DOE Real World Design Challenge Seeks to Align Secondary Education with 21st Century Workforce Needs

Educators from community colleges and universities met with representatives from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), ORAU and Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC) for a workshop at ORNL recently to develop a statewide strategy and implementation plan for the U.S. Department of Energy pilot Real World Design Challenge. ORAU was a co-sponsor of the workshop.

The goals of the challenge, planners said, are to inspire and engage students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by giving them “real world” design problems, as well as to systematically highlight the potential future workers in science and engineering fields.

The challenge is designed to align secondary education with 21st Century workforce needs and strengthen professional development for teachers by providing training and support by mentors from national laboratories.

This initiative will link schools, universities, industry and government, giving students professional simulation, modeling and collaboration tools to participate in the design process along with mentors in STEM fields.

Cessna engineers have defined a challenge that is currently being addressed by the aviation industry. After learning the basics of design, teachers and students will be challenged to come up with innovative solutions to the challenge.

“When students engage in the design process, they employ the disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics … with mentors they have access to expertise needed to make real contributions,” said Ralph Coppola, industry representative from PTC.

Student teams will also get the chance to compete, pitting the best in the state, and later the best in the nation, against one another for top design solutions.

The pilot design challenge for Tennessee should be announced in October, with nine other states slated to follow, said Cathy Fore, ORAU’s director of collaborative initiatives, University Partnership Office. ORNL is hosting the software—ProEngineer and Windchill—that the student teams will use; and Hewlett-Packard has donated the servers. DOE’s Office of Science has established a new Web site on the Real World Design Challenge. Information will be posted as plans unfold.