9352301 Craig Design of Mechatronic Systems is the proposed senior-elective course and laboratory for mechanical engineering undergraduates. It builds on the current successful course, Mechatronics, and focuses on mechatronic design. With the support of industrial sponsors - real customers- student design teams will design, build, and test a microprocessor-based mechatronic system to satisfy the customer defined problem/need.Funds are requested for course development and for laboratory equipment. Course development will focus on microprocessor instruction, the design process taught by example, and design practice taught by scheduled written and oral presentations, culminating with a prototype. The testing/debugging equipment requested here is essential for successful microprocessor-based design. They, together with the current inventory of sensors, actuators, computers, and microprocessors in the Mechatronics Laboratory, and the project-specific equipment supplied by the industrial customer, will give the student design teams all the tools necessary to learn good mechatronic design methodology by experience and produce winning designs.This course sequence represents the one of the first known offerings in mechatronics at the undergraduate level. Aspects of course will also be modified for collaborative use within the curriculum of Hudson Valley Community College via instructor tutorials, transferred laboratory and experimental procedures, shared resources and student interaction. Furthermore, the course and its associated laboratory equipment will be used to attract 7th- 10th grade precollege students, especially women and minorities, to engineering. ***
