Multibody dynamics in advanced education

The use of multibody dynamics software in industrial firms is steadily increasing. Engineering curricula often do not include mandatory courses where multibody dynamics is taught. This paper discuss some relevant teaching issues in this specific cultural area. Noteworthy examples of the great variety of kinematic and dynamic formulations, available for teaching a basic course in multibody dynamics, are illustrated. The experience of the first author, when introducing a basic multibody dynamics course at an Italian university, is also reported