Information Technology in Engineering Education
Year: 2012
Editor: Lyndon Buck, Geert Frateur, William Ion, Chris McMahon, Chris Baelus, Guido De Grande, Stijn Verwulgen
Author: Sindermann, Sebastian; Eigner, Martin
Series: E&PDE
Institution: Technische Universit
Section: New Design Education Paradigms
Page(s): 405-410
ISBN: 978-1-904670-36-0
Abstract
Engineering education at university level is a complex topic which includes all three components of mechatronics: mechanics, information technology and electronics. The change towards mechatronic products with a growing portion of information technology requires a holistic education approach to fulfil the requirements on engineers and their education. This paper suggests a potential solution for the interdisciplinary challenge of an information technology course for engineering. Higher functionality and complexity of almost any kind of product do not only affect the product itself but also the product engineering process. Systems engineering is a promising way to successfully design a mechatronic product. A number of requirements arise out of the need to understand and operate with mechatronics and engineering processes, e.g. interdisciplinary teamwork or system-oriented thinking. For a university one of the goals of education should always be the employability of all graduates. With only isolated knowledge of a few special disciplines the demand of the global job market for engineers is by far not met. The educational vision is derived from all relevant requirements and tries to provide students with an interdisciplinary and holistic understanding of the engineering process. This includes technical and methodological expertise, social and communicative skills and decision making and responsibility. A concrete implementation of this vision in engineering education has to fulfil all technical requirements, prepare the student for the global job market and still keep the motivation at a high level. Integrating mechatronic products into the curriculum is a promising way to successful engineering education.
Keywords: Information technology, interdisciplinary education, product engineering