TEST Progress Check

KID is currently sponsoring two freshman student team projects at Northwestern University to look at safety hazards and design solutions for two juvenile products, baby bath aids and dining booster seats. In the fall, KID worked with a team of seniors at University of Michigan on safety hazards, design solutions and testing requirements for a new type of product, bedside sleepers. Read their final report here.

KID is currently sponsoring two freshman student team projects at Northwestern University to look at safety hazards and design solutions for two juvenile products, baby bath aids and dining booster seats. In the fall, KID worked with a team of seniors at University of Michigan on safety hazards, design solutions and testing requirements for a new type of product, bedside sleepers. Read their final report here.

KID is currently sponsoring two freshman student team projects at Northwestern University to look at safety hazards and design solutions for two juvenile products, baby bath aids and dining booster seats. In the fall, KID worked with a team of seniors at University of Michigan on safety hazards, design solutions and testing requirements for a new type of product, bedside sleepers. Read their final report here.

KID presented the TEST curriculum materials at the June Annual Conference of the American Association For Engineering Education (ASEE) in Chicago. Many college and university programs, along with some K-12 programs expressed interest in the program. KID will work with them over the coming year to integrate design safety into the curriculum in their programs.

The Teach Early Safety Testing (TEST) program has expanded its scope in an effort to get a strong local base of universities and community colleges in the Chicago area. This will supplement the larger national programs contacted in the past.

The TEST program advisory committee will hold its first phone conference in December. The committee will help steer the project and provide useful insight into both the educational institutions TEST is targeting, and design safety in engineering. The advisory committee is currently helping the KID staff polish the TEST curriculum guide which will be sent to schools. The committee members are:

KID has begun formation of the initial advisory committee for the TEST program. KID has already received several commitments to serve on the committee, which will be made up of members of undergraduate engineering programs, the professional engineering community, and testing and consulting firms. The committee will guide KID as we create a safety based engineering module and integrate it into the undergraduate curriculum at several pilot institutions this fall. KID has also taken the curriculum guide for the module to the draft stage. After internal editing and review by the advisory committee, the guide will be ready for use in the pilot programs.

To evaluate current safety education in engineering programs, KID surveyed students in the Mechanical Engineering program at the University of Michigan. Forty-six students responded, and the results illustrate the need to improve the design safety information reaching students. The students did show understanding of how important standards are in making safe products, but don’t necessarily have enough information to integrate safety into their designs.

A new safer portable crib could be available sooner then you think. Through TEST, KID worked with four engineering seniors at the University of Michigan to develop a safer portable crib. The top rails of the students’ crib eliminate the downward V-shape design that can collapse creating a strangulation hazard that has killed at least sixteen children. As part of the project, the students reviewed Federal and voluntary safety standards, previous incidents and current crib designs. The students are currently applying for a provisional patent, which will protect their design as they refine it. Read the news coverage.

KID conducted a mailing of TEST materials to engineering programs, and started discussing integrating TEST’s safety resources and information into the curriculum of nine undergraduate engineering programs: including University of Michigan, Illinois Institute of Technology, Purdue University and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.

KID reviewed current programs and available literature on design safety in engineering education. The result, Teach Early Safety Testing: The Case for Expanded Product Safety Design Training (LINK) was published by KID in July 2003.