Abstract
This is the pinnacle of the UVA undergraduate engineering education. The capstone technical report in this thesis discusses the design and development of a Rotary Inverted Pendulum (RIP) device. This device will serve as a teaching aid in the graduate-level mechanical engineering controls systems class, so students can better visualize abstract controls theory. The STS research in this thesis studies the effect of research prioritization in the faculty career infrastructure on STEM teaching quality. Understanding why STEM professors who are ineffective teachers invest more time in their research is necessary to improve the education students invest in. Both the capstone project and STS research directly contribute to improving UVA STEM teaching quality and education. Ironically, both are works of research.
The goal of the capstone project is to design an RIP teaching aid, so mechanical engineering professors at UVA can more effectively teach advanced controls systems and dynamics courses. An RIP device uses controls theory to balance a pendulum rod upright. Since the device implements the same theory used to balance an airplane or rocket engine, it provides students with a hands-on learning experience and tangible application of course concepts. The project team first used a previous team’s device to identify the integral mechanical and electrical components of the design. Then, they created a CAD model, analyzed the design for potential failure points, ordered parts, and assembled the device. Lastly, the team developed and integrated a PID controls program, which uses proportional, integral, and derivative gains to optimize different aspects of the system’s response and efficiently balance the pendulum. The device also includes 3 knobs on the outside of the housing, so students can adjust the controller’s gain values in real time and observe how the changes affect the system’s ability to balance the pendulum. After testing, the RIP device balances the pendulum rod indefinitely, is handheld and easily portable between classrooms, and is straightforward for professors and students to use.
While students and families invest millions of dollars each year to receive a quality college education, universities are primarily investing their resources into research: STEM professors are trained as researchers in graduate school, hired for their research capabilities, and rewarded with tenure for their research contributions. The purpose of the STS study is to answer the question: how does research prioritization through this faculty career progression/ infrastructure affect STEM teaching quality at R1 institutions? The problem is analyzed using the Social Construction of Technology framework to understand the UVA faculty career infrastructure, stakeholders involved, and relationships between the two. After conducting interviews with faculty and an administrator and surveying undergraduate and graduate students, the results suggest research prioritization starts in the academic budget. Research grants help fund university operations, so administrators developed a system that incentivizes faculty investment in research over teaching. Since most STEM faculty do not have prior teaching experience, this research prioritization directly hurts their teaching quality. Although some universities have taken steps to mitigate this consequence, the most sustainable solution is for administrators to include teaching requirements in graduate program curricula. This will build a balanced research-teaching culture in future generations of faculty and align universities with students’ investment in quality education.
