The goal of the project is to set up a Quality Engineering Laboratory to teach statistical methods to industrial and manufacturing engineering students with the use of an integrated sequence of part fabrication and assembly (using some purchased parts) exercises resulting in a final product, where students collect relevant data at each stage and learn to use appropriate statistical methods to improve the quality of the product. These exercises not only give students hands-on experience in various manufacturing and measurement processes, but also enable them to see applications of key engineering statistical methods in a holistic way in the context of a single production process. The synergistic effect of making parts, measuring them, and analyzing data statistically enhances the understanding and appreciation of production methods as well as statistical methods. The impact of this project goes beyond about 150 students per year taking the engineering statistics courses. The new laboratory represents a significant upgrade of the laboratory that was set up at the beginning of this academic year and that has some basic experimental setups and measurement instruments, but no fabrication facilities. These setups continue to be used as necessary. *
