University, Industry Launches Mechatronics Degree Program

Purdue UniversityCalumet has teamed with eight corporate sponsors to create the country'sfirst bachelor's degree program in mechatronicengineering technology.

The new program,which will focus heavily on packaging technology, will provide students withexposure to programmable logic controllers (PLCs), conveyor systems, machinevision and servo motors, as well as other technologies and various industrystandards.

"Most smallmanufacturing companies - particularly packaging machine companies - needpeople who have expertise in mechanical and electronics technology," says MasoudFathizadeh, associate professor of electrical and computer engineeringtechnology at the school. "But rather than hire two individuals, they wouldlike to have someone who has competency in both areas because that's what theyneed for machine development."

PurdueCalumet hopes to meet the needs of such companies by exposing students to bothdisciplines through coursework and through its new mechatronics laboratory,which has been outfitted by at least eight companies and one industryorganization. Sponsors include MitsubishiElectric Automation Inc., MorrisonContainer Handling Solutions, DornerManufacturing Corp., ElauCorp., Schneider Electric,Shuttleworth, Inc., Triangle PackageMachinery Co. and the Packaging MachineryManufacturers Institute.

Corporatesponsors say they believe the new degree program will create a breed ofgraduates with more practical engineering knowledge. "They will come out withan understanding of production, manufacturing, and development of controlschemes," says Imran Ishaq, senior manager for technical support centers at MitsubishiElectric Automation, Inc.

In contrast, Ishaq says,conventional engineering has lacked the specificity needed for mechatronicsdesign. "A traditional engineering education teaches students how to program,but not how to apply it to the dynamics of a machine," he says. "This programteaches them how to handle current technologies."

PurdueCalumet says it has worked with sponsors to secure as many as 70 corporateinternships for the program's students. The university has also received a$150,000 National Science Foundation grant to help enhance its efforts inmechatronics engineering technology.

PurdueCalumet professors say they founded the program after being urged to do so by theindustry. For the past six months, industrial partners have been helping to setup the university's mechatronics lab by donating conveyors, motion controllers,human-machine interfaces, servo modules, data acquisition systems, box labelingmachinery, selective inverting machinery and high-speed cameras, among other technologies.

"This willhelp make these students more attractive to employers because they have theknowledge and because they can use that knowledge right away," Fathizadeh says.