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.

NSF ATE Grant # 1601172

FLATE

CollaborATE ATE Project Low-Cost Mechatronics Trainer (LCMT) website https://www.maryland.design/lcmt

EasyVeep: www.easyveep.com

Mechatronics Education Forum (4-year Mechatronics Education Forum: https://www.mechatronicseducation.org/ )

MCE Resources Google Drive (Click Here)

NEW: 2018-2019 Incoming Student Survey for A.S./A.A.S. Programs in Mechatronics, Engineering Technology, Advanced Manufacturing, Automation, etc https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2018-19_MechStudent

NEW: 2018-1029 Incoming Student Survey for A.S./A.A.S. Programs (as above) to download for faculty review, or to use as a paper version. SurveyMonkey_155584773.pdf

The Florida Advanced Technological Education Center (FLATE), a National Science Foundation Center of Excellence in high-technology manufacturing, is the go-to organization for manufacturing and advanced technical education, best practices and resources supporting the high performance skilled workforce for Florida’s manufacturing sectors. FLATE provides exemplary industry partnerships, workforce opportunity, and educational synergy throughout the state of Florida by connecting industry and workforce needs to targeted educational endeavors at many community and state colleges across Florida.

NSF ATE Grant # 1204751

Grants supporting the MCE:

CollaborATE

For more information or to join our email list, contact FLATE at (813) 259-6578, or flate@fl-ate.org

UPCOMING EVENTS
Nov 6, 2018: 10 am EST	Join the SKYPE meeting! Click here
December 4, 2018: 10 am EST	Link coming soon!
PAST EVENTS and MCE call recordings
February 2, 2018	Student Mechatronics and ET projects. Share your best projects and why they work. How do you assess them? Click here for the recording SESSION RECORDING LINK
March 23, 2018	CLICK HERE for the recording Dr. Tony Hsieh (TAMU) and San Antonio College share their remote access system (from his recent NSF ATE grant) Director, Rockwell Automation Lab Professor, Dept. of Engineering Technology (Joint appointment with the Mechanical Engineering Department) Texas A&M University, College Station Honorary International Chair Professor - National Taipei University of Technology (Taipei Tech)
April 27, 2018	Click here for the SKYPE meeting recording:
May 31, 2018	Mechatronics Education Webinar: Growth and Evolution of 2-Year Mechatronics Programs LINKS to the WEBINAR RECORDING: https://youtu.be/MzHffO6lcb8 https://www.mechatronicseducation.org/events
Oct 2, 2018 Skype meeting resources	10/02/18 MCE Skype Meeting Recording Resources from the call: CLC Business model for navigator position Business Planv 3.pdf Navigator Position Description Job Description - Program Navigator.pdf Ted Talk Links (from Dan Horine): Ted Talk #1; Ted Talk #2

2017 Archive

September 29, 2017: recording

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j29-kVI9jGc.

October 27, 2017: videos

AACC's Low Cost Trainer video 2. Solidworks files & Bill of materials can be found here: https://www.maryland.design/lcmt

Skype for Business Tips:

· Use web version instead of the mobile application.

· Adjust camera settings in control panel as necessary.

· Use a headset if available and keep your connection on mute when you are not talking.

PROJECT RESOURCES and LINKS

FALL 2018 EVENTS

CONTACTS

MCE PARTICIPANTS

This project at Virginia Western Community College will increase the number of American mechatronics engineers. Mechatronics engineering concerns systems that integrate electrical, mechanical, and computer technologies. Many modern technologies such as manufacturing, robotics, and automated equipment involve mechatronics design and maintenance. Virginia Western Community College (VWCC) is conducting a project called the Partnership for Advanced Career Education in Mechatronics Engineering (PACE ME). This effort will improve the degree of collaboration between community college faculty, technical educators, and industry to help achieve effective mechatronics education. Mechatronics engineering is an area with a growing need for appropriately-skilled engineers and technicians.

NSF ATE Grant # 1400571

PACE ME

ABOUT US

Mechatronics Moments & Roadmap to Building a Community of Practice

In the fall of 2015, FLATE started an informal monthly Mechatronics Community Exchange (MCE) as monthly conference calls for a few mechatronics focused faculty across the country. Growing out of the FLATE sponsored annual HI-TEC conference “Mechatronics Moments” reception the regular exchange is becoming a real Community of Practice with participants sharing questions about curriculum, equipment, applications, certification, alignment with Fab Lab activities and many other related topics. The MCE can potentially help new programs in their start-up phases, existing programs upgrade equipment and curriculum as well share tips about how best to help students meet their learning objectives.

The MCE is planning its future in hopes to:

Identify critical topics or issues important to Mechatronics program practitioners
Provide inbound delivery of Mechatronics resources, techniques and expertise to enrich program startups and major enhancements to improve practitioner productivity
Integrate MCE with other FLATE Mechatronics offerings
Become a facilitated forum to identify related needs and the means to fulfill them
Provide a portal for selected resources and curriculum for program practitioners using concierge support model
Be a vehicle for program practitioners to share their programs, resources and ideas via a central repository and regular communication

In the months ahead, FLATE hopes to transform the MCE learning pilot into: an ongoing sponsored program; refine the MCE model and best practices; selectively add new MCE partners; document the monthly MCE teleconferences, and evaluate the project’s impact.

NSF ATE Mechatronics Community Exchange (MCE)