Technologies to Support Engineering Education

This entry describes technologies that support engineering education, such as 3D printing, computer-assisted design, electromechanical systems and instrumentation, and control systems. Engineering education is one of four disciplines within STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education. While science and mathematics are commonly regarded as core subjects in schools, engineering has had a less prominent role in K–12 education. However, engineering is increasingly used to teach science in context. This can increase students’ depth of understanding, allowing them to apply scientific knowledge to real-world contexts while providing them with useful workforce skills.

Engineering education involves construction and testing of physical products. Advances in rapid prototyping have facilitated this hands-on approach to engineering education. In industry, rapid prototyping involves use of manufacturing technologies that allow a model or prototype to be quickly developed. Advanced manufacturing technologies such as 3D printing are accelerating the design process. These technologies are now becoming affordable, allowing them to be employed for engineering education in schools. Some of these technologies are shown in Table 1.

Table 1 Representative educational technologies in selected engineering fields

Rapid prototyping can involve disparate disciplines such as digital fabrication (which draws upon the discipline of mechanical engineering), electromechanical systems and instrumentation (which draws upon electrical engineering, among other disciplines), and control systems (which draw upon computer science and computer engineering). A new engineering discipline, mechatronics, encompasses all of these disciplines. This entry discusses [Page 740]tools now available in all of these disciplines that can be used in instruction in K–12 education as well as undergraduate courses.

Digital Fabrication (Mechanical Engineering)

Digital fabrication can encompass a series of manufacturing tools that can include (a) additive manufacturing tools such as 3D printers and (b) subtractive manufacturing tools such as laser cutters and computer-controlled milling machines known as CNC (computer-numerical control) systems. Many of these tools now have consumer counterparts that make them more accessible.

Additive Manufacturing

Several dozen manufacturers now offer desktop 3D printers for prices approaching a thousand dollars, considerably less than their industrial counterparts. This emerging market is leading to more affordable tools for engineering education programs. While various 3D printing technologies exist, most relatively affordable desktop 3D printers employ a similar method. A filament of plastic is drawn from a spool into a heated nozzle. As the plastic melts and is extruded through the nozzle, a computer program moves the nozzle to deposit drops of plastic at precisely specified locations. The 3D printer builds a shape layer by layer through this process. In addition to a lower initial cost, the filament used by desktop 3D printers is less than the cost of the filament used by their industrial counterparts.

Other 3D printing technologies will become available in educational settings in the future. For example, a process that uses a laser to solidify a thin layer within a tank of liquid resin, offering higher resolution than filament extrusion, may become increasingly affordable.

Figure 1 A student and his mentor design a 3D-printed catapult

Source: Nigel Standish.

Subtractive Manufacturing

Other manufacturing technologies subtract rather than add material. For example, a laser cutter can cut precisely guided shapes in plastic or wood creating objects in the same manner that a cookie cutter cuts out shapes in a layer of dough. Laser cutters can quickly cut out a gear in plastic or wood for an engineering class but are expensive industrial machines that require supervision for safe operation. Computer-controlled die cutters are the educational counterpart of laser cutters. These tools cut shapes out of card stock, and cost less than $300 each. Many of the operations of a laser cutter can be simulated with a computer-controlled die cutter.

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