Product Development In The Curriculum: One Clean Sheet Approach

The National Center of Excellence for Advanced Manufacturing Education has been established in Dayton, Ohio with an award from the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technological Education program in October of 1994. The primary goal of the program is to develop a curriculum with advanced manufacturing as its focus. The curriculum will begin in the junior year of high school and extend to a twoyear associate degree and through a four-year bachelor of science degree in Engineering Technology. The program will include opportunities for industrial employment throughout the student’s education. The curriculum is currently being built with a number of “clusters” while ensuring a high degree of collaboration among clusters. The Product Development Cluster is currently being defined and developed. The cluster is designed to address the process of analyzing customer needs, volume demands, and market requirements, conceptualizing and designing a product to meet those needs, designing the manufacturing processes, and launching the product into production. Modules within the cluster include conceptual design, computer aided design, and product development and testing, for example. The cluster is being designed to be broad based, while maintaining a technical manufacturing perspective. The key skills within the cluster have been defined and the topics, sequencing , and method of learning and experiencing are being developed. Innovative pedagogical strategies are being developed and integrated throughout the program. Also the interaction with other modules such as Production Operations, Quality Management, and Materials and Manufacturing Processes is being developed. This program will result in better qualified technical employees for manufacturing industries and also a path for students to get involved with Engineering schools early in their academic careers. Both the results and the process to achieve the results are presented here.