Competitive Assessment Laboratory

在当今瞬息万变、竞争日益激烈的市场环境中，制造商必须跟上竞争产品线的技术进步和设计创新。竞争力评估这个术语是由制造商创造的，用来描述对其他制造商的产品线进行合乎道德的获取、检查、分析、测量和测试的过程。在罗文大学的竞争评估实验室，来自四个工程系的新生工程专业的多学科团队将在一台家用电器上执行上述每一项任务。除了向学生介绍设计的科学和艺术之外，竞争评估实验室还将允许多学科的教员团队评估典型的工程专业学生进入学习课程时不断变化的初始条件。正如本提案中详细描述的那样，竞争评估实验室将包括5个消费类电器测试站，配备能够测量热电偶和电压/电流信号的基于PC的数据采集系统。每个站点还将配备机械测量设备和便携式材料检测设备。该实验室还将配备一个材料测试站，配备桌面机械测试系统和洛氏硬度计。罗文大学竞争评估实验室的目标如下：1)通过评估实习设计师的工作，向一年级新生介绍设计科学和设计艺术，为创新的四年制设计课程提供起点；2)向多学科的工程专业学生小组介绍统一的工程科学原理，如流体力学、固体力学、热力学、运输和电力/磁学，将消费电器作为试验台；3)使学生能够确定科学原理、材料特性、制造技术、成本、安全要求、环境考虑因素和知识产权对产品设计的影响。4)允许新生通过测量和评估消费电器的性能，积极参与有意义的设计工作；5)为教师提供评估新生工程背景的手段，并通过实践经验解决行业工具的经验缺陷。

In today's quickly changing and increasingly competitive market place, it is imperative that manufacturers keep abreast of the technological advances and design innovations incorporated into competing product lines. The term competitive assessment has been coined by manufacturers to describe the process of ethically acquiring, inspecting, analyzing, instrumenting and testing the product lines of other manufacturers. In the Competitive Assessment Laboratory at Rowan University, multidisciplinary teams of freshman engineering students from each of the four engineering departments will perform each of the above tasks on a consumer appliance. In addition to introducing students to the science and art of design, the Competitive Assessment Laboratory will allow multidisciplinary teams of faculty to assess the constantly evolving initial conditions under which the typical engineering student enters his or her course of study. As described in detail in this proposal, the Competitive Assessment Laboratory will contain 5 consumer appliance test stations featuring PC-based data acquisition systems capable of measuring thermocouple and voltage/current signals. Each station will also be equipped with mechanical measurement equipment and portable materials testing equipment. The laboratory will also be outfitted with a materials testing station featuring a table top mechanical testing system and a Rockwell hardness tester. The objectives of the Competitive Assessment Laboratory at Rowan University are as follows: 1) Provide the launching pad for an innovative, four year design curriculum by introducing freshmen to the science and art of design by evaluating the work of practicing designers, 2) Introduce multidisciplinary groups of engineering students to unifying engineering science principles such as fluid mechanics, solid mechanics, thermodynamics, transport and electricity/magnetism using the consumer appliance as a test bed, 3) Enable students to determine how scientific principles, material propert ies, manufacturing techniques, cost, safety requirements, environmental considerations and intellectual property rights impact the design of a product, 4) Allow freshman students to actively participate in a meaningful design effort by instrumenting and evaluating the performance of a consumer appliance, 5) Provide faculty with the means to assess the engineering background of incoming students and address experiential deficiencies via hands-on experience with the tools of the trade.