Mechatronics Education Innovation
An NSF funded workshop on designing a foundation for the future
of mechatronics education
Workshop Objectives
- To identify key industrial and educational priorities for emerging demands in complex mechatronics and robotic systems and to reconcile the respective perspectives into pragmatic, effective roadmaps for post-secondary institutions including universities and technical colleges.
- To offer a needed forum for post-secondary institutions to learn the best practices in building effective and industrially relevant education and training programs.
- To disseminate key messages from the workshop to other institutions by drawing faculty attendees from a mix of community colleges, four year colleges, and others to participate as part of the audience.
Workshop Sessions
The workshop will have two co-chairs, one from academia and one from industry. The workshop will have an industry panel and an academic panel, followed by lunch-time discussions and a best practices session. Finally, there will be demonstration session as well.
Industry panel: The workshop will start with an opening overview talk by the industry moderator. This will set the stage for a panel discussion involving the four industry panelists who will be engaged in a Q&A to draw out their priority recommendations to the audience. The panelists answers may be informed by their own industry sector or broad trends across sectors. Illustrative examples of questions include the following.
a. What are the current needs and challenges that industry faces in recruiting engineering talent for mechatronics and robotics sectors? What are the types of technical skills industry needs (integration, programming, validation, etc.)? What are the tools in use? How does industry provide in-house training and what are some suggestions to integrate such practices in post-secondary and graduate education?
b. What is the road map that panelists envision for pervasive diffusion and adoption of mechatronics and robotics technologies in society? Which sectors will emerge as leaders in three, five, and ten years time frame? What are the implications for education and workforce development?
c. What role might industry play in helping formulate the mechatronics and robotics education, training, and research agenda in post-secondary and graduate education level? What are incentives and barriers for making this happen?
Academic panel: The second session will start with an opening overview talk by the academic moderator. This will set the stage for a panel discussion involving the four academic panelists who will be engaged in a Q&A to draw out their priority recommendations to the audience. The panelists' answers may be informed by their differing perspectives. Illustrative examples of questions include the following.
a. What are some key components of your mechatronics education program design? What are the drivers behind this design? What is the balance between theory and applied work in your mechatronics education program?
b. What are the impacts of mechatronics education program design on faculty, labs, projects, etc.? What are the student outcomes?
c. How often do you revise your mechatronics education program? What are the roles of inputs from graduates, their employers, etc.? What mechanisms do you employ to get the feedback, etc.?
d. How is your program responding to emerging industry needs? How is the program evolving? How are the tools evolving? What are your expectations from industry? What can you do to meet industry expectations?
Lunch session: Informed by the recommendations from industry and academic panels, this session will engender discussions between participants who will be organized in small groups with industry and academic representatives. Each group will brainstorm "what" and "how" of an "ideal" mechatronics program and contrast their ideal with current programs. Such an effort will help reveal misalignments between industry and academia.
Best practices session: A combination of best practice case study presentations (three to four) and open discussion session will follow the lunch. The case studies will be from academic presenters who will showcase the nuts, bolts, and outcomes of their mechatronics education programs. They will link the case study presentations to answer questions and objectives of the workshop. For an end-of-the day reflection session, the participants will be organized in several small discussion groups to brainstorm lessons from case studies into a cohesive set of conclusions and recommendations.
Demonstration showcases: On the second day, a demonstration showcase will be held. This session will complement the core sessions from the first day with several hands-on technology demonstrations to introduce the audience to technology trends.
Sponsors
 National Science Foundation |
 Quanser |
 Dassault Systemes |
 National Instruments |