDM Lern- und Projekt
Umgebung für ganzheitliche Mechatronische Produktentwicklung in German; in Eng-
lish, the learning and education environment for mechatronic product engineering) [5]
and PDM-UP (UP – Umweltgerechte Produktentwicklung, in English the “Design for
Environment – DfE”, also referred to as Ecodesign or green design) [6] together with
a survey about the past research projects. 68 people participated in the survey, an-
swering 18 questions overall. The main research question asked “Do the projects con-
ducted by the Sparkling Science program influence teaching practices in engineering
education at participating Austrian HTLs and the project members' perception of the
program itself?”. The participants were classed under different groups, consisting of
current and former students, HTL teachers and TU researchers; both those that had
and hadn't taken part in either one or more of the previous projects [4]. For further
research projects it is planned to evaluate the participants' knowledge of project topics
at the beginning and at the end of upcoming projects to get an idea about the change
of their knowledge.
ICL2017 – 20th International Conference on Interactive Collaborative Learning
27-29 September 2017, Budapest, Hungary
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Fig. 1. Research activities and introduction PDM at Austrian HTL
3.2 Introducing PDM to Austrian HTL
After conducting two research projects in 2015, teacher training for using PDM in
classes was organized with the aim of encouraging the use of PDM within mechanical
engineering design (see fig. 1). Some HTLs use PDM very often in their design les-
sons, mainly those who have attended the research projects BLUME and PDM-UP.
Because persuading people of the benefits of using PDM tools is quite difficult, it was
decided to conduct a field study to find out more about the usage of PDM systems, as
well as to figure out the benefits of using PDM for mechanical engineering design at
Austrian HTLs. A project group consisting of HTL teachers had chosen an example
of a single stage transmission and adopted it for a field study. Additionally, the condi-
tions of testing were elaborated which are described in this paper.
4 PDM field study setting and boundaries
The experimental design is strongly following a field-study-design; in with other
words, we let research happen as realistically as possible. Therefore, a typical envi-
ronment has been chosen where PDM is used amongst students. The main characteris-
tic of a field study [7] is that the experiment itself is placed in a real-life scenario and
is not influencing it in any way [8]. On the other side we have to bear in mind that
unexpected situations can happen and change the outcome instantly. In this research
work schools have been chosen where PDM is or will be used in near future and
teachers were instructed to create a real-life situation as well as possible.
ICL2017 – 20th International Conference on Interactive Collaborative Learning
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4.1 PDM field study at Austrian HTL
The field study is being conducted within ten HTLs spread all over Austria, and for
each HTL there are different groups of students: there are students and teachers who
have worked with PDM for several years, and there are other students and teachers
who have been working with PDM for less than one year.
4.2 PDM field study conditions
For the PDM field study, students in the class are split into groups of four and to-
gether must solve the assignment using their CAD program in combination with the
PDM software. The time for doing the tasks is defined with a maximum of four hours
without any information on how to collaborate. The given time seems to be short but
the students are used to designing and calculating a multistage gear transmission,
which is much more complicated compared to the PDM field study task of a single
stage gear transmission. This ensures that students can concentrate on the field study
task and how to collaborate together on it. Within the task students have to build 3D
models and production drawings within their CAD program and save everything into
the PDM database.
4.3 Design task and deliverables
The overall design task for students is to design a single stage gear transmission
(see figure 2 [9]). The gearbox housing is already given as a 3D model and stored
within the PDM project database.
Fig. 2. Design task single stage transmission [9]
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The deliverables for the PDM field study are displayed in table 1.
Table 1. Deliverables of PDM test project
3D model 2D drawing
Pinion shaft yes yes
Gear wheel yes yes
Output shaft yes yes
Bearing cover yes yes
Gear assembly yes yes
To ease the design process, the number of gear teeth as well as the gear module is
given. Students do not have to calculate the parts concerning stress. Interface infor-
mation like gearwheel bore and the corresponding output shaft diameter has to be
figured out between the members of a test group, on the basis of given geometric
information of the gearbox. During their group work, students have to split up the
tasks between themselves as well as decide on the level of collaboration. The students
are also informed that their project will be marked like a standard mechanical engi-
neering design project. All field study projects get graded; the basis for the assembly
grades are that the assembly function is given. For the grading of the parts the basis is:
Parts are producible
Dimensioning of the parts are complete
Expedient surface symbols and tolerances are on the drawings
No geometrical dimensions and tolerances are needed in the drawings
4.4 PDM setting for field study
For the field study specific PDM project structure and settings are created within
the PDM software Windchill from PTC, which is used for all projects. All PDM study
projects are named “2017-06_PDM-Testung-HTL-nnn”, where “nnn” is the organiza-
tion, therefore “2017-06_PDM-Testung-HTL-Zeltweg” means the test project of HTL
Zeltweg in Styria. Concerning file structure there are data folders defined within each
PDM project numbered from “Schüler_01” to “Schüler_10”, where the folder
“Schüler_01” contains all the data of the first test group and “Schüler_04” contains
all the data of the forth test group. The folder structure is shown in Figure 3.
Fig. 3. Project structure of PDM test project
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To ensure that every member of each test group has only access to their own data
the security function of Windchill is used. The students of each test group are con-
nected to a role, therefore the members of the role “Schüler01” only have access to
the folder “Schüler_01”. This setting is displayed in Figure 4.
Fig. 4. Team definition of PDM test project
4.5 Students’ and teachers’ notes
During the PDM field study the students have to note down several effects which
are evaluated afterwards, as shown in Table 2. Despite the raw database data, this
gives the opportunity to get some additional information from the field study.
Table 2. Overview pattern of students’ notes for PDM field study
No. Measurable effect collected data remarks
1 Improvements within
data conflicts Number of occurrence
Time for correction
2 3D interface problems Number of occurrence
Time for correction 3D parts and assembly do
not match
3 Coordination concern-
ing 2d working draft Number of discussions
Time for each discussion Students have to carry out
and adapt a working draft
4 Working on the same
parts or assemblies Number of occurrence
Time for correction Due to a PDM concept
only one person can work
on one part at one time
5 Individual students
notes Effects and remarks
Teachers also have to note down several effects to be evaluated during the PDM
field study which are shown in Table 3. This gives additional information to the eval-
uated data, for example if a test group generates no data, there could be different
causes for this: perhaps the network did not work, or some students were ill and could
not attend the field study.
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Table 3. Overview pattern of teachers’ notes for PDM field study
No. Measurable effect collected data
1 Set up PDM field study project Durance
2 Invite students to test project Durance
3 Start PDM field study project Time
4 CAD program started Time
5 Individual students workspace is generated Time
6 Start of coordination concerning 2d working draft Time
7 End of coordination concerning 2d working draft Time
8 End of PDM field study Time
9 Individual teachers notes Effects and remarks
5 PDM field study evaluation
5.1 PDM database evaluation of collaboration
From the beginning of the summer term 2017 until the end of the fall term 2017/18,
ten HTLs with approximately 120 students are participating in the field study. Every
HTL class is spilt into groups of four students, with each group working on one PDM
project. The generated CAD and PDM data of each student group is collected and all
the data together is evaluated anonymously. Table 4 shows an evaluated example of a
PDM project of a test group of four students. For instance, the third row shows the
students have created the deliverable of the gear assembly and finished the task com-
pletely. In the table “A” means student A, “B” student B etc., so obviously only stu-
dent B has worked with this file.
Table 4. Evaluation of collaboration with file versions from PDM database
HTL-nnn – Group-x Task %
finished File version
deliverable File type 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Gear assembly assembly 100 B B B B B B B B
drawing 100 B B B B
Output shaft 3D part 100 D D
drawing 100 D
Gear Wheel 3D part 100 B B B B B B
drawing 0
Pinion Shaft 3D part 100 A A A A A A A B B
drawing 100 A A A A A A
Bearing Cover 1 3D part 100 C C
drawing 90 C C
Bearing Cover 2 3D part 100 C C C
drawing 100 C
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5.2 Research questions
There are three main research questions which are investigated:
1. Can collaboration be identified in the student groups?
2. What difficulties occurred during the field study?
3. How many tasks were completed in the given time?
For the first research question, the file versions of the PDM database are collected.
Looking at table 4 collaboration occurred only within creating the 3D part of the pin-
ion shaft, student A generated seven versions of the file while student B generated the
last two file versions. In contrast the 3D part and drawing of the bearing cover are
created only by student C. This student group did not collaborate that much. Evaluat-
ing all data of all student groups, this will give a clear picture about collaboration and
usage of the PDM system. Adding the information on how long the students are work-
ing with PDM for will complete the picture.
The second research question concerning difficulties, answers if collaboration did
or did not happen due to several causes. For example, if one student did not attend the
field study for example because of illness, looking only at the PDM database it seems
that only three out of four students were working with the field study. Therefore, the
teachers’ observation and notes will give additional information for the evaluation
results.
The third research question about the completed tasks within the given time will
determine, together with the evaluated PDM data, whether there is a correlation be-
tween collaboration of students and percentage of task completion.
6 Conclusion and Outlook
In this research study the settings and evaluative methodology for a PDM field
study have been presented. Because the field study is running during the writing of
this paper, the first results will be presented afterwards.
We would like to thank to Sparkling Science program for making it possible for,
students to use PDM for collaboration tasks in their engineering design lessons. PDM
was introduced at several Austrian HTLs and due to the increasing complexity of
engineering design tasks and the industry’s demand, more HTLs will follow suit.
PDM will become more and more important as a centralized database for CAD data
as well as for all Internet of Things data. Therefore, the effort of adapting and main-
taining a PDM system as well as conducting a field study is significant. Based on the
results and experiences made so far, the authors of this paper are convinced that the
quality of design lessons and education in mechanical engineering will improve and
will be closer to demands of the industry’s needs.
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