Mechatronics - Southern Polytechnic State University

Mechatronics from Southern Polytechnic State University is a Campus Bachelor Mechanical Engineering degree that prepares you for a Engineering career. Overview The Need for Interdisciplinary Education Many engineered products and processes are developed by integrating multiple technologies into a problem solution. These technologies often span a variety of disciplines, thereby increasing the complexities of design problems faced by engineers. If an engineering design team is composed of individuals trained in the classic disciplines (mechanical engineering, electrical engineering , chemical engineering ?), it will be difficult to provide the best design solution for interdisciplinary problems. Mechatronics advances the ideas of interaction further with interdisciplinary thinking by individual engineers in addition to the multi-disciplinary team approaches. Tomizuka [8] supports this conclusion by stating ?Mechatronics may be interpreted as the best practice for the synthesis of engineering systems?. Kevin Craig, Professor of Mechanical Engineering in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, states: "Mechatronics does not change the design process. It gives the engineer greater knowledge, so the concepts that are developed are better, and communication with other engineering disciplines is improved. The result is a highly balanced design." Van Brussel, a robotics researcher, also supports mechatronics interdisciplinary education. In the IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, Van Brussel wrote: "In the past, machine and product design has, almost exclusively, been the preoccupation of mechanical engineers. Solutions to control and programming problems were added by control and software engineers, after the machine had been designed by mechanical engineers. This sequential-engineering approach usually resulted in suboptimal designs. Recently, machine design has been profoundly influenced by the evolution of microelectronics, control engineering , and computer science. What is needed, as a solid basis for designing high-performance machines, is a synergistic cross-fertilization between the different engineering disciplines. This is exactly what mechatronics is aiming at; it is a concurrent-engineering view of machine design [28]." The lack of interdisciplinary education and its importance are claimed by Mayer-Krahmer [9]. Studies discussed by Mayer-Krahmer have concluded that technology should not be separated into the discrete classic disciplines. Mechatronic innovations are often stimulated from an integrated discipline approach as opposed to the composite of disparate disciplines [19]. The full potential of interdisciplinary solutions results from bridging the gap between product technologies and engineering disciplines [9][10]. In other studies by: 1) Association of American Colleges and Universities 2002 [13]; 2) National Research Council 2002 [14], 3) National Research Council 2003a [15]; 4) National Research Council 2003b [16]; and 5) Project Kaleidoscope 2002 [17]; science and engineering educators are urged to move toward more interdisciplinary education. Mechatronics Engineering - The Need in Industry The National Science Board (NSB) publishes Science and Engineering Indicators for the U.S. every two years. The NSB observed alarming trends in the data published in Indicators 2004 and published a companion report [29]. Quoting the observations in the report: ?we have observed a troubling decline in the number of U.S. citizens who are training to become scientists and engineers, whereas the number of jobs requiring science and engineering (S&E) training continues to grow.? The report editors were compelled to issue a warning: ?These trends threaten the economic welfare and security of our country.? A previously published report NSB 03-69, 2003 drew similar conclusions. The NSB report estimates the number of U.S. jobs requiring S&E skills is growing about 5% per year, compared to a 1% growth for the rest of the labor force. Concern is also expressed over foreign competition. The NSB states that other countries have made increased S&E education investments at higher rates than the U.S. The State of Georgia is ranked 42nd in the number of natural science and engineering bachelor?s degrees conferred per 1,000 population of 18-24 year-olds, as shown in Figure 1. Mechatronics engineering is obtaining an increasing level of interest among college bound students. Indications of this are discussed under ?Student Demand for a Mechatronics Engineering Degree.? Providing a B.S. degree in Mechatronics Engineering will help to improve Georgia?s role in supplying future engineers to meet industry?s need. Siemens Energy and Automation (SE&A), a subsidiary of Siemens AG, is committed to undergraduate mechatronics education because of their job force needs. SE&A has corporate headquarters in Alpharetta, Georgia and employs 9400 people in 31 manufacturing, assembly, and distribution facilities, 8 regional sales offices, and 100+ area sales offices. Of these employees, 3,250 reside and work in the metropolitan Atlanta area. Siemens AG employs 26,000 people in 153 facilities nation wide. Globally, Siemens employs more than 30,000 software engineers and 103,000 scientists and engineers. SE&A has issued a $225,000 grant to SPSU in support of this proposal. Tom Kopanski, Vice President and General Manager of the Automation and Motion Division of SE&A, has provided a strong commitment to the BSMtrE degree program. They have also donated approximately $250,000 in laboratory equipment, including a plastic injection molding system, nine manufacturing automation training systems, and provided SIMATIC Step7 automation and control software tools for the SPSU Computer-Integrated Manufacturing Laboratory. Rick Meyers, SE&A?s Vice President of Business Development, said he would have hired 20 Mechatronics Engineers in each of the last 2 years, if he could have found them. Instead, they have hired mechanical and electrical engineers and then put them through intensive internal training courses. View more details on Southern Polytechnic State University . Ask your questions and apply online for this program or find other related Mechanical Engineering courses.