Putting design and manufacturing back into the engineering curriculum

A new model is demonstrated for integrating design, manufacturing and business realities into the engineering curriculum. Called the Learning Factory, it is a new practice-based curriculum and physical facilities for product realization. Its goal is to provide an improved educational experience that emphasizes the interdependency of manufacturing and design in a business environment. The Learning Factory is the result of a desire to graduate better engineering professionals with technical competence in engineering science fundamentals as well as professional skills to effectively compete in today’s market place. The key element in this approach is active learning - the combination of curriculum revitalization with coordinated opportunities for application and hands-on experience; thereby erasing the traditional boundaries between lecture and laboratory, academia and industrial practice. As a result of this initiative, over 14,000 square feet of Learning Factory facilities have been built or renovated across the partner schools and are now serving hundreds of students. Five new courses which integrate manufacturing, design and business concerns and make use of these facilities have been instituted. These courses are an integral part of a new curriculum option in Product Realization which is now available at all three schools. They were developed by a unique team approach and their materials are available electronically over the Internet. The courses are: Product Dissection, Concurrent Engineering, Technology-based Entrepreneurship, Process Quality Engineering, and Senior Design Projects. Industry partners are providing real-world problems and are the customers for students in our senior capstone design courses. To date, 148 interdisciplinary projects have been completed across the three schools. These projects involve teams of students from Industrial, Mechanical, Electrical, Chemical Engineering and Business.