Newsletter Archives; Fall 1997

Built in 1909 for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, the Engineering Annex is one of the oldest structures on campus. Yet the Integrated Learning Factory (ILF) it houses and the instruction that students receive there are state of the art. In a recent address to the University community, President Richard McCormick praised the ILF as a model of change on campus and an example of how "fresh thinking has found a way to change the way education happens."

The ILF combines curriculum revitalization with coordinated opportunities for application and hands-on experience. This activity-based approach to engineering education breaks down boundaries between lecture and practice, classroom and laboratory, academe and industry.

Initial funding for the project which culminated in the ILF was provided by a grant from the National Science Foundation's Technology Reinvestment Program. The ILF is the product of the Manufacturing Engineering Education Partnership (MEEP), which consists of Pennsylvania State University, the University of Washington, the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez, and Sandia National Laboratories. MEEP was formed to develop a practice-based, manufacturing-oriented engineering curriculum, providing a balance between engineering science and practice. Input from industry leaders is essential to the ILF concept and the curriculum it supports.

Professor Jens E. Jorgensen has been a key member of MEEP since its inception in 1994. The ILF was officially opened for instructional use during the 1996-97 academic year. Associate Professor Dale Calkins, the first ILF Technical Director, led a team of graduate students that was responsible for the facility's success. Michael Safoutin (ILF Coordinator), Kristina Westvang (Product Dissection Lab Coordinator), and Robert Blanding (Design Lab Coordinator), worked diligently throughout the year to ensure the completion of many construction projects, schedule the increasing class load, and give many tours to elementary and high school students, faculty from other institutions, and industry sponsors.

The ILF consists of five components. The Design Studio, where students meet for design collaboration, includes an overhead computer and video projector, a floor-to-ceiling cork working wall for use in brainstorming, a "Smart Board" projection screen and two white boards. Distance conferencing software enables collaboration between students and clients.

In the Design Lab, 14 Vectra PC workstations are available for use with a variety of software essential to the design, manufacturing and report production process. A laser printer and a plotter are also provided. The Vectra PC workstations were provided by Hewlett-Packard, one of many industrial sponsors whose input and support were essential to taking the ILF from concept to reality.

The Product Dissection Lab provides the tools and workspace where six groups of up to four students each disassemble products and reassemble them.

The Manufacturing Integration Center provides opportunities for students to learn the concepts and principles of integrated manufacturing; that is, the efficient transformation of customer requirements into product designs, and the coordination of product information, materials, and production processes to satisfy those customer needs.

In the five Factory Floor Work Cells students gain experience using manufacturing equipment. The Robotic Assembly Work Cell houses a Seiko industrial robot, donated by Hewlett-Packard, which is interfaced with a PC controller. The Self-Piercing Riveter Work Cell contains a state-of-the-art HENROB self-piercing riveter which rivets metal pieces together without the need for pre-drilled holes. In industry, this technique takes the place of spot welding. The CNC Lathe and CNC Milling Work Cells will house horizontal and vertical milling equipment for creating prototype parts in metal and plastic. The Injection Molding Work Cell contains an injection molding machine and facilities for moldmaking and duplicating prototype parts in plastic and resin. This machine produces durable copies of the fragile 3-D models created on the rapid prototyper in the Design Lab.

Hewlett-Packard is providing an additional grant which will increase the total number of computer workstations in the Design Lab to twenty; fund eight high-end PCs for the Product Dissection Lab; provide a Web network server for the NSF-sponsored Electronic Forum in Design and Manufacturing Education, to be located in the Manufacturing Integration Center; and provide six additional Lab Station PCs for the Factory Floor.

Corporate sponsors have been essential to bringing the ILF on line. Major grants and gifts came from Bentley, The Boeing Company, Henrob, and Hewlett-Packard. Other sponsors include Flow International Corporation, Fluke Manufacturing, FORMOST, HealthTech, Holman, Inc., Innotek, Inc., K2 Corporation, Kimberley-Clark Corporation, MARCO, Microsoft, North Pacific Fishing, Jack Ogle & Company, Olympia Orthothics & Prosthetics, PAC Northwest, PACCAR, PRECOR USA, SeaFirst Bank, and Tektronix.

Four IE and ME courses make use of the ILF facilities. The development of these courses was a team effort among the MEEP partner schools, with a representative from each school on each development team. In ME 295: Product Dissection (Associate Professor Vipin Kumar, ME), students learn about the physical operation and construction of products by taking them apart. Product design and societal considerations which determine the success or failure of these products in the marketplace are also examined.

The INDE/ME 496: Technology-Based Entrepreneurship course (Assistant Professor Joseph Heim, IE) allows students to explore the relationships among customer needs, product performance and business constraints, and to translate creative ideas into viable products. In INDE/ME 392: Concurrent Engineering (Assistant Professor Robert Smith, IE), guest speakers help students explore the effects of concurrent engineering practices on product reliability and safety.

Finally, the students apply all they have learned in ME 495: Capstone Design (Professor James Fridley, Forest Resources/ME and Associate Professor Calkins), where interdisciplinary teams of seniors work on industry-sponsored projects in which they begin with ideas and follow the design process to the point where they are ready to produce a product.

Two additional courses received support from MEEP. ENGR 315: Probability and Statistics for Engineers, applies probability theory and statistics to engineering problems such as quality control, linear regression and experimental design. This course is taught by a number of College of Engineering faculty. In INDE 421: Statistical Quality Control (Associate Professor Richard Storch, IE), students study design of quality control and assurance systems and gain practical experience in their use in a total quality manufacturing environment.

The ILF provides an academic environment similar to the industrial setting where graduates will utilize the knowledge and skills they learn here. Industrial input is crucial to this educational process, the goal of which is to produce an engineer who does not require extensive post-graduation training by their employer. The Learning Factory, a collaboration between academe and industry, represents a new and innovative approach to engineering education.