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2018-2019 Undergraduate & Graduate Catalog

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Bachelor of Science in Engineering, Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering Major

Product design and manufacturing engineering focuses on all the processes needed to develop products, from design and planning to production and delivery of finished products. To this end, this branch of engineering involves a wide range of topics, such as ergonomics, needs identification, manufacturing processes, robotic systems, materials selection, programmable controllers, industrial engineering, and vision systems.

Students who select the product design and manufacturing engineering major prepare themselves for a variety of engineering careers and fulfill the educational requirements for taking the Fundamentals of Engineering professional examination before graduation.

The junior and senior years of the product design and manufacturing engineering program build upon the foundation courses to provide greater depth in engineering science, engineering design, and the focused areas of product design and manufacturing engineering. Students complete required and elective courses distributed in product design materials and manufacturing processes; process, assembly, and product engineering; manufacturing competitiveness and manufacturing systems design.

Integral to all four years of the program is a "design and build" educational philosophy incorporated through extensive laboratory and project activities as preparation for professional practice. Students engage in design at all levels of the curriculum. At each level, they must realize their designs and proceed with testing, validation, and redesign. This approach allows students to experience many real-world constraints such as project economics, project planning and scheduling, environmental considerations, manufacturability/producibility of the designs, laboratory and product safety, and product reliability.

Accreditation

The product design and manufacturing engineering majoris accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, www.abet.org.

Program Educational Objectives

Graduates of the product design and manufacturing engineering program are expected within a few years of graduation to

  • demonstrate technical competency in their careers;
  • function effectively in an industrial or academic environment;
  • engage in professional development; and
  • shape their professions and societies

Student Outcomes and Assessment

The graduate will demonstrate

  1. an ability to apply knowledge of mathematics, science, and engineering;
  2. an ability to design and conduct experiments, as well as to analyze and interpret data;
  3. an ability to design a system, component, or process to meet desired needs;
  4. an ability to function on multidisciplinary teams;
  5. an ability to identify, formulate, and solve engineering problems;
  6. an understanding of professional and ethical responsibility;
  7. an ability to communicate effectively;
  8. the broad education necessary to understand the impact of engineering solutions in a global and societal context;
  9. a recognition of the need for, and an ability to engage in life-long learning;
  10. a knowledge of contemporary issues;
  11. an ability to use the techniques, skills, and modern engineering tools necessary for engineering practice;
  12. an ability to design manufacturing processes that result in products that meet specific material and other requirements;
  13. an ability to design products and the equipment, tooling, and environment necessary for their manufacture;
  14. an ability to create competitive advantage through manufacturing planning, strategy, quality, and control;
  15. an ability to design manufacturing systems including the ability to analyze, synthesize, and control manufacturing operations using statistical methods; and
  16. experience in manufacturing laboratory or facility environments including an ability to measure manufacturing process variables and develop technical inferences about the process.

Degree Requirements

Product design and manufacturing engineering program students must complete all requirements for the B.S.E. degree including the general education and basic skills requirements, the foundations of engineering courses, cooperative education, the engineering design Capstone, and the following manufacturing engineering courses.

PDM majors must complete an emphasis. Four emphases are offered, general, design, manufacturing systems, and robotics and controls. Each emphasis has required courses and elective courses that are chosen from an approved list. The design, manufacturing systems, and robotics and controls emphases have three required emphasis classes.

Emphases

Product design engineers are responsible for the process of creating and developing new products. They research and develop ideas and processes for new products, improve the performance and design of existing products and plan production and manage production facilities.

Required courses for all emphases:

General Emphasis

The general emphasis provides a student with an overview of knowledge and skills required to transform a societal need into a finished product for a price that people in the intended market are willing to pay.

Required courses:

Elective courses (three courses selected from the following):

Design Emphasis

The design emphasis allows students to focus on combining their engineering skills and knowledge with their creativity to create innovative products that will succeed in the global market place. Students will learn how to integrate design methods such as gathering customer requirements, establishing specifications, generating alternative concepts, estimating feasibility, concept selection, embodiment design, design refinement, prototyping, and project planning into a coherent product development strategy.

Required courses:

Elective courses (2 courses selected from the following):

Manufacturing Systems Emphasis

The Manufacturing Systems emphasis allows students to focus on the design, operation, and integration of systems for the production of high-quality, economically competitive products. These systems include computer networks, robots, machine tools, and materials-handling equipment. Students will learn engineering economics, strategic decision making based on principles of operations management, quality control concepts, method engineering, and process improvement techniques to accomplish the goal of designing and managing world class manufacturing systems.

Required courses:

Elective courses (two courses selected from the following):

Robotics and Controls Emphasis

The Robotics and Controls emphasis allows students to focus on the design and development of modern, automated systems to manufacture products as well as to perform tasks that are dangerous, repetitive or time consuming for humans. Students learn how to integrate a many types of sensors, actuators and computer control techniques to design and build these systems.

Required courses:

Elective courses (two courses selected from the following):

Sample Curriculum for the Junior and Senior Years

First Co-op Semester: Spring/Summer

Fifth Academic Semester: Fall

Second Co-op Semester: Winter

Sixth Academic Semester: Spring/Summer

Third Co-op Semester: Fall

Seventh Academic Semester: Winter

The prerequisites for EGR 485 are acceptance into the B.S.E. degree program and completion of the prerequisite courses listed under the student's engineering major. For the product design and manufacturing engineering major, these prerequisite courses are: EGR 301 & EGR 345 & EGR 367.

Eighth Academic Semester: Spring/Summer

Engineering Program Description

Click here for the program description.


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