Machine Design Education to Stimulate Student Imagination and Originality at Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kyushu University

In the recent years, university departments of mechanical engineering are attempting to implement the educational method of practicing manufacturing, intending to let students demonstrate creativity and originality. This paper introduces such education recently conducted at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kyushu University. The importance of the education of practicing product manufacturing or creative education in engineering education has come to be widely appreciated. This paper first discusses the points that must be studied to have it incorporated in the curriculum and then introduces examples of practice at our department. In this experimental education, manufacturing assignments were presented to students, and each student was asked to construct a machine under a chosen theme, because importance was attached to the imagination and originality of individual students. The primary objective of this experiment was to encourage students to have interest and confidence in manufacturing by having them experience the whole process of imagination, design, construction, and evaluation using themes they had selected themselves.