02-02-2016, 03:52 PM
ABSTRACT
Student project are an essential part of the Mechatronics education program at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences in Maribor. Mechatronics education program and the student projects conducted up to date are briefly described in the paper. Student project with a title Virtual robotic Lab for remote control is described in greater detail. This project enables execution of laboratory assignments on distance via Internet which might give new quality to laboratory assignments for students.
INTRODUCTION
This paper represents student projects for Mechatronics education program at Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences in Maribor. The Mechatronics education program at Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences is new. It was started in the fall of the year 2000/2001. Great effort has been made to make Mechatronics education program attractive for students and to make it comparable to already established Mechatronics education programs abroad [1, 2] when the program was designed.
Investigations have shown that traditional education program is handicapped by the following [3]:
• students are bored and passive during traditional lectures,
• even laboratory experiments are no fun,
• students major motivation is to pass the exams and not to really know the learning material,
• studying is considered as an important part of learning and at last
• incorrect student answers are not desired.
Psychological studies have also shown that people remember only 50% of what they hear and see in comparison to 90% of what they try to realise. On this basis Learning by doing has become an interesting alternative to traditional educational programs and is introduced in educational programs [2] in the form of student projects. The benefits of introduction of student projects into traditional education program is fourfold:
• integration of research components, laboratory development and industrial projects into education is enabled ,
• learning of practical engineering skills is introduced,
• student team work is introduced and
• interest in engineering is aroused and motivation for learning is increased .
But in order to get the desired benefits from student projects these must be well designed. First of all they must be fun for students. Students can choose the project they will work on therefore their motivation for learning is increased due to :
• the control of learning is passed from teachers to students,
• the learning becomes more case oriented and
• more related to their lives and to the real life (team work, practical engineering skills).
The paper is organised as follows. Section 2 introduces Mechatronics education at Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences in Maribor and brief description of student projects up to date. Section 3 represents a student project on virtual robotics laboratory in greater detail. Section 4 draws the conclusion.
MECHATRONICS EDUCATION AT FEECS IN MARIBOR
The Mechatronics program at Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (FEECS) runs as an four year (8 semester) undergraduate program in co-operation with Faculty of Mechanical engineering, Faculty of Business and Economics and Faculty of Education in Maribor. It started in the fall of the year 2000/2001, as was already mentioned. It is based on a credit system and consists of required and elective courses. Courses of the first two years are the same as for the Electrical Engineering program. Credit system starts in the third year. A student must collect at least 75 credit points (CP) per year. Project work in the third year is constituted from a part of the hours of courses on Automatic control, Mechatronic systems, Machine elements and Gears and Drives. Similarly, project work in the fourth year is constituted from a part of the hours of courses on Robotic systems, Communication Technologies, Servo-systems, Intelligent Control in Mechatronics and Mechanisms. Total amount of hours assigned for student project work is approximately 15 % of all hours of Mechatronics program per year. Students could work on the same project which they had chosen in the third year of their study also through the fourth year of their studies and finish their project with their diploma work.