9455395 Hsu The short-term objective of this proposal is to develop five new courses and two laboratories in mechatronic systems engineering by a Taskforce that includes faculty members from Mechanical, Electrical, Computer, General Engineering and Physics Departments at the San Jose State University, and from local high tech industry. Two faculty members from Mission College, part of the California Community College System which supplies 70% of the incoming studnets to the California State University System, are also involved in the laboratory development. In addition to new course development significant improvements will be made in 4 exisiting courses and 5 existing laboratories. The long-term objective of our activities is to establish a center for Mechatronics engineering education built on the success of the above short-term effort. This center will assist other institutions in the nation to establish mechatronic curricula for single or interdisciplinary engineering departments, as well as for human resource development for industry. The proposed curriculum will be built on three pillars: (1) the fundamental principles of Mechatronic Technology, (2) the hands-on experience, and (3) the application of Mechatronic Technology to the industry in the region. Contents in Pillar (1) and (2) will be made readily transportable to other institutions whereas the content in Pillar (3) can be developed with assistance of local industry and can be transported to other institutions in a similar industrial setting. This model will benefit universities and industries in other regions who seek to develop similar models. Instructional materials developed from this project will be disseminated to other institutions and industry through computer links by means of multi-media CD-ROMs. Every effort will be made to present results at conferences of various professional societies, as well as publications in open literature. The Taskf orce will also host a faculty enhancement workshop to disseminate initial results and to gather additional input after the first year of the project. An effort will be made to garner additional funding in the future in order to offer workshops in the project's second and third years of the development.
