New Course Development in Advanced Mechatronics

工程-机械(56)机电一体化指的是适用于越来越多的工业产品和工艺的机械和电气原理之间的相互作用。尽管这一跨学科领域很重要，但今天的许多工程学毕业生还没有准备好在要求他们整合电气和机械知识领域的环境中胜任工作。此外，为了确保美国在当今全球经济中的竞争力，需要具备更好的沟通和团队合作技能的工程师。我们的项目通过开发两个以团队为导向、基于项目的课程来解决这些能力差距，作为先前开发的机电一体化入门课程的后续。在我们的项目中，我们一直致力于实现以下目标：(A)满足工业合作伙伴的需求，让工程师接受机电原理和应用方面的教育；(B)通过更多地使用以团队为导向、以项目为基础的跨学科方法来教授机电一体化，提高学生的沟通技能、团队合作和项目管理能力；(C)通过向这一群体传授机电一体化课程，提高工程学学生对终身学习的欣赏；以及(D)通过让大一新生和大学预科学生参与传感器和执行器的动手教学，增加女性和代表性不足的少数族裔对工程学的参与。为了实现我们的目标，已经开展了一些活动。我们的课程以密歇根州立大学的机电一体化系统建模与仿真和克莱姆森大学的机电一体化系统设计为基础。此外，伦斯勒理工学院的机电一体化中的执行器和传感器课程以及伊利诺伊大学/厄巴纳-香槟大学的传感器和仪器课程也被用于指导我们新课程的开发。为传感器和执行器课程开发的材料已被改编用于大学前的实践学习模块。这些单元正在纳入现有的大学前外联活动，这些活动服务于高比例的女高中生和少数民族高中生。我们项目的一个重要特点是对我们的成果进行评估。我们的项目团队包括一名经验丰富的评估员，他与我们的CO-PI密切合作，以确保我们的项目目标得到实现。

Engineering - Mechanical (56)Mechatronics refers to the interplay between mechanical and electrical principles that apply to a growing number of industrial products and processes. Despite the importance of this interdisciplinary area, many of today's engineering graduates are unprepared to function competently in environments that require them to integrate electrical and mechanical knowledge areas. In addition, engineers with better skills in communication and teamwork are needed to ensure U.S. competitiveness in today's global economy.Our project addresses these competency gaps by the development of two team-oriented, project-based courses as a follow-up to a previously developed Introduction toMechatronics course. For our project, we have been working on the following goals: (a) to address the need of industrial partners to have engineers educated in the principles and applications of mechatronics, (b) to improve student competencies in communication skills, teamwork, and project management through the increased use of team-oriented, project-based, interdisciplinary approaches to instruction in mechatronics, (c) to increase in engineering students an appreciation for lifelong learning by delivering instruction in mechatronics to this population, and (d) to increase the participation of women and underrepresented minorities in engineering by engaging the freshmen and pre-college populations in hands-on instruction in sensors and actuators. To achieve our goals, a number of activities have been undertaken. Our courses have been modeled around the Mechatronic System Modeling and Simulation at Michigan State University and the Mechatronics System Design at Clemson University. In addition the Actuator and Sensors in Mechatronics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute course and Sensors and Instrument course at the University of Illinois/Urbana-Champaign have also been used to guide the development of our new courses. Materials developed for the sensors and actuators course have been adapted for use in hands-on pre-college learning modules. These modules are being integrated into existing pre-college outreach activities that serve a high percentage of female and minority high school students. An important feature of our project has been the assessment of our outcomes. Our project team includes an experienced evaluator who works closely with our CO-PI's to assure that our project goals are being met.