New Frontiers of Mechatronics Education for Mobility, Energy, and Production Engineering

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This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated engineers and technicians in production engineering. It will do so by supporting workshops on mechatronics education. Mechatronics is a multidisciplinary/ interdisciplinary science that integrates knowledge from electronics, mechanics, control theory, and computer science. An industrial robot is an example of a mechatronics system. Hybrid systems important to mechatronics include production systems, automotive subsystems such as anti-lock brakes, and everyday tools such as autofocus cameras, video, hard disks, and CD players. The field of mechatronics offers many employment opportunities for existing workforces that face automation-related job loss, as well as for future workers. The workshops will explore educational pathways into mechatronics careers, from K-12 through working professionals, including development of new mechatronics curricula and hands-on laboratories. In addition to defining education pathways, the workshops will explore new teaching methods using mechatronics technologies for mechatronics workforce development, including the use of virtual, augmented, and mixed reality approaches. The workshops will also explore workforce diversity and equity issues in the mechatronics production engineering field. Results of the workshops will be published on a project website for free download by any interested person or group. This report will include descriptions of the participants and insights resulting from the workshops.Two workshops will be held, one at Wayne State University in Detroit Michigan (focused on focusing on mechatronics applications in the ground mobility and alternative energy) and the other at California State University, Long Beach (focused on mechatronics applications in aerospace engineering). The workshops will include representatives from local industry and universities. Discussions will center on pedagogies, tools, assessment methods, technological progress in mechatronics, and societal impacts including workforce diversity. In the workshops, current challenges and future trends in mechatronics markets and technologies will be discussed by industry personnel. Researchers and university faculty will present recent research and the latest inventions. Engineering education faculty and K-12 teachers will contribute experiences and ideas for new teaching technologies such as design software, control hardware and software, and extended reality visualizations through virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality. Experts will also discuss the development and growth of a mechatronics workforce for production engineering, including how to develop a diverse workforce and provide equitable access to mechatronics education and careers. This project is funded by NSF's EHR Core Research: Production Engineering Education and Research (ECR: PEER) program, which seeks to improve the education of future and current professionals in production engineering. It also aims to study the effectiveness of the innovative educational strategies adopted by these projects.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.