SGER: Development of a Multi-Scale Manufacturing Teaching Laboratory

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This Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SGER) project will introduce multi-scale manufacturing education into the mechanical engineering curriculum at Purdue to address critical current and future needs of research and industrial enterprise. Traditional manufacturing occurs at macroscopic length scales using mills, lathes, and rapid prototyping (layered manufacturing) tools. In the future, mechanical components will be increasingly created at the micrometer and eventually nanometer length scales. Thus, mechanical engineers of the 21st century must gain additional experience in microfabrication and nanofabrication of silicon and non-silicon materials. To accomplish this objective, a combined teaching lab - student shop will be established to support small-scale fabrication in conjunction with a well-established student machine shop, where instruction in traditional manufacturing methods will continue. The new laboratory facility, the Multi-scale Manufacturing Center (MMC) Pilot Facility, will address all major microfabrication processes, with a focus on "soft lithography," and will be affiliated with Purdue's ME Student Machine Shop, which already supports service-learning initiatives, national student car projects, and numerous other student activities. As such, it will support dual use for education and research, because both graduate and undergraduate students will routinely use these facilities for research projects in addition to scheduled classes. The effort will have tremendously broad impact, both at Purdue and throughout the country. This seed effort will begin the initial phase of a planned reformation of the ME curriculum in manufacturing at Purdue. Ultimately, a new MMC facility will be established in a building expansion project scheduled for initiation in 2005. When implemented, this facility will enable each ME undergraduate (approximately 250/class) to use the facility more than a dozen times during their studies. At the national scale, we expect that the proposed work will serve as a model for establishment of multi-scale manufacturing educational laboratories throughout the country. Recognizing a common inertia among engineering departments in implementing lab-based curriculum reforms, we anticipate that the free dissemination of laboratory manuals, guides, and brochures, presentations at prominent workshops and conferences, and future opportunities for federal funding of such reforms will facilitate adoption, either fully or partially, of the products of the proposed research.