Using Open Ended Undergraduate Robotics Projects to Teach Innovation to Today’s Engineering Students

Abstract

Engineering and Engineering Technology students need to learn to innovate and embrace new technologies as they develop and progress through their careers. The undergraduate degree program needs to provide this first opportunity at innovation allowing the student to gain experience and confidence at solving technological problems. This paper describes the learning experiences in innovation using an undergraduate course in robotics and automation. The course is composed of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering Technology students. The paper relates the successful attempt the students had in developing and using innovation through the creation opened-ended industrial robot system projects. The undergraduate student project teams in the course are self-directed and have to use innovation to develop a robotic project of their own design. This breaks the cycle of students just doing the same preset experiments that others have done before them. Although doing preset experiments can reinforce theory given in classroom, it does little to develop skills in innovation, which will be the key to success in the global economy. The course provides an excellent framework for the student teams to demonstrate their ability to innovate using new technology to solve a complex problem while having the mentorship from instructors as they take their first steps in actually doing innovation. The confidence and process used to solve these problems will provide a basis upon which they can formulate new strategies to incorporate new technologies throughout their career.