New Course Development in Advanced Mechatronics

机电一体化是指机械和电气原理之间的相互作用，适用于越来越多的工业产品和工艺。尽管这一跨学科领域的重要性，今天的许多工程毕业生没有准备好在需要他们整合电气和机械知识领域的环境中胜任工作。此外，需要在沟通和团队合作方面具有更好技能的工程师，以确保美国在当今全球经济中的竞争力。我们的项目通过开发两个以团队为导向的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课程。对于我们的项目，我们一直在努力实现以下目标：（a）满足工业合作伙伴的需要，让工程师接受机电一体化原理和应用方面的教育，（B）通过更多地使用面向团队、基于项目的跨学科方法进行机电一体化教学，提高学生在沟通技能、团队合作和项目管理方面的能力，（c）通过向工程专业学生提供机电一体化教学，提高他们对终身学习的认识;（d）通过让新生和大学预科生参与传感器和执行器的实践教学，提高妇女和代表性不足的少数群体对工程专业的参与。为了实现我们的目标，开展了一些活动。我们的课程是围绕密歇根州立大学的机电系统建模与仿真和克莱姆森大学的机电系统设计进行建模的。此外，Rensselaer理工学院的机电一体化执行器和传感器课程以及伊利诺伊大学/厄巴纳-香槟分校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为用于动手的大学预科学习模块。这些单元正在被纳入现有的大学预科外联活动，这些活动为高比例的女性和少数民族高中生提供服务。我们项目的一个重要特点是评估我们的成果。我们的项目团队包括一位经验丰富的评估人员，他与我们的合作伙伴密切合作，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.