维姆Vishwanathan

A Teaching Tool for Free Body Diagram Drawing

Vimal Viswanathan is striving to change traditional classroom instruction with a focus on design thinking and design theory. His current project, Mechanix, is a virtual teaching assistant that provides realtime 反馈 to mechanical engineering students drawing free body diagrams, illustrations that demonstrate the force exerted when two bodies come into contact.

Free body diagrams are crucial tools, but many students are unable to accurately draw 他们. Due to classroom size, time restraints and an extensive curriculum, instructors are not always able to sit with individual students to provide direct and immediate 反馈.

This is where Mechanix comes in. Mechanix uses a sketch recognition algorithm to detect the shape that a student draws on a touchscreen interface. After comparing the student’s work with the accurate answer, Mechanix’s virtual tutor provides immediate alerts for any incorrect forces or missing information in a student’s drawing. 而不是 penalizing the student for errors, the virtual TA creates the space and dialogue for correction in real-time, resulting in a better understanding of how to solve the problem.

“I am very excited about this research as I get to see the results and improvements in my classroom," explains Viswanathan. "When the students find the tools and techniques that I develop useful in learning new concepts, it gives me the motivation to continue developing new 一个s and improving 现有的.”

Mustafa Ihsan, ’20 Mechanical 工程, creates a free body diagram with Mechanix.

Mechanical 工程, Charles W. Davidson College of 工程
Sponsor: National 科学 Foundation

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