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Adapting through a Pandemic: Creating a Hands-On Mechatronics Laboratory with Team-Based Collaboration for Remote Learning

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Conference

2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Minneapolis, MN

Publication Date

August 23, 2022

Start Date

June 26, 2022

End Date

June 29, 2022

Conference Session

Multidisciplinary Engineering Division Technical Session - Interdisciplinary Capstone Projects, Pandemic Adapted Mechatronics Lab, Call for Change

Page Count

16

DOI

10.18260/1-2--41728

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/41728

Download Count

504

Paper Authors

biography

David Quintero San Francisco State University

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Dr. David Quintero received his B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering with a Minor in Mathematics from Texas A&M University, College Station. He went on to complete his M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. He then spent a few years as a robotics and controls engineer in industry before returning to pursue his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Texas at Dallas. He joined San Francisco State University in Fall 2018 as an assistant professor in Mechanical Engineering for the School of Engineering. His research focuses on 1) designing lightweight, low-cost wearable robotic systems for people of disability and 2) developing novel control schemes that provide individuals with human-like motion using wearable robotics as part of their active daily living. Mechatronics and robotics education is another primary research focus he has been involved in to enhance project-based curriculum with evidence-based strategies to train the next generation of diverse engineers in this field.

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Silverio Lopez

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Nicolas Perticari Pesci

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Abstract

This paper introduces a hands-on laboratory curriculum for an undergraduate mechatronics course that delivers a team-based collaborative student experience for remote learning. COVID-19 pandemic created unexpected challenges for educators, where in-person teachings had to quickly transition to remote learning. This significantly impacted learning outcomes for hands-on laboratory courses by students not having access to laboratory equipment and the difficulty to follow the education practice “learn by doing” in the confines of their home. A remote laboratory curriculum is introduced with a series of hands-on mechatronic labs. Three individual student labs introduce how to operate a microcontroller, process infrared sensor signals, and program digital communication displays. Then two team-based collaborative labs explore how students can transmit/receive signals to control a servo using an ESP32 microcontroller with wireless communication over a bi-directional shared server. Then a course project on remote teleoperation is introduced for student-to-student collaboration at home. The learning experience gave students insight into a growing technological area, where teleoperation is in such fields as in-home healthcare, space and ocean exploration, and human-machine collaboration. Student survey results provided positive feedback on their ability to meet project requirements with the challenges of being at home instead of having an in-person learning environment.

Quintero, D., & Lopez, S., & Perticari Pesci, N. (2022, August), Adapting through a Pandemic: Creating a Hands-On Mechatronics Laboratory with Team-Based Collaboration for Remote Learning Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41728

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