The National Engineering Design Challenge (NEDC) ©

Howard M. Speigelman, Executive Director
Junior Engineering Technical Society, Alexandria, Virginia, USA

The National Engineering Design Challenge (NEDC), a cooperative program with the National Society of Professional Engineers and the National Talent Network, challenges teams of high school students, often working with an engineering adviser, to design, fabricate, and demonstrate a working model of a new product that produces a solution to a social need.

It is an exciting high school engineering-based program in which teams of students design, build and demonstrate a working model of a new product. NEDC challenges students to apply mathematics, science, and technology to a real-world engineering situation. Through NEDC, students learn to use skills similar to those used by engineering team members, including:

• Creative thinking;
• Cooperative teamwork;
• Higher order thinking skills;
• Application of knowledge; and
• Effective communication.
  

What Problems do NEDC Students Solve?
Each year a panel of engineers, educators and students prepares a single, multi-disciplinary problem. NEDC problems are developed with "universal design" in mind; that is, solutions should be useable by people with or without disa bilities. Past NEDC problems, listed at the end of this overview, have challenged student teams to devise solutions that would help people with or without disabilities to turn pages of various types of documents; retrieve and replace hard-to-reach items; transport groceries; and give office presentations.

Where does NEDC Fit into My School?
Depending on how a school wants to approach the program, the NEDC can be set up as:

• An extracurricular or club activity
• Part of technology, mathematics, or physical science course work
• The focus of a one-semester technology or pre-engineering course, or,
• A component in a gifted and talented program.
  

Who Should Participate?
The NEDC program is open to all high schools, with NEDC events being held in a growing number of states. Students in grades 9 through 12 are eligible to participate. Candidates for NEDC tea m membership will come from all segments of the school population. These students should demonstrate:

• Interest in mathematics, physical sciences and technology (applied sciences);
• Interest in creative problem-solving and inventiveness;
• Motivation to work in a team environment; and
• Good communication skills.
  

Who is Involved in the Process?
Any high school may work on the NEDC problem. Schools that choose to register for an NEDC competition may send as many teams as the event host will allow. For states with scheduled NEDC events, the "players" include:

Students: There is no limit to the number of students a school may allow to participate. However, in NEDC events each team is limited to five presenting team members.

Teacher-Coach: Each school is required to have a teacher-coach, who is generally a technology, math or science teacher. Teacher-coaches have the responsibility to guide their team(s) through the problem-solving process.

Advising Engineer: Each team must work with an advising engineer, who serves as a resource to the team. The advising engineer provides general information about engineering design principles and technical information about project specifics; verifies the safety of the project; teaches the team research methods; and serves as a resource link between the team and the community.

Judges: Competitions are usually judged by a panel of judges that include both engineers and educators.

Coordinators and Hosts: NEDC events are usually hosted at colleges and universities with engineering, pre-engineering or technology programs. Coordination varies by region and may be conducted by a university, engineering society chapter or corporation.

Timeline
The National Engineering Design Challenge can be done over four, eight, or ten weeks, or as a one-semester program.

Starting the Process
Schools may begin considering team selection and may want to start working with general problem-solving and team development exercises as early as the spring semester prior to the NEDC program year. Upon registration, a NEDC Coach Manual is sent to all teams that register for a competition. It includes hints and tips, suggestions on selecting and preparing student teams, techniques for creative problem solving, representative engineering activities, engineering strategies, and related materials.

Competition Fees and Other Expenses
Schools pay a fee to participate in an NEDC event. The competition fees are determined by the regional NEDC host and include a Coach Manual. Teams are responsible for the costs related to their solution and to attending events.

NEDC Benefits
The NEDC program serves as a rewarding activity for everyone involved.

Students Gain:

• Hands-on career experience;
• Experience working as a team member; and
• An awareness that concepts learned in their math, science, and technology courses apply in real-world situations.
  

Teachers Gain:

• A program they can incorporate into their curriculum as a way to link classroom information with real-life engineering;
• Recognition for teaching and coaching efforts; and
• Classroom assistance during the school year.
  

Industry Gains:

• The ability to provide mentorship to potential future engineers;
• Potential future engineers, technologists and technicians to support through college; and
• The satisfaction of contributing to the improvement of teaching and learning in their community.
  

Colleges and Universities Gain:

• Visibility for their school, its program s, and its students;
• Access to talented high school students who are interested in technology; and
• A turn-key method of involving students in exciting learning experiences and a way to assist the local community.
  

2002 National Event

While JETS is not sponsoring a 2002 national event, the Board has made it possible to offer schools, coaches, and hosts a well-structured composite problem statement made up of several of the best problem statements from the past. This problem statement or challenge can be used for either a classroom or school project or for a state or local competition. In addition to the problem statement, JETS will be able to provide a package of supporting documents and information, including helpful hints, information for judges, and timekeepers, etc. See http://www.jets.org/nedc.htm for details.

PREVIOUS JETS/NEDC PROBLEM STATEMENTS 1989-2000

11th Annual NEDC Problem Statement: 1999-2000 "Home is Where I Want to Be"

According to the United Nations, natural disasters kill one million people around the world each decade and leave millions more homeless. Since the 1960s, losses from natural disasters have tripled, to over $120 billion. These emergencies precipitate the urgent need for inexpensive, temporary shelters.

With this in mind, your task is to design and fabricate a temporary shelter that should be:

1. Portable;
2. Inexpensive;
3. Set up and disassembled easily;
4. Expandable to accommodate up to 4 people;
5. Designed using universal design criteria;
6. Suitable for a variety of environments.
   

10th Annual NEDC Problem Statement: 1998-1999 "Up and Away"

The advances in our standard of living in the United States have resulted in the increase of the older adult population. In 1995, those individuals 65 years of age or older numbered 33.5 million and represented 12.8 percent of the population; by the year 2005, that number will grow to 36.2 million. In response to these demographics, the United Nations has designated 1999 as the International Year of the Older Person. Through the Administration on Aging, the American Association of Retired Persons, the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging and other groups, the United States will plan on a series of activities and events which will serve to increase the public's awareness of our changing population.

One problem which many older persons face is that of mobility. Here in the United States we have grown accustomed to travel as we please. However, for older people who have limited range of motion, difficulties bending or twisting at the waist or moving ones' arms, the simple act of raising oneself up from a chair can be an almost impossible task.

With this in mind, your task is to design and fabricate a device, which can help an older person up from a sitting position.

9th Annual NEDC Problem Statement: 1997-1999 "Safe Shopping"

Redesign the standard shopping cart so that it reduces or eliminates the possibility that a two-year-old child will fall out of it or climb out of it and that it resists tipping when a child leans over the edge and / or elderly person leans on it improperly. Your new-style cart should be used for shopping by parents, siblings, childcare providers, the elderly and people with disabilities. The cart must be designed to be used in existing store aisles and so that no modifications would be needed to aisle width or store checkout lanes.

8th Annual NEDC Problem Statement: 1996-1997 "Fitness for Life"

Your team's task is to design a fitness system that helps people of all ages and physical abilities achieve and maintain good health. Specifically, your system should exercise arms, legs and torso while the users is sitting in a chair, standing and lying down; should accommodate different age groups; a range of fitness levels; is adaptable for paraplegics who use a wheelchair; can be used in a variety of settings and can be set up, disassembled and transported easily.

7th Annual NEDC Problem Statement: 1995-1996 "At Your Command"

Your grandmother is in her 90s and lives alone in the house in which she was born. She does not want to live with you or to move to a retirement community. She does not need nursing home care. She enjoys a full and generally active life when she is feeling well. Her daily medications improve her quality of life. Unfortunately, her memory is fading and she often forgets what medications she must take and when she must take them. Further, your grandmother has difficulty seeing product labels and medical cautions, even those with very large print. She is hard of hearing. She has limited strength and can't easily grab small objects or open most medicine bottles. All of these are problems common to our elderly population.

You are able to visit your grandmother a few times each week. If a medicine dispenser that could overcome your grandmother's limitations existed, you could "load" it for her each time you visited or one of her younger friends could help out.

Your NEDC team is to develop and build a prototype of an original design that will enable your grandmother to take her medications on time, in the correct dosages and with the appropriate cautions. Prohibiting overdosing is also essential.

6th Annual NEDC Problem Statement: 1994-95 "Out and Away"

At the age of 70, May represents a growing segment of elderly people who are staying in the work force longer and longer. She is a productive worker, but she sometimes experiences severe arthritis pain in her back, shoulders and arms. This pain limits her activities and makes it difficult for her to bend or twist at the waist or to move her arms. In order to keep the pain at a minimum, May tries to keep her arms immobile, resting them on the armrests of her chair.

Because of her work experience she is often asked to give new employees a presentation about the company. To do this she must select overhead transparencies from a file drawer and use them as part of her presentation. While May's co-workers are happy to help her set up the overhead projector and take her files to the presentation room, once the presentation starts she is on her own.

Paul is a high school senior who is looking forward to a career that will involve public speaking. Paul has quadriplegia, caused by a diving accident (he broke his neck) and is a wheelchair user. Paul's arms lay motionless on the armrests of his wheelchair and he is unable to move the rest of his body--except for his head and neck. He too must be able to use an overhead projector.

Each team will develop a solution that will enable the operator to turn an overhead projector on and off, retrieve a file folder of transparencies from a file drawer, select and remove transparencies from the folder, display them on the overhead projector, return them to the file and return the file to the file drawer.

5th Annual NEDC Problem Statement: 1993-94 "Store to Door"

When you are young, strong, and healthy, you can unload a case of soda, a five gallon bottle of water, a bale of peat moss, and all the groceries you need from your car trunk, take them up the stairs, or down the cellar, around the corner and put them on the shelf. But as you get older, become injured, or sick, you enter the world of "If only I were younger, or stronger or I had a handy-dandy hefty helper."

Each team will present a solution that will enable a person to carry, transport, and hold objects too heavy or bulky to be done manually by some people, particularly the elderly or disabled.

4th Annual NEDC Problem Statement: 1992-93 "For Openers"

It was a bitter cold night in Hometown, USA "That was an outstanding basketball game?" claimed Jamie "But gosh," Chris rubbed his head, "did it ever give me a headache." "Here Chris," Jennifer rummaged in her pursue, "I just happen to have a new bottle of aspirin with me." Chris watched in dismay, though, as she struggled with the childproof top.

Alex strode over and took the bottle from her but his efforts were equally useless. Their friend, Susan, came over to the scene of this minor medical emergency. "I've got just the thing." And with her nail file, she popped the top. She has met this challenge before. Susan has rheumatoid arthritis.

A few minutes later, Alex was driving Susan home when suddenly the temperature light on the dashboard blinked on. "Uh-oh -- engine's overheating," he sighted. "This car's not even w-warm yet," shivered Susan. "But the engine is," quipped Alex as he returned and hurried to the trunk for a plastic container of antifreeze. Alex tried repeatedly to open the safety cap, but his fingers were just too numb. Susan rubbed her arms to keep warm. "I think we have a problem my nail file isn't going to solve this time."

Alex and Susan have just crossed over into the famous Defiance Zone, a land where ordinary containers with contents you desperately need become locked monsters that defy opening. From time to time we have all been caught in the Defiance Zone, where innocent containers from plastic bags to glass bottles seem to challenge us with a will of their own.

Your team is to develop a solution that will enable a person to open and/or close containers commonly found in the home or office.

3rd Annual NEDC Problem Statement 1991-92 "Just out of Reach"

It happens all the time. It's the height of the sandlot game and the ball rolls under somebody's porch, just out of reach. The varsity player, home alone in bed with a broken leg, has dropped the TV remote control, just out of reach. A shopper puts parking meter change in her purse while in a questionable neighborhood and -- clink -- her car keys drop through the storm water grate. Fifty dollars of grocery money has fluttered off the counter and fallen behind the refrigerator. The five-year-old tries to reach his own cereal on the top shelf by climbing on a stack of boxes while the household sleeps. An eighty year-old, suddenly short of breath, finds her nitro-glycerin tablets are one shelf too high ... just out of reach!

Your team is to develop a solution that will enable a person to handle -- place, retrieve, and manipulate -- common household or office items that are beyond his/her ordinary reach.

2nd Annual NEDC Problem Statement 1990-91 "Slight of Hand"

A source of our national pride has been continually to develop systems, which equitably serve our extremely varied population. Whether it be in law, medicine, transportation, education or any other field we have created products and services flexible enough to meet the needs of individuals in a range of places and conditions.

As our population ages; as an upsurge of interest in sports and fitness activities also yields more frequent injuries; and as our sensitivity to our handicapped citizens evolves, we have a set of specialized problems to solve. Not all of the products and services we hold of value can be accessed by individuals with physical disabilities. For many people, this may mean an inability to turn the pages of a book and for a society built upon the importance of literacy, this limitation has far- reaching implications. While research efforts are currently yielding a variety of computer assisted devices, these resources are far beyond the budgetary reach of most handicapped citizens.

Your team is to develop a method enabling physically handicapped people to turn the pages of a book without the assistance of another person.

1st Annual NEDC Problem Statement 1989-90 "Signs of the Times"

In a maximum area of 30' x 30' demonstrate a replacement for a human highway construction "flagger. "It must have the capacity to warn drivers to: stop, go, slow down, speed up, maintain speed, resume normal speed, drive at a specific speed, and maintain a certain path.

For more information, contact Howard Speigelman at hspiegelman@jets.org

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Citation: Speigelman, Howard G (2001). The National Engineering Design Challenge (NEDC) ©. Retrieved (Enter Date), from Universal Design Education Online web site: http://www.udeducation.org/teach/shortevents/competitions/nedc.asp