Sandra Yost

A 10-Year Mechatronics Curriculum Development Initiative: Relevance, Content, and Results—Part II

This paper describes the second and third phases of a comprehensive mechatronics curriculum development effort. They encompass the development of two advanced mechatronics courses (¿Simulation and Modeling of Mechatronic Systems¿ and ¿Sensors and Actuators for Mechatronic Systems¿), the formulation of a Mechatronics concentration, and offshoot research activities in the mechatronics area. The first phase involved the design of an ¿Introduction to Mechatronics¿ course and the infusion of mechatronic activities throughout the curriculum and in outreach activities and has been described in a companion paper ¿A 10-Year Mechatronics Curriculum Development Initiative: Relevance, Content, and Results-Part I¿ (IEEE Transactions on Education, vol. 53, no. 2, May 2010).

Team-oriented, project-based instruction in a new mechatronics course

The design of a new course in mechatronics is described, which will serve as the focal point of a wider curriculum development effort to integrate the teaching of mechatronic principles throughout the relevant engineering curricula at the University of Detroit Mercy, USA. The course has a balanced combination of theory and application and seeks to impart competencies that are in great demand in the automotive industry, as well as in other engineering sectors. One of the prominent and innovative features of the course is that it is structured around instructional activities that are predominantly team-oriented and project-based.

Mechatronics: a comprehensive, interdisciplinary curriculum development initiative

This paper describes an effort in progress to achieve the integration of mechatronics principles throughout the engineering curriculum at the University of Detroit Mercy. This is done in the context of team-oriented, project-based design activities. The project also includes a hands-on outreach component for pre-college students.

Effective use of Web-based communication tools in a team-oriented, project-based, multi-disciplinary course

The Internet has become a powerful tool for information exchange and communication. Modern day engineering graduates are expected to be adept at using the internet. In a new multi-disciplinary course on mechatronics, effort has been made to integrate the use of Web-based communication tools with in-class and out-of-class activities. Goals of this effort were to teach the use of these tools and to implement effective and efficient communication among all parties involved. In this paper, features of the tools used, their effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) and the lessons that were learned are discussed in the context of a multi-disciplinary course.

Shared projects with a multi-sub-disciplinary flavor - providing integration and context in a new ECE spiral curriculum

A new spiral curriculum in Electrical Engineering was launched in the ECE Department of the University of Detroit Mercy in Fall 2005. The prime motivation was to address several critical issues - the lack of student motivation, the need to introduce the teaching of innovation across the curriculum, and adoption of effective teaching pedagogies that ensured learning. A key aspect of the curricular changes was the formulation and use of shared projects that highlighted the interdependencies between the various sub-disciplines of Electrical Engineering, thus enhancing the contextual setting of the curriculum. This paper provides technical details for these shared projects and reflects on our experience in their use.

Outcomes-based assessment for comprehensive curriculum development in mechatronics

The paper describes a comprehensive assessment plan that was carried out as part of an NSF-funded effort to integrate principles of mechatronics throughout the Mechanical and Electrical Engineering curricula at the University of Detroit Mercy. The project team consists of faculty members from three departments: Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Education. The focus of the article is a description of how the assessment results have been used to refine one curricular component of the project: the senior-level course in mechatronics. We present an overview of the project, a summary of the assessment framework, initial results of the formative assessment of the mechatronics course, and an evolving model of outcome based curriculum development.

Asymptotic stability of linear shift-variant difference equations with diamond-shaped uncertainties

This paper addresses the asymptotic stability of linear shift-variant difference equations whose coefficients are uncertain in an m-dimensional hyperdiamond. The approach used here allows the construction of regions in the coefficient space guaranteeing asymptotic stability that extend beyond the region specified by existing results.

Robust stability of multidimensional difference equations with shift-variant coefficients

This paper addresses the asymptotic stability of multidimensional systems represented by first hyperquadrant causal linear difference equations whose coefficients are shift-varying. The results extend previous 1-D results, and include the derivation of a fixed region of stability in the parameter space, as well as a sequence of shift-variant parameter regions. In the case of a fixed parameter region, the largest stable hyperdiamond centered at the origin will be obtained. For the shift-variant case, it will be shown that the instantaneous stable parameter region always includes this hyperdiamond.

Work in progress - description of a service learning project to design assistive technologies to aid the visually-impaired in India

Cultural practices in India that dictate that individuals remove their footwear before entering homes and places of worship creates a challenge for visually-impaired people in identifying and collecting their footwear as they leave. This paper describes an interdisciplinary service-learning project, involving students in Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) and the Mechanical Engineering (ME) programs, whose goal is to design and develop assistive technologies to help ameliorate this situation. The paper outlines the relevant technological issues in this project, and discusses how this research might be incorporated into the existing pedagogical structure of both programs.

On the double bilinear transformation and nonessential singularities of the second kind at infinity

This paper addresses the BIBO (bounded-input bounded-output) stability of a class of discrete 2-D transfer functions in the presence of nonessential singularities of the second kind (NSSKs) on the unit bidisk. Conditions under which the double bilinear transformation (DBT) preserves stability are derived. The results presented here also extend the class of systems whose stability can be predicted. Use of the inverse DBT to produce a continuous equivalent of the discrete 2-D transfer function allows easy application of a continuous-domain equivalent of a criterion developed by Dautov. The necessary and sufficient condition for stability derived in this work provides a simple check for the class of systems under consideration.<<ETX>>