Concurrent Laboratory Improvement for a Revised Mechanical Engineering Curriculum

1998年，韦恩州立大学的机械工程本科课程将进行重大修订，旨在增加学生的课时安排灵活性，减少必修课的数量，增加技术选修课的学分，合并和重组一些课程，并将实验室与讲座结合起来。这项建议是在实施这一新课程所带来的独特机会的基础上提出的。该提案提出了一项同时改进实验室的计划，这将大大加强修订后的课程，并对学生的学习产生重大影响。拟议的项目将使八名参与的机械工程系成员能够更有效地将实验室经验整合到课程工作中，根据教师的研究和/或行业投入开发更相关和更现实的实验，并在我们的实验室引入最先进的基于PC的虚拟仪器技术。提出了9个新的实验，并申请资金购买个人计算机、专用PC板、虚拟仪器软件、专用软硬件、传感器和仪器建设材料，以实施这些实验。已获得大学对匹配资金的承诺，并详细说明了项目的评估和结果的传播

In 1998, the undergraduate Mechanical Engineering curriculum at Wayne State University will undergo major revisions aimed at increasing class scheduling flexibility for students, reducing the number of required courses, increasing the number of technical elective credits, combining and reorganizing a number of courses, and integrating laboratories with lectures. This proposal was developed on the basis of the unique opportunity presented by the implementation of this new curriculum. The proposal presents a plan for concurrent laboratory improvements which will significantly enhance the revised curriculum and have a strong impact on student learning. The proposed project will make it possible for the eight participating Mechanical Engineering faculty members to more effectively integrate laboratory experiences into coursework, to develop more relevant and realistic experiments based on faculty research and/or industry input and to introduce state-of-the-art PC-based virtual instrumentation technology in our laboratories. Nine new experiments are proposed, and funding is requested to purchase personal computers, special PC boards, virtual instrumentation software, special software and hardware, transducers, and materials for apparatus construction in order to implement the experiments. University commitments for matching funds have been secured and the evaluation of the project and the dissemination of its results are described in detail