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Author:

Albers, Albert; Matthiesen, Sven; Bursac, Nikola; Rapp, Simon; Hölz, Kevin; Eisenmann, Matthias

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Abstract:

The academic education of engineering students aims at qualifying for engineering practice. Hence courses in mechanical and mechatronic design in the early stage of engineering education include often project works, where the students themselves design technical systems. The task description usually includes a first system structure, functional and other requirements and design constraints. Starting with this the students design a new system from scratch. However, real product development is PGE – Product Generation Engineering: a purposeful combination of new development activities and carrying over subsystems from already existing products. The product documentation of those existing products (CAD models, test reports etc.) and the analysis of this data are essential for design activities. Making engineering students fit for real-world problems requires such activities to be part of the project works described above. Therefore, those teaching concepts need to change. This transition is associated with several challenges. This contribution presents first approaches for bringing PGE to courses in the early stage of engineering education, particular to project works. Based on current research concepts for the conduction of PGE in project works in mechanical and mechatronic design courses are derived for the specific conditions in the early stage of engineering education. Subsequently the implementation of those concepts is described. Conclusively first experiences and evaluations from these implementations are presented.

Keywords:

Early stage engineering education, mechanical design, mechatronic design, teaching concept