Award Abstract # 1601172
CollaborATE

NSF Org: DUE
Division Of Undergraduate Education
Recipient: COLLEGE OF LAKE COUNTY
Initial Amendment Date: September 20, 2016
Latest Amendment Date: November 13, 2018
Award Number: 1601172
Award Instrument: Standard Grant
Program Manager: Heather Watson
DUE
 Division Of Undergraduate Education
EDU
 Directorate for STEM Education
Start Date: October 1, 2016
End Date: September 30, 2019 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $883,093.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $883,093.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2016 = $883,093.00
History of Investigator:
  • Margie Porter (Principal Investigator)
    margieporter@clcillinois.edu
  • Elizabeth Baran (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Alan Zube (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Ernest Friend (Former Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: College of Lake County
19351 W WASHINGTON ST # T208
GRAYSLAKE
IL  US  60030-1198
(847)543-2476
Sponsor Congressional District: 10
Primary Place of Performance: College of Lake County
IL  US  60030-1198
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
10
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): UDPDU3NFNEP7
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): Advanced Tech Education Prog
Primary Program Source: 04001617DB NSF Education & Human Resource
Program Reference Code(s): 1032, 9178, SMET
Program Element Code(s): 741200
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.076

ABSTRACT

The goal of the CollaborATE project is to develop an Associate's Degree in Mechatronics incorporating pathways from local high schools into the degree offering at the College of Lake County, Florida State College at Jacksonville, and Anne Arundel Community College. The project will design and develop low-cost laboratory trainers and offer professional development opportunities for high school faculty to adopt components of the curriculum at their respective high schools. The curriculum will be aligned to specific skills needed in the industry and shared and disseminated to high schools and colleges across the nation.

The new Associate's degree is laddered from a one-year Mechatronics certificate that was created from a Department of Labor TAACCCT (Round I) grant project that included the partnering entities. The curriculum will be based on constructivist learning theory incorporating inductive, project based instruction. It will be modularized for flexible delivery and focused on system level troubleshooting. In addition, low-cost, hands-on, easily replicable and buildable mechatronics trainers will provide the local high schools with an affordable tool to teach the courses. During the faculty professional development aspect of the project, CollaborATE will focus on the integration of the low-cost trainers with systems-level, inductive teaching methodology. To prepare students for high-skilled, high-wage, entry level positions in the mechatronics industry, the Florida Advanced Technological Center will provide expertise to align the degree content with national and international certifications such as those from Siemens Level 2, the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute, and the National Institute for Metalworking Skills.

PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT

Disclaimer

This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.

The CollaborATE grant/team, with the help of business and industry developed an Associate Degree in Automation, Robotics, and Mechatronics. The degree is approved and accredited and will be offered in the spring 2020 semester. The degree is designed around the systems level approach to teaching and troubleshooting, meaning everything learned is tied back into a system. This approach is important because that’s what students will see and work on in the field. Hands-on activities, project based activities and mini-capstone projects are emphasized in the curriculum. Additionally, the College of Lake County (CLC) has expanded its mechatronics offering and will be delivering a certificate at one of our other campuses in the fall 2019 semester. That means CLC will be offering the same certificate at two of our campuses, and will be offering the associate degree at the main campus. CLC has also expanded their faculty by hiring an additional full-time faculty member and are searching for a second position.

We aligned the curriculum with Siemens Level I and II, and PMMI Mechatronics certifications. These are nationally recognized certifications in Mechatronics and serve as an industry validation of what we are teaching. The Siemens certification focuses on system level troubleshooting and provides extensive faculty development.   

We created a dual-credit certificate that aligns with our High School Technology campus, and Waukegan High School’s Advanced Manufacturing Technology program that ladders into our certificate/associate degree. The dual-credit certificate will allow high schools students to earn a 15 credit hour certificate toward the associate degree/30 credit hour certificate. Our team also developed a number of single/multiple course offerings that are being offered as dual-credit to multiple high schools.

We designed and created a low cost mechatronics trainer to make the teaching of mechatronics at the high school/community college more affordable. Equipment for the teaching of mechatronics is very expensive and many schools simple don’t have the resources. We designed, developed, built, and wrote curriculum for a low cost “hands-on" trainer to be used at the community college and high schools. The trainer comes with a complete set of building plans and curriculum and cost under $3,000.  The trainer is designed on a systems approach and performs a real world function. What it does is kicks out a cup on a linear conveyor, moves it to a filling station, fills the cup (two sizes), and moves the cup to a storage area. Each subsystem of the trainer can be removed and worked on individually by the student, and then the subsystems can be combined into a fully operational system.  The trainer has been widely disseminated and many schools are adopting the trainer for their use. Each college in the grant built 8 trainers for use on their campus. The trainer has a fully functional website for dissemination.

Each year we conducted a one week Summer Working Connections professional development workshop for high school faculty. The purpose of the workshop is to increase their knowledge of mechatronics concepts and provide hands-on experiences on the low cost trainers that were designed and built. During the first year of the grant, we ran 1 track using the PLC subsystem trainer and had 15 faculty attend.  During the 2nd year, we ran 2 tracks, a level I and II. We had 16 faculty attending level I and 9 attending level II. Attendees came from IL, WI, FL, MD, and OH.  During this last year of the grant, we ran 3 tracks, a level I, II, and III. We had 32 faculty attending from IL, WI, FL, OR, PA, TN, OH and MD.  We served a total of 72 participants in the workshop over a 3 year period.  

We developed and implemented an on-line Mechatronics Community of Practice webinar. The target group is faculty that are currently teaching mechatronics or desiring to start a program. We used this platform to disseminate the work of our grant. Topics for each webinar are selected in advance by the participants, and presentations are given by the participants and industry representatives.

We developed a repository for our work to be viewed and used by others on FLATE’s Wiki, (FLATE is the Florida Advanced Technological Education Center) and ATE Central.  We have disseminated our work through conference presentations, Summer Working Connections, NSF P.I. Conference, and individual contacts at our local communities with faculty and community/technical colleges.

We developed a 2 minute mechatronics video.  The video defines mechatronics with visual examples and explains what mechatronics technician do. The video is in both English and Spanish.

  

 


Last Modified: 09/24/2019
Modified by: Margie Porter

Please report errors in award information by writing to: awardsearch@nsf.gov.

Print this page

Back to Top of page