Development of a Mechatronics Design Studio

Mechatronics is a combination of mechanics, electronics and information technology intended to raise the intelligence level and flexibility of products and devices. There is a need to develop programs and laboratories in Mechatronics to create an understanding of how new technologies influence the traditional methods of designing products and manufacturing systems. A model Mechatronics Design Studio has recently been developed to support the Mechatronics and Manufacturing Automation courses offered at Cal Poly\u27s Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Department. Laboratory experiments have been developed and several student projects have been completed. In this paper, an overview of the design studio and select student projects is provided

Recipe for an Outstanding Honors Program

The primary objective of this research was to compare and contrast the practices of Honors Programs throughout the California State University system. From February 14th through February 24th, 2007, an email survey was conducted of all CSU Honors Program directors. The directors were asked questions about their current program offerings, as well as their successes and failures in the past. This data will be used in fundraising efforts and in guiding future program expansion for Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s Honors Program and will be distributed to other interested directors. The survey was sent via email to all eighteen honors program directors in the 2006-2007 CSU Honors Consortium and received nine responses. In addition, answers to certain questions were obtained from the programs’ websites. As promised when the survey was distributed, in order to protect program privacy, responses will not be identified by school name in this report, except Cal Poly SLO, which conducted the survey. The Cal Poly SLO Honors Program sends a very special “thank you” to the directors of each of the following Honors Programs since their timely participation in this survey was crucial for this paper – Bakersfield, Chico, Fresno, Northridge, Cal Poly Pomona, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Francisco and Stanislaus

Product Flexibility in Selecting Manufacturing Planning and Control Strategy

The manufacturing systems capable of producing several products simultaneously are frequently subject to changes in product types due to demand fluctuations. In such systems a product flexible manufacturing planning and control (MPC) strategy is needed to change from one product type to another with minimum deterioration to system performance levels. The objective of this research is to develop a systematic analysis and evaluation approach in order to compare the MRP-push and JIT-pull strategies quantitatively based on a product flexibility measure. A new product flexibility measure is developed based on the sensitivity to change concept and presented together with the implementation in a real manufacturing system. Simulation is used to compare the performance of a JIT-pull with an MRP-push strategy based on performance measures, e.g. manufacturing lead time, work-in-process inventory, backorders, machine utilization and throughput. The performances of the two strategies are evaluated in two scenarios: (i) a single product; (ii) a second product is added (the first product being simple and the second being complex in terms of processing). The impacts of adding the second product on the performance measures for the push and pull strategies are then assessed. A multi-attribute evaluation scheme is used to compare the two strategies where the attribute values are the change in performance measures as the second product is added. The proposed product flexibility measure is utilized in the interpretation of the results

Integrating Courses Through Project Based Learning

Integrating three courses (one sophomore level, two senior level) through Project Based Learning (PBL) within the Industrial Engineering curriculum at the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo is presented. Three courses (IME 443 Facilities Planning and Design - senior level; IME 420 Simulation - senior level; and IME 223 Process Improvement Fundamentals - sophomore level) were linked by various mechanisms: Common industry projects, common students in two of the three courses; senior students having access to sophomores in their teams to carry out time consuming tasks such as time studies, and sophomores having access to seniors as team members, and as coaches and mentors. “Industry partners” opened their doors to a group of students to identify “process improvement opportunities”. Each student team included students from each of the participating classes. Scheduling of courses back to back in the morning provided students longer periods of class time to visit companies for their project work. One of the unique opportunities in this project was for the faculty to model collaboration around complex problems with no easy solution (integration of course), just as the students are required to do. Student interest is high. Faculty development is also enhanced by the enjoyable collaboration experience

Preparing the Leaders for Mechatronics Education

Mechatronics is the synergetic combination of precision mechanical engineering, electronic control and systems thinking in the design of products and processes. There is a need to develop interdisciplinary programs in Mechatronics that better prepare our graduates to design, build, and operate the products and systems of today and tomorrow. To address this need, National Science Foundation funded a project entitled Preparing the Leaders for Mechatronics Education undertaken by Cal Poly in 1995 - 1996. In this paper, the activities that took place during this two-year program is outlined. Several courses and course modules have already been developed and implemented by the participants of this program for their own universities. Some of their pioneering work in this field is also summarized