Infusing Advanced Manufacturing into Undergraduate Engineering Education (2023) / Chapter Skim
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3 Experiential Learning for Advanced Manufacturing
3 Experiential Learning for Advanced Manufacturing
Pages 36-47
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From page 36... ...
Curricular experiential learning activities (also loosely known as practicums)
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From page 37... ...
highlighted the importance of practicums and other experiential learning activities in preparing students for careers in advanced manufacturing; 88.9 percent mentioned internships and 80.6 percent mentioned hands-on laboratories. More observations from this request for input are presented in Appendix B
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From page 38... ...
The Capstone Design Survey, initiated by Susannah Howe, the capstone design director at Smith College, provides an excellent source of information about the current state of capstone projects.2 It has been carried out three times -- in 1994, 2005, and 2015 -- with the next one scheduled for 2025; Howe reported that there were 360 respondents in 1994, 444 in 2005, and 522 in 2015. The greatest number of responses came from those in the mechanical and aerospace engineering fields, followed by electrical and computer engineering, civil and environmental engineering, chemical engineering, and biomedical engineering.
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From page 39... ...
"As they work through those projects," Fleischer said, "they are building not only the prototypes but also looking at costing and how they would transition to scale manufacturing."3 Similarly, according to Chris Saldaña, Ring Family Associate Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) , mechanical engineering students at Georgia Tech factor manufacturing considerations into their projects through assessing the cost of scaling up and outsourcing production of a single unit.4 Some schools, like Virginia Tech and Pennsylvania State University, have so-called learning factories that allow students, as part of their capstone projects, to work closely with manufacturing companies to implement advanced manufacturing solutions.
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From page 40... ...
They should reduce admin istrative overheads for industry sponsors, offer students an option to select these courses, and provide incentives if necessary. EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING THROUGHOUT THE UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM While capstone projects provide students with experiential learning at the end of their degree program, it is important to infuse experiential learning throughout the curriculum.
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From page 41... ...
Recommendation 3.2: Engineering program leaders should incor porate and expand experiential activities wherever possible in the engineering program, with emphasis on advanced manufacturing technologies. These activities should include hands-on laboratories, independent study, capstone courses, and cocurricular activities.
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From page 42... ...
Benefits to undergraduates engaging in applied research are enthusiastically reported.7 Another way of expanding the portfolio and access to advanced manufacturing research projects for students is to engage them in projects led by industry or by one of the innovation institutes. These opportunities can be amplified by increasing the support for applied research in advanced manufacturing and adding incentives for undergraduate participation (such as NSF's research experiences for undergraduates, REU8)
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From page 43... ...
They should provide opportunities for students to have significant hands-on experience with advanced manufacturing, to network, to share ideas, and to become familiar with engineering culture. VARIED EDUCATIONAL PATHWAYS Students engage in a variety of cocurricular or extracurricular activities to bolster their curricular experiential learning.
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From page 44... ...
For example, the firms select the students, rather than the U.S. approach, where the university selects students and then helps them find placements with firms.10 Recommendation 3.4: University engineering programs should provide opportunities for educational pathways that give students practical exposure to advanced manufacturing outside the formal undergraduate curriculum (e.g., through summer classes in machin ing or advanced manufacturing certificate programs)
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From page 45... ...
This provides the students, who will make purchasing decisions over their careers, with some experience with a software product. Examples of companies that have successfully provided discounted software to educational institutions, resulting in substantial industry adoption, include MathWorks (MATLAB)
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From page 46... ...
Development of such courses needs to be pursued. Such academic and industry synergies could easily form the foundation for scaling and deployment of new technologies into the undergraduate manufacturing curricula and eventually directly into the workforce in much the same manner that Google Workspace, Microsoft Office, MATLAB, and LabVIEW have been successful in penetrating the academic marketplace.
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From page 47... ...
A related challenge is that advanced manufacturing is a rapidly evolving field. The equipment needed to provide experiential learning is constantly changing, and it costs a lot to keep replacing equipment to provide students with state-of-the-art training.
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