An Interdisciplinary Design and Manufacturing Laboratory

该项目建立了一个跨学科实验室，用于在现实、协作的环境中培训制造工程技术人员、机器人技术人员和绘图/设计技术人员。该实验室涉及一个基于CAD的先进原型设计和生产系统，所有三个学科的学生都参与其中。在这种互动中，来自不同专业的学生在离散部件的设计、原型制作和制造方面进行合作。所使用的设备包括一个计算机控制系统，利用紫外线激光和光敏树脂从CAD图纸中生产精确的零件原型。额外的设备允许对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这些部件。本实验的结果是，这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，获得了不同学科在工业环境中如何交互和协作的知识。因此，拟议的实验室改进提升了对不同学科的技术和工程专业学生的教育，并提供了一个模式，说明这些学科如何能够和应该相互作用，以便这些学生切实有效地为在工业环境中的职业生涯做好准备。

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.