M ECHATRONICS REPRESENTS A unifying interdisciplinary and intelli- gent engineering science paradigm that fuses, permeates, and comprehends modern engineering science and tech- nologies. Mechatronics is regarded as a phi- losophy that supports new ways of thinking, innovations, design methodologies (synthesis and analysis), and practices in the design of new intelligent products and engineering sys- tems. It is a holistic, concurrent, and interdisciplinary engineering science discipline that concentrates on achieving optimum functional synergy from the MAKI K. HABIB A Unifying Interdisciplinary and Intelligent Engineering Science Paradigm © JOHN FOXX Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MIE.2007.901480 12 IEEE INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE ■ SUMMER 2007 1932-4529/07/$25.00©2007IEEE