Combining laboratory innovation and a design experience into tools for mechanics

Hands-on laboratories and the engineering design process are valuable experiences by which to enhance undergraduate engineering education. This paper discusses the integration of an NSF sponsored Course, Curriculum and Laboratory Innovation project, the multidisciplinary design experience and teaching tools for statics and solid mechanics courses. A team of faculty in the College of Engineering at Rowan University proposed development of hands-on and visualization tools for use in mechanics courses. This proposed project was then developed by a group of students in the Junior-Senior Engineering Clinic, an upper level, multidisciplinary design course. The student teams consisted of Mechanical, Civil and Electrical Engineering students. The developed tools consist of physical simply-supported and cantilever beams that are instrumented with load cells. The students can apply various loading conditions to the beams and for the simply-supported case, also move the location of the supports. A data acquisition card is used to import the measurements from the load cells and displacement transducers and a Labview graphical user interface allows the user to find reaction loads and plot deflections, shear and bending diagrams.