Development of a Fluid Power Laboratory for Undergraduate Education

这个项目解决的问题是，工业界认为，即将毕业的工科学生缺少了课堂上提出的理论与实际工业问题之间的重要联系。许多行业雇主承认，大多数学生获得了高度的分析专业知识，但他们仍然坚称，在将这些分析技术应用于“现实世界问题”方面，他们并不那么先进。这项努力的目标是开发一个独特的流体动力系统实验室，旨在为工程专业学生提供独特的实验室体验，教授“现成”的工业设备课程。这一设施使学生能够直接将分析课堂理论与真正的实际实验联系起来。实现这一发展的方法包括整合产业、学术和政府资源，在各自的专业领域提供支持。该实验室是工程学院动态系统与控制实验室环境统一方法的一部分。因此，该实验室寻求将流体动力系统整合到全校工程课程的所有级别中，这些课程涉及动态系统的建模、分析和控制。实验观众的范围包括通过高级设计项目和本科生自主研究向一年级学生演示这项技术。该项目强调学院内部各部门之间的合作，将实验室纳入几门现有的课程。该项目的影响是培养受过工业相关设备培训的工程师。这些工程师在理论和一些相关应用方面都有扎实的基础。由于许多工程系统包含流体动力的某些方面，该项目直接影响国家的技术劳动力并增加其竞争力。

The problem being addressed by this project is the perception by industry that graduating engineering students are missing a vital link between theory presented in the classroom and actual industrial problems. Many industrial employers acknowledge that most students obtain a high degree of analytical expertise, but still maintain that they are not as advanced in applying these analytical techniques to `real-world problems.` The objective of this effort is to develop a unique Fluid Power Systems Laboratory aimed at giving engineering students a unique laboratory experience with classes of `off-the-shelf` industrial devices. This facility enables students to directly tie analytical classroom theories with truly practical experiments. The methods being used to accomplish this development include the integration of industrial, academic, and governmental resources to provide support in their respective areas of expertise. The laboratory is part of a unified approach to the Dynamic Systems and Control laboratory environment in the College of Engineering. As a result, the lab seeks to integrate Fluid Power Systems into all levels of the college-wide engineering curriculum that deal with the modeling, analysis, and control of dynamic systems. The scope of the lab audience includes demonstrations of the technology to freshmen through senior-level design projects and undergraduate independent research. The project stresses collaboration among departments within the college by incorporating the lab into several existing courses. The impact of this project is the development of engineers trained on industrially relevant devices. These engineers have a solid grounding in both theory and some of the relevant applications. Since many engineering systems contain some aspect of Fluid Power, this project directly affects the nation's technological workforce and increases its competitiveness.