摘要

Abstract Implementing Mechatronics Design Methodology in Mechanical Engineering TechnologySenior Design Projects at the Old Dominion UniversityMultidisciplinary area of mechatronics has gained attention of various stakeholders such asindustry, apprenticeship programs, community colleges and academia. As a nature ofengineering design has changed recently due to changes in embedded system design andcomputer technologies, it is rare to design a purely mechanical design with no electrical andelectronic components. Therefore, there is a need for students form mechanical engineeringtechnology program to go one step further than their regular core curriculum courses taken in thearea of electrical engineering technology. For that purpose, various undergraduate programs inengineering technology have added mechatronics courses in their curriculum. These coursesusually focuses on a problem based learning and project based approach. In this way, futuredesigners and manufacturing engineers can learn about applications of mechatronics which isvery important for their future careers in various industries, especially in advancedmanufacturing sector which has a shortage of skilled workforce for many positions related torobotics and mechatronics. Mechanical Engineering Technology program already has courses inadvanced manufacturing area such as Robotics, Automation, Lean Manufacturing, ComputerIntegrated Manufacturing and Advanced Manufacturing Processes. Two courses related toMechatronics were added to the same focus area of Advanced Manufacturing. In this paper, aneffect to current senior design projects related to the area of mechatronics will be given. Many ofengineering technology students enjoy working on their senior design projects which includehands on experience, design and realization of a mechatronic device. They feel more confidentafter they completed a functional prototype to join a workforce with skills needed to successfullyfunction in a cross-disciplinary teams. These projects build on their knowledge related tomicrocontrollers, sensors, actuators, system response, interfacing and programming. Byembedding these experience into their design project, they get exposed to other engineeringtechnology areas and learn the terminology of other profession.Keywords: mechatronics, capstone design, multidisciplinary engineering, collaborativeengineering