An official website of the United States government
Practicing mechanical engineers interface regularly with machinists to design and manufacture components in metal and other engineered materials. Direct, hands-on exposure to precision machining operations, like mill and lathe work, helps young engineers design manufacturable components and facilitates better collaboration with machinists. Mechanical engineering undergraduate programs have been cited for weaknesses in training students on industry-standard manufacturing practices. While there are several excellent examples in the literature of student manufacturing projects, these projects are relatively advanced on the whole, and they require extensive human and capital resources to deploy in large-enrollment classes. Prior investigators have conserved resources by teaming students on projects, which dilutes the hands-on manufacturing experience for individual learners. In this study, we present an introductory mill training exercise for engineering students that allows them to individually develop transferable machining skills but requires fairly modest resources. This exercise, which we call the “Mini-Mill Experience,” involves students individually manufacturing two separate parts with a hobby-grade mini-mill and then completing a written self-reflection documenting their procedures and final part inspection. Students first manufacture a simple part out of reusable wax with direct coaching from a teaching assistant. They then independently manufacture one of six different wooden Erector Set components. The Mini-Mill Experience is designed to give students firsthand experience and promote confidence with the basic mill controls and operations, e.g., changing out an endmill or squaring up a face, that are transferable to the full-sized mills they will use in later courses. The one-time equipment set-up costs for this exercise were approximately $60 per student, with recurring costs of less than $2 per student for stock material. Each student completed the exercise during a two-hour lab period, and it took approximately six weeks for all students in the course (ca. 170 students) to complete the exercise. All sessions were supervised by a machinist and one to two teaching assistants. To gauge the effectiveness of the Mini-Mill Experience, a survey was distributed to all students in a freshmen year mechanical engineering design course. Survey responses indicated that the majority of the students (77%) had no prior experience with mills. Post-activity, students reported high levels of self-confidence in identifying the critical components of a mill and most basic mill operations, like proper use of a vise and tool changes. Compared to students who had prior mill experience, students with no prior experience demonstrated slightly lower self-efficacy with more advanced mill operations like creating blind holes and tapping threads. Post-activity, 75% of students agreed they “were not intimidated or afraid to use the mill to make a part,” and 90% said that they “looked forward to their next experience on a mill.” In this study, we developed an introductory manufacturing experience – the “Mini-Mill Experience” – that is effective in teaching basic mill operations, promotes students’ self-efficacy and enthusiasm for future machining experiences, and is cost effective and scalable for large class sizes. In these ways, it is a valuable addition to the existing literature and curriculum on manufacturing education for mechanical engineers. Future work by our group will focus on whether the skills acquired in the Mini-Mill Experience are transferable to manufacturing experiences later in the curriculum.
more »
« less
Faculty and Student Perceptions on Shared Teaching Materials for Advanced Manufacturing (STAM): Building Momentum Through Workshops
In this paper, we summarize the outcomes of the two workshops aimed at speeding up the transition of research-based advanced manufacturing knowledge into course curriculum for technology and engineering programs. Advanced manufacturing technologies have opened up the realm for new products that only a decade ago were considered unproducible. For example metals 3D Printing has almost no geometric limitations, which allows engineers to develop mesh–based products. Unfortunately, the educational system that serves to educate the majority of manufacturing technicians and engineers still utilizes many of the same curriculum resources for these emerging areas (textbooks, traditional lectures, etc.), frequently creating an unsuitable or inappropriate learning environment for state-of-the-science technician and engineering training. This is especially true for the development of manufacturing materials and laboratories to maintain currency in advanced manufacturing. With funding from NSF, two workshops were conducted that generated great enthusiasm for the concept of a teaching repository for advanced manufacturing technology. More than 50 advanced manufacturing instructors have attended the workshops, and a community of instructors has been created. Results from faculty and student perceptions on shared teaching materials for advanced manufacturing are also shared.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 1841320
- PAR ID:
- 10247783
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- ASEE North Midwest Section Annual Conference 2020 Publications
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
The National Resource Center for Materials Technology Education (MatEdU) and its continuation program, the MatEdU Online Digital Library, has made major progress in areas related to education, technology training, inter-communication, and networking in materials technology. A significant impact of this National Science Foundation-funded Advanced Technological Education resource center has been implementing materials technology into multiple areas, from technology and electronics education to advanced manufacturing, energy materials, and critical materials utilization. Using its website as its centerpiece, workshops, and educational modules along with opportunities for undergraduate research and faculty mentoring at community colleges are available. Practical examples abound, including guitar building, additive manufacturing, and numerous types of advanced materials and applications. This paper provides the information future programs will need to build follow-up programs to enhance technology education further.more » « less
-
"Industry 4.0-based systems and subsystems are replacing current process and process control equipment in Florida’s manufacturing environment. The Florida State College System Engineering Technology (ET) degree pathway for developing engineering technology professionals is responding to this reality at the ET two-year associate degree, the 4-year ET B.S. degree, and post-graduate degrees as well as a statewide recognized path to the Professional Engineers license in Engineering Technology. The National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education program (NSF-ATE) supports this effort. NSF-ATE assets provided to FLATE and five partner colleges are directed to the formation of a statewide advisory board for the 20 colleges that offer ET degrees as well as supporting six overarching Florida ET education system target goals: (1) Adjust Florida Department of Education Standards and Benchmarks to include criteria that address Florida manufacturer-identified Industry 4.0 skills gap in its technical workforce. (2) Create a statewide streamlined seamless articulation environment from the Engineering Technology A.S. to B.S. degree programs. (3) Provide Professional Development that up-skills Engineering Technology Degree faculty as related to identified Industry 4.0 technician skill needs. (4) Create a short-term ET College Credit Certificate to prepare current and future technicians to apply these new skills in the manufacturing workspace. (5) Amplify the manufacturer's involvement with college engineering technology certificates and A.S.ET degree programs. (6) Create Post-A.S. Curriculum Advanced Technology Certificate (ATC) to facilitate skilled technician professional advancement. Statewide implementation of the curriculum changes is key to more robust programs and more work-ready technician graduates. This paper and presentation poster will share the strategies the project team is using to achieve its goals and objectives. It will also share the feedback received from the industry relative to industry 4.0 skills needed in their facilities."more » « less
-
The Internet of Things (IoT) technologies can enable products to become smarter through sensing their environment, analyzing lots of data (big data), and connecting to the Internet to allow for the exchange of data. As smart products become ubiquitous, they provide enormous opportunities for scientists and engineers to invent new products and build interconnected systems of vast scale. As a result, the STEM workforce demands are shifting rapidly. Mechanical engineers will play a significant role in innovating and designing smart products and manufacturing systems of the Industry 4.0 revolution. However, the current mechanical engineering curriculum has not kept pace. In this paper, we present an overview of a new curriculum along with the design of an inexpensive smart flowerpot device that was used as an instructional tool throughout the curriculum. We provide details about how two curriculum modules were implemented in the first offering of the course. Preliminary assessment results from the first offering of the course are discussed.more » « less
-
null (Ed.)COVID-19 has altered the landscape of teaching and learning. For those in in-service teacher education, workshops have been suspended causing programs to adapt their professional development to a virtual space to avoid indefinite postponement or cancellation. This paradigm shift in the way we conduct learning experiences creates several logistical and pedagogical challenges but also presents an important opportunity to conduct research about how learning happens in these new environments. This paper describes the approach we took to conduct research in a series of virtual workshops aimed at teaching rural elementary teachers about engineering practices and how to teach a unit from an engineering curriculum. Our work explores how engineering concepts and practices are socially constructed through interactions with teachers, students, and artifacts. This approach, called interactional ethnography has been used by the authors and others to learn about engineering teaching and learning in precollege classrooms. The approach relies on collecting data during instruction, such as video and audio recordings, interviews, and artifacts such as journal entries and photos of physical designs. Findings are triangulated by analyzing these data sources. This methodology was going to be applied in an in-person engineering education workshop for rural elementary teachers, however the pandemic forced us to conduct the workshops remotely. Teachers, working in pairs, were sent workshop supplies, and worked together during the training series that took place over Zoom over four days for four hours each session. The paper describes how we collected video and audio of teachers and the facilitators both in whole group and in breakout rooms. Class materials and submissions of photos and evaluations were managed using Google Classroom. Teachers took photos of their work and scanned written materials and submitted them all by email. Slide decks were shared by the users and their group responses were collected in real time. Workshop evaluations were collected after each meeting using Google Forms. Evaluation data suggest that the teachers were engaged by the experience, learned significantly about engineering concepts and the knowledge-producing practices of engineers, and feel confident about applying engineering activities in their classrooms. This methodology should be of interest to the membership for three distinct reasons. First, remote instruction is a reality in the near-term but will likely persist in some form. Although many of us prefer to teach in person, remote learning allows us to reach many more participants, including those living in remote and rural areas who cannot easily attend in-person sessions with engineering educators, so it benefits the field to learn how to teach effectively in this way. Second, it describes an emerging approach to engineering education research. Interactional ethnography has been applied in precollege classrooms, but this paper demonstrates how it can also be used in teacher professional development contexts. Third, based on our application of interactional ethnography to an education setting, readers will learn specifically about how to use online collaborative software and how to collect and organize data sources for research purposes.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- The DOI is not currently available.
