Engineering Principles of an Electric Toothbrush

The hallmark of the newly configured Rowan College of Engineering undergraduate program is the interdisciplinary, project oriented clinic sequence that spans 8 semesters. This sequence is taken by all engineering students. In this paper, we specifically describe the innovative efforts in the second semester of Freshman Clinic that is devoted to competitive assessment through reverse engineering. Specifically, experiments on a low cost consumer appliance (electric toothbrush) are described. This will enable the freshman students to determine how scientific principles, material properties, manufacturing techniques, cost, safety requirements, environmental considerations and intellectual property rights impact the design of a product. Also, the students perform experiments illustrating the engineering principles of the electric toothbrush. Introduction The College of Engineering at Rowan University is composed of four departments, namely, Chemical, Civil, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering. In each year, there are between 25 to 30 students in each department. This results in 100 to 120 students in the entire college. The size of the college has been chosen to provide specialization in small departments and permit the creation of a multidisciplinary curriculum in which laboratory/design courses are offered to all engineering students. The hallmark of the Rowan program is the interdisciplinary, project oriented clinic sequence. This 8 semester long sequence is taken by all engineering students. The Engineering clinic is based on the medical school model and involves side by side interaction among students and faculty for performing laboratory experiments, design projects and research. Multidisciplinary design projects and laboratory experiments at the freshman and sophomore levels stress teamwork, implementation of engineering principles into practice, oral communication, and written communication [1][2]. In the freshman year, the theme of the fall semester is measurements [3], while the theme of the spring semester is competitive assessment (the topic of this paper). Comprehensive one semester and two semester projects at the junior and senior levels (more discipline specific) give the students exposure to the nature of scientific research and provide the initial maturity to appreciate how research is carried out. Although many schools have recognized the need to integrate design into the freshman year [4][5], most traditional programs offer only a senior capstone design course and ignore the freshman, sophomore and junior years in terms of design and research activities. Therefore, at most institutions, undergraduate students will not be provided with the necessary skills to conduct independent research until well into the senior year. The focus of this paper is on the second semester Freshman Clinic course known as Freshman Clinic II. In this course, the theme is competitive assessment through reverse engineering. The term competitive assessment has been coined by manufacturers to describe the process of ethically acquiring, inspecting, analyzing, instrumenting and testing the product lines of other manufacturers. Reverse engineering is the process of developing sufficient information about a product to allow replication with or without enhancement in original or current technologies, materials and manufacturing processes. The objective of competitive assessment through reverse engineering is to understand and outdo the competition. In the Competitive Assessment Laboratory at Rowan University, multidisciplinary teams of freshman engineering students from each of the four engineering disciplines perform competitive assessment on a consumer appliance (in this case, an electric toothbrush). The objectives of the Competitive Assessment Laboratory are as follows: 1. Provide the launching pad for an innovative, four year design curriculum by introducing freshmen to the science and art of design by evaluating the work of practicing engineers. 2. Introduce multidisciplinary groups of engineering students to unifying engineering