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Teaching Design and Manufacture of Mechanical Systems Using Multidisciplinary Teams

Abstract

The goal of this work is to increase the emphasis on the design and manufacture of mechanical systems. To aid in this effort, Mechanical Engineering (ME), Product Design and Manufacturing (PDM) faculty in the School of Engineering at Grand Valley State University (GVSU) are collaborating with Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering faculty from Kettering University using their model for the multidisciplinary integration of interdepartmental courses. This strategy includes vertical and horizontal integration along with a just-in-time approach for component design. Students may also outsource work to other classes, e.g., finite-element analysis might be done by students in a graduate course. This allows students to collaborate with people with other specialties and be introduced to integrated system design and manufacturing. It also helps them visualize the complete system and the big picture throughout the project. Integrated or multidisciplinary teams allow learning from faculty to faculty, faculty to students, and students to students. Comparisons can be made between integrated and non-integrated teams.

Introduction

A lot of progress has been made in recent years in improving engineering education, e.g., emphasizing communication skills, working in teams, integration of computer-aided engineering (CAE), and capstone/senior design projects. Previous work by the authors has focused on improving the integration of CAE1,2,3,4 into mechanical engineering programs. The goal of this paper is to document efforts to improve the experiences of students working in project design teams. The strategy is to create integrated project teams from machine design, product design, and manufacturing courses to design and build a wide variety of products. The authors are collaborating with faculty from Kettering University in an NSF-funded project to investigate the use of vertical (projects with collaboration between classes at different levels but the same discipline) and horizontal (projects with collaboration between classes at the same level but different disciplines) integration in student projects.

Another consideration is that machine design courses tend to be focused primarily on machine component design. A second goal is to increase the emphasis on the design of machine systems. To accomplish this, a just-in-time approach will be used for component design, and students may also outsource work to other classes, e.g., finite-element analysis might be done by students in a graduate course. This allows students to collaborate with people with other specialties and be introduced to integrated system design and manufacturing. It also helps them visualize the complete system and the big picture throughout the project. Integrated or multidisciplinary teams allow learning from faculty to faculty, faculty to students, and students to students. Comparisons can be made between integrated and non-integrated teams. There is also an opportunity for the administration to develop strategies for scheduling classes so that the students from each class are able to find common times to work together.

Funding provided by National Science Grant No. 0234478, Principle Investigators: Lucy King and Tony Lin, Kettering University

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Waldron, W., & Chaphalkar, P., & Choudhuri, S., & Farris, J. (2007, June), Teaching Design And Manufacture Of Mechanical Systems Paper presented at 2007 Annual Conference & Exposition, Honolulu, Hawaii. 10.18260/1-2--2546