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1. Spatial Skills and Design Problem Scoping Behaviors in Undergraduate Engineering Students

   Raju, Gibin ; Sorby, Sheryl ( December 2023 , Research on Engineering Education Symposium)

   Context Engineering design skills are essential for engineering students to succeed in their careers. Engineering design is a skill that is in high demand in the current job market and should be prioritized in education. Purpose While design has been acknowledged as a cognitive skill in research, there exists limited literature addressing the cognitive foundations of design thinking. Hence, engineering educators must understand the engineering design process, as well as the different ways students approach design problem-solving and the potential reason behind these differences. To understand how people solve design problems, we need to consider how their minds work and the strategies they use. Spatial ability stands out as a cognitive factor that is crucial for designers and holds significance in well-established theories and models of intelligence. However, to date, research exploring the impact of spatial ability on design thinking and its influence on problem-scoping behaviors remains limited. This paper examines how engineering students’ spatial skills influence how they define the scope of open-ended design problems. The central research question that guides this paper is “How do design problem-scoping behaviors differ for engineering students based on their spatial scores?”. Methods The researchers used a mixed methods research approach to answer their research question, collecting qualitative and quantitative data in two phases. One hundred twenty-seven undergraduate engineering students completed four tests that measure spatial reasoning skills in the quantitative phase and 101 students returned to finish the three design tasks in the second phase. This paper will examine the performance of students with low spatial and high spatial skills on one of the completed design tasks. Outcomes From the study, it was clear that spatial skills have an impact on the design-scoping behaviors of the undergraduate engineering students. It was inferred that high spatial skill visualizers emphasized the technical details of the design problem whereas low spatial skill visualizers emphasized the context of the design problem during their problem-scoping behavior. A Mann-Whitney test revealed there was a statistically significant difference in detail- and context-focused segments between the high and low spatial visualizer groups. Conclusion This research study confirms that a relationship exists between spatial and design skills. The study also found that undergraduate engineering students with different levels of spatial skills had different approaches to scoping design problems. 

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2. Eye-Tracking Analysis of Problem-Solving Behavior in Design Tasks in Undergraduate Engineering: A Comparison of High and Low Spatial Visualizers

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--47450  

   Asghar, Muhammad ; Sorby, Sheryl ; Reid, Clodagh ; Raju, Gibin ( June 2024 , ASEE Conferences)

   This research paper describes work performed at a large midwestern university in the U.S. examining the link between spatial skills and design performance. Spatial skills are vital to success in engineering education and their relation to efficient problem-solving is wellresearched. This study is part of a larger project focusing on understanding the link between spatial visualization skills and solving engineering design problems. In the current study, we made use of an eye-tracking device to determine the visual focus of participants while they solved an assigned design task. High and low spatial visualizers in undergraduate engineering were identified through Phase I testing. In Phase 1, students completed four widely accepted spatial ability tests. Subsequently, some students were invited to participate in a Phase 2 design problem-solving activity wearing the Tobii Pro Glasses 3 to collect eye tracking data to gain insight into the design problem-solving behaviors based on information collected about participants’ eye movement fixations (i.e. duration and location). In this paper, we report on the analysis conducted through Tobii Pro Lab research software involving 13 study participants of whom 7 (1 female, 6 male: 3 first-year, 4 senior-year) were high spatial visualizers while 6 (3 female, 3 male; 4 first-year, 2 senior-year) were low spatial visualizers. Findings from the study suggest that the solutions produced by the high visualizers were more graphical compared to low visualizers. Low visualizers focused more on the problem statement, spending more time reading it and coming back to it compared to high visualizers who remained in the problem solution area for most of the problem-solving session. Recognizing the importance of spatial abilities in design problem-solving, educators can incorporate activities and exercises aimed at developing spatial skills among students which could include spatial reasoning tasks, visualization exercises, and hands-on design projects. 

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3. Exploring the Role of Spatial Visualization in Design Process of Undergraduate Engineering Students

   Raju, Gibin ; Sorby, Sheryl ; Reid, Clodagh ( June 2023 , Review directory American Society for Engineering Education)

   This research paper details a study investigating spatial visualization skills relation to design problem-solving for undergraduate engineering students. Design is outlined as one of the seven attributes that engineering students must demonstrate prior to their graduation as set out through the ABET guidelines. It is important to understand the factors that contribute to design capability to achieve this learning goal. Design problems by their nature are cognitive tasks and as such require problem solvers to draw both on learned knowledge and pertinent cognitive abilities for their solution. In the context of engineering design problem solving, spatial visualization is one such cognitive ability that likely plays a role. Previous research has demonstrated a link between spatial visualization and design. This work aims to advance on that research by exploring how spatial visualization relates to the design process enacted by undergraduate engineering students. There were two phases to data collection for this research. In the first phase, 127 undergraduate engineering students completed four spatial tests. In the second phase, 17 students returned to complete three design tasks. This paper will focus on one of these design tasks, the Ping Pong problem where individuals are asked to design a ping pong launcher to hit a target from a given distance at a specific height. A purposive sample of 9 first-year and 8 senior students were selected to engage in a think aloud protocol during the problemsolving task based on their spatial visualization skill levels (high vs. low). The think aloud protocol was used to assign pre-defined codes for design activity for each of the 17 participants. Through analysis of these codes, results indicated that there is an association between the spatial skills of students and the design processes/actions that they employ. These insights will be discussed relative to their potential influence on engineering education, specifically in developing design capability. 

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4. The Role of Spatial Skills and Sketching in Engineering Design Problem Solving

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--48133  

   Raju, Gibin ; Sorby, Sheryl ( June 2024 , ASEE Conferences)

   Spatial visualization is the ability to mentally manipulate, visualize, and transform objects in one’s mind. Numerous research studies have reported that spatial ability is strongly associated with predicting success and retention in STEM-related fields such as math, engineering, computer programming, and science. Spatial skills are a critical cognitive ability for many technical fields, particularly engineering. Studies have shown the importance of free-hand sketching in the development of 3-D spatial skills. Similarly, sketching is an integral skill in the engineering design process, especially in the idea-generation phase. However, little work has been performed examining the link between spatial skills and the quality of sketches produced during the engineering design process. There were two phases to data collection for this research. In the first phase, 127 undergraduate engineering students completed four spatial tests. In the second phase, 101 students returned to complete three design tasks. This paper examines the performance of the 17 low spatial and 13 high spatial visualizers on one of these tasks where individuals are asked to design ways for remote villagers to catch and use rainwater. Through analysis of the sketches produced by the students, initial insights indicate that there may be an association between the spatial skills of students and the quality of the sketches they produce for their engineering design solutions. These insights will be discussed relative to the potential influence of spatial skills and sketch quality on engineering education, specifically in developing design capability. 

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5. Investigating the Relationship Between Spatial Skills and Engineering Design

   Raju, G. ( January 2022 , ICERI Intenational Conference on Educational Research and Innovation Conference Proceedings)

   Design is a core attribute of engineering practice; in fact, the etymology of the word engineer is traced to the Latin “ingeniare,” which translates as inventor or designer. In order to prepare our students for success in an engineering career, they must be proficient at design and able to think creatively and flexibly about optimal solutions to problems. Additionally, numerous studies have demonstrated the need for well-developed spatial skills for success in engineering, especially in engineering problem solving. Studies also show a link between spatial thinking and technical creativity. The focus of this research is on understanding the relationship between spatial visualization skills and engineering design. As a first phase of testing, 127 undergraduate engineering students completed four tests of spatial ability. In a second phase, 102 students returned and were asked to complete three tasks. The first was designing a ping pong ball launcher to hit a target at a specific height from a given distance. They were then asked to list as many factors as possible that should be considered when designing a retaining wall for mitigating flood damage along the Mississippi River in the Midwest in the United States. The third task was to sketch as many ideas as possible in a given timeframe for a rainwater collection system in a remote location. This research paper will present preliminary analysis of the Midwest Flood problem and spatial ability data. The initial insights will be discussed relative to the overall study and how this work could inform undergraduate engineering education, and specifically the provision of design education. 

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