Planting the seeds for a Mechatronic curriculum at UALR

Abstract

In February 1999, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) launched a program in systems engineering. The program recognises the need for highly multidisciplinary, design-oriented education. This created a natural context into which a mechatronics discipline can be introduced. A course sequence in mechatronics is being developed to supplement the systems engineering curriculum and consists of the sequence Introduction to Engineering, C Programming, Elements of Mechanical Design, Circuits and Systems, Digital Systems, Control Theory, Instrumentation and Measurements, and Mechatronics. Facilities have been developed to allow students to design and analyse their parts in CAD, export them to a CAM program, which generates NC code for the CNC milling machine or lathe. This allows students to rapidly generate parts, and therefore create synergistic, integrated mechanical/electrical designs within a semester.