1 Development of The Undergraduate Mechanical Design and Practice Curriculum

Abstract In order to bridge the gap between mechanical engineering education and industrial demands, a “Mechanical Design and Practice ” course has been offered for the undergraduate majoring in mechanical engineering since the academic year of 1995. The aim is to cultivate students ’ capability of creative design and experience in prototyping. This course currently is reorganized into a series of “Mechanical Design and Prototyping Projects ” courses. Each project was designed in such a way that junior/senior students have to apply previously learned knowledge, skill, and experience to engineering problems. These reorganized projects emphasize on hands-on practice on mechanical design and prototyping, in addition to theoretical analysis. This paper describes the current design of this course and the improvements, modifications and replanning of this course during the past seven years. Comments, reactions, and future planning, based on the seven-year running of the course and queries from junior and senior students, are also reported. Index Terms mechanical engineering, mechanical design and practice, mechanical design and prototyping project