An educational Program in Product Realization

As part of the Manufacturing Engineering Educational Partnership (MEEP) design and manufacturing courses have been restructured into a sequence leading to a Program in Products Realization (PPR) in our undergraduate engineering curriculum. The purpose is to provide a broad based, interdisciplinary program for undergraduate students interested in the design and manufacturing of industrial products. Although each school has taken a slightly different approach to the implementation, the students at the three schools experience design and manufacturing activities each semester (or quarter) in residence. The program bridges the gap between engineering science and practice, and allows students to work in teams on real industrial problems. The implementation of the program has required restructuring of existing courses, the addition of new resources, and the creation of Learning Factories at each of the institutions. The Learning Factories provide modern facilities for design, manufacturing, fabrication, and testing of products. In addition, the program has attracted the support of over 100 industrial sponsors, who have helped promote hands-on experience and provided projects and class room support. This paper describes the new program at each of the institutions, the resources required, and operational experiences to date. This project was supported by the ARPA Technology Reinvestment Program and the National Science Foundation