A Design-Oriented Undergraduate Curriculum in Mechatronics Education* SWADESH K. GUPTA, SHAILENDRA KUMAR and LALIT TEWARI Department of Mechanical Engineering, Malaviya Regional Engineering College, Jaipur (Rajasthan)Ð 302017, India. E-mail: swadeshkgupta@rediffmail.com Mechatronics is bringing about an industrial paradigm shift with its multidisciplinary integrated approach to product design and development. It is poised to become the key enabling technology to use for gaining a competitive edge in the modern manufacturing era. The development of mechatronics will therefore be crucial to the continued competitiveness of national economies. In order to fulfil the changing requirements of industry, many universities worldwide have introduced course revisions and new courses in mechatronics. In the present paper, an attempt has been made to redefine mechatronics and synthesize various mechatronics programs being conducted all over the world. The proposed curriculum envisions mechatronics as a new engineering design strategy, perceives it as a systemic business philosophy and emphasizes interdisciplinary communication, team effort and industrially relevant project-based learning. INTRODUCTION WITH AN ever-accelerating pace of change in industry, rapidly expanding technology access, fast improving information and communication systems, globalization of markets and business competition, resource limitations and ever rising customer expectations, engineers have had to adopt a new way of doing business. The pressing need for increased productivity as well as for the delivery of end products of uniform high quality is turning industry more and more towards compu- ter-based automation. As a synergy of core tech- nologiesÐof mechanical engineering and electrical engineering, electronics and computer science and instrumentation and controlsÐmechatronics is fast becoming an important component of modern products and processes that are highly integrated in functionalities. A new concurrent engineering thinking framework in the process of designing complex machines [1], mechatronics is indeed bringing about an industrial paradigm shift. In fact, mechatronics with its multidisciplin- ary integrated approach to product design is poised to become the key enabling technology for gaining a competitive edge in the modern manu- facturing era. The development of mechatronics will therefore be crucial to the continued competi- tiveness of national economies. Growing need for mechatronics education The history of mechatronics has been well described in [2]. In recent years, the ever increasing use of microcontrollers and microprocessors in an extremely wide variety of consumer and com- mercial products, laboratory test instruments and equipment, and industrial applications has neces- sitated a need for mechatronics education in all engineering disciplines. Many universities world- wide, especially in USA, Europe and Asia have introduced course revisions and new courses based on this discipline. [3±11]. Besides, in order to achieve mechatronics education in various engin- eering fields, educators have experimented with several approaches in the past. The goals, approaches and emphasis of mechatronics courses generally depend on the discipline and level (grad- uate or undergraduate) of students and duration for the course. With the spread of mechatronics to all kinds of engineered products and systems, however, it has become imperative that a whole new stream of engineering be initiated to impart education in its principles and practices. Industry requirements and expectations The specialist mechatronics engineers are expected to be able to adapt quickly to the trends in industry, to respond quickly to the needs of the market and to adopt an integrative approach in product and process development, and by virtue of their knowledge and/or experience in various disci- plinary skills, be more competent team leaders. The mechatronics engineers would be required to work confidently in an industrial environment deploying advanced technology according to mechatronics principles as well as communicate with and provide a link between specialists in particular areas of technology within a team working environment such as that required by concurrent engineering. They would also be able to make significant contributions in all stages of engineering designÐfrom conceptualization to final product designÐin a truly systemic approach wherein electrical, electronic, computer and * Accepted 5 June 2003. 563 Int. J. Engng Ed. Vol. 19, No. 4, pp. 563±568, 2003 0949-149X/91 $3.00+0.00 Printed in Great Britain. # 2003 TEMPUS Publications.