An Interdisciplinary Design and Manufacturing Laboratory

该项目建立了一个跨学科的实验室，在一个现实的、协作的环境中培养制造工程技术人员、机器人技术人员和制图/设计技术人员。该实验室包括一个基于cad的先进原型设计和生产系统，涉及所有三个学科的学生参与。在这种互动中，来自不同专业的学生在设计、制作原型和制造离散零件方面进行合作。所使用的设备包括一个利用紫外线激光和光敏树脂的计算机控制系统，以根据CAD图纸生产精确的零件原型。额外的设备允许这些原型进行测量和改进，然后用于重新配置现有的工厂实验室来制造零件。通过这个实验，三个学科的学生获得了使用先进的原型生产设备的知识，更重要的是，了解了不同学科在工业环境中必须如何相互作用和合作。因此，建议的实验室改进升级了不同学科的技术和工程学生的教育，并为这些学科如何能够和应该相互作用提供了一个模型，以便使这些学生为工业环境中的职业生涯做好现实和有效的准备。

This project establishes an interdisciplinary laboratory for the education of manufacturing engineering technicians, robotics technicians, and drafting/design technicians in a realistic, collaborative environment. The laboratory involves a CAD-based advanced prototype design and production system involving participation by students from all three disciplines. In this interaction, students from the different programs collaborate on the design, prototyping, and manufacture of discrete parts. The equipment used includes a computer- controlled system utilizing a ultra-violet laser and photo- sensitive resin to produce accurate prototypes of parts from CAD drawings. Additional equipment allows these prototypes to be measured and refined and then used to reconfigure an existing factory laboratory to manufacture the parts. As a result of this lab, students in the three disciplines gain knowledge in the use of advanced prototype production equipment and, more importantly, in how the different disciplines must interact and collaborate in an industrial setting. Thus, the proposed laboratory improvement upgrades the education of technical and engineering students in the different disciplines, and provides a model for how those disciplines can and should interact in order to prepare those students realistically and effectively for careers in an industrial environment.