The Incredible Edible Car: An Instructive and Fun Design Exercise for Engineering Freshmen

First semester freshman engineering students taking the one-credit Introduction to Biological Systems Engineering (BSEN) and Agricultural Engineering (AGEN) 100 class at the University of Nebraska -Lincoln are assigned teams and the task of designing and testing a vehicle made entirely of edible food products.The task culminates in a graded poster presentation, competition, and the eating of the teams' cars on "E-Day," where freshmen, senior, graduate students, faculty, and alumni industry representatives participate in an open house at the end of the semester.Parents, high school students, and the community provide a diverse audience for the students and alumni.Networking is encouraged, and freshmen are required to visit at least three alumni, senior or graduate student displays.This paper focuses on the role of the Edible Car design competition in achieving the course objectives by uses team-based learning to engage the students in the engineering design process, and providing hands-on experience with problemsolving, biological materials, teamwork, communication, and professional ethics in an engineering setting.