Ryan Sochol’s Post

My new course, "The Legend of Zelda: A Link to Machine Design", is close to wrapping its first pilot run, so I'm excited to share this video (https://lnkd.in/eTa9UBSi) & press release (https://lnkd.in/e_eX6f9m). For me, one of the toughest aspects on the teaching side of being a professor has been finding that *my* level of enthusiasm for a topic I teach (e.g., 3D printing) can be quite distinct from my students' enthusiasm. So when "The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom" came out in May, I felt like it was a special opportunity to "have our cake & eat it too" in terms of students gaining experience in desired areas (e.g., CAD, machine design, robotics) while being excited to do so simply because that learning was founded on a [fantastic] video game. To provide some context for other professors/instructors who might consider implementing this kind of course @ their own institutions: 1. Overview • 1-credit ME elective (50min/week) for 2nd-year undergrads.  • Designed to complement our "Intro to CAD" course (for 2nd-year undergrads) while also laying groundwork for our 4th-year "Machine Design" course. • >1/2 of students had never played any Zelda game (only a few had played this game). 2. Project 1 • Students designed in-game experiments to elucidate performance for assigned machine elements & also modeled a set of machine elements in SolidWorks (to continue building their CAD skills). 3. Midterm Challenge • Students designed a robot that could walk on land & then reconfigured to swim in water (bioinspired motion for both; maximizing speed while balancing energy depletion). • Students modeled both states in SolidWorks. (Video briefly shows students presenting their CAD vs. in-game assembly processes.) 4. Lessons Learned [so far] • Midterm project = too time intensive for a 1-credit course. [The final project ("Aerial Trebuchet") is being revised]. • In-game physics are overall decent, but there are many inaccuracies. Discovering these inaccuracies can, in and of itself, be a learning opportunity, requiring students to think critically re: in-game vs. real-world operations. • Love the speed/ease with which students build+test their prototypes in such an interactive way (e.g., actively steering the prototypes across various terrain). I want to thank Brendan Hanrahan & Kevin Daniels for helping me workshop the syllabus/scope of the course, & I especially want to thank B. Balachandran & University of Maryland - A. James Clark School of Engineering for their support in this [unusual] undertaking that I genuinely believe has the potential to help promote student engagement & learning outcomes. (Note: We are investigating these aspects of the course & hope to present our results @ the ASEE annual conference -- if our abstract is accepted!) Please feel free to comment if you have any questions! #legendofzelda #tearsofthekingdom #engineering #machinedesign