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Session 2793

A Structure for Integration of Manufacturing and Mechanical Design Engineering Courses

Lucy Siu-Bik King, Ph.D. , Jacqueline El-Sayed, Ph.D.

Kettering University, 1700 West Third Ave Flint, MI 48504-4898

Abstract

Recent technological and industrial advancements have created a need for new initiatives in higher education programs. Graduating engineers today must be well versed and proficient in many disciplines other than their major fields. Not only do they need to be knowledgeable, but also be able to synthesize and apply their knowledge to the current product and/or system development tasks. As an initial phase in addressing this need, an integrated course structure was developed between Manufacturing Engineering course MFGG-490 Robotics and MECH-312 Design of Mechanical Components. Three inter-disciplinary student teams were formed with the objective for each team to design, analyze, fabricate, install and test a robot gripper to pick up injection molded parts from the molding machine. The students interacted and communicated both during common lab times and outside of the classroom. As a result, there were many simultaneous design and manufacturing process information changes. Students designed, redesigned, analyzed, machined gripper parts, assembled them, and tested the function of the grippers. A competition was held and the best optimal gripper was chosen based on the functionality and quality of work performed. The next iteration will include design of experiments to verify gripper functions.

The students were enthusiastic in the assessment survey given. Students felt that having to design under strict budget and time restraints, communicating and working with engineers from different disciplines would “greatly benefit their engineering careers.” Through this integrated learning experience, students gained interdisciplinary design experience to better their proficiency of the real world, multi-disciplinary design synthesis process.

Introduction and Background

Recent technological and industrial advancements have created a need for new initiatives in higher education programs. Graduating engineers today must be well versed and proficient in many disciplines other than their major fields. Not only do they need to be knowledgeable, but also be able to synthesize and apply their knowledge to the current product and/or system development tasks. Incorporating this type of knowledge into a class structure can be challenging. The development of interdisciplinary classes is beginning to be explored among a few universities. Common classes developed involve general engineering courses combined

Proceedings of the 2003 America Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2003, American Society for Engineering Education

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King, L., & El-Sayed, J. (2003, June), A Structure For Integration Of Manufacturing And Mechanical Design Engineering Courses Paper presented at 2003 Annual Conference, Nashville, Tennessee. 10.18260/1-2--11748