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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Article
The Experimental Vehicles Program Helps Advance the Mechatronics Engineering Program
Author(s)
Saeed D. Foroudastan
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DOI:10.17265/2159-5275/2018.05.005
Affiliation(s)
Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 37132 USA
ABSTRACT
Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) started a Mechatronics
Engineering program four years ago. Over those four years, enrollment has grown
exponentially and has increased to over 400 students. One major factor that
draws interest to this new program is the university’s Experimental Vehicles
Program (EVP), created by Dr. Saeed Foroudastan. The EVP includes different
student teams that work to design and build the four projects the EVP has
evolved to: human-powered lunar rover (formerly known as The Great Moonbuggy
Race), powered off-road Baja, gasoline-powered formula car, and all-electric
solar boat. These projects are designed to greatly enhance each student’s
classroom experience. The EVP provides students hands-on experience that allows
them to apply what they have learned in the classroom to something in real
life. The students are responsible for designing and building each project with
their team, which also provides them with skills like effective communication,
teamwork, project management and more. Each project also has a competition that
members of the team normally travel to and are able to compete on an
international level. The Mechatronics Engineering program and the EVP at MTSU
are both providing truly great opportunities and preparing students well that
wish to enter the engineering field after college.
KEYWORDS
Hands-on learning, engineering, mechatronics, project-based learning, EVP.
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