At WPI, as I started my full-time teaching career and began teaching various courses, I realized the following:
Availability of qualified teaching assistants is always a challenge. Teaching assistants (TAs) are always in demand. Besides, most graduate students are not necessarily familiar in all topics and find it difficult to learn and simultaneously provide quality feedback to students (there have been very good TAs/graders but hard to come by). Quality feedback to students is very important and given the increasing enrollment and workload, this takes a backseat and so does the student learning. Similar issue plagues online delivery of course content.
Generic software tools (solid modeling and analysis) do not provide students with design alternatives and analysis insights, such as whether something is correct or not and what changes needed to be done for improvement. They also do not correspond to the analyses being taught in various courses because those software tools are generally a melange of various methods. Besides, students should be able to quantify performance characteristics through analytical means and make comparisons with software results.
Manufacturing and assembly are aspects that are consistently overlooked at various universities due to the emergence of new techniques like 3D Printing. But there are a lot of machines that are still an amalgamation of multiple assembled parts. Students with no experience find it difficult to prototype quality systems. There are also no means to provide feedback on their designs.
Commercial tools are expensive and are too specific for courses with low-enrollment. If some of the requirements listed earlier are important, then a lot of tools do not satisfy those requirements either.
There are a lot of research developments happening in different labs across campus and the world. A lot of those developments do not necessarily percolate into courses at various levels. It is important for students to be exposed to those developments. For instance, the common refrain I hear from students enrolled in Mechanical Engineering is that they do not want any part of programming or controls systems but those are integral in design and manufacturing. But, it is important for all students to be exposed to different fields without overwhelming them.
Research Themes
My research themes are centered around addressing the challenges listed above and ensuring that students have an elevated learning experience. The projects are centered around the following themes:
Automated Design and Manufacturing
Development of Mechatronic Systems
All the projects are currently handled through the undergraduate Major Qualifying Projects (MQPs), undergraduate and graduate Independent Study Projects (ISPs) and Master’s Theses. MQPs are group activities while ISPs and Master’s Theses activities are individual activities.
All the projects adhere to the following characteristics:
Be generic so that the design can be easily customized to suit different requirements
Adopt low cost and easily accessible techniques (for instance, use of 3D printing and open-source tools)
Adhere to strict analysis methods using analytical and/or numerical techniques to validate design and performance
Develop modules that can be easily adapted as course projects and modules to expose students to new developments in different fields
Automated Design and Manufacturing
In Automated Design and Manufacturing, my focus is to develop tools and techniques to automatically synthesize designs and generate manufacturing plans based on user specifications along varied scales (macro,micro,nano). Not only this, the plans are fed into different machines to automatically produce the parts and work with an integrated assembly system to assemble the devices. The ultimate aim is to develop demonstrable products that have real uses.
Within this broad area, I am also exploring the use of different techniques and the outcomes from various projects in other areas of interest to personalize and automate aspects of mechanical engineering education in the form of virtual labs.
The next theme below is essentially a knowledge gathering exercise that will eventually aid projects in the area of Automated Design and Manufacturing. Not only that, this will be the umbrella theme that uses my graduate research work and addresses the challenges listed above.
Development of Mechatronic Systems
My focus here is to develop mechatronic devices by applying fundamental and innovative techniques in design and manufacturing. The projects currently in progress fall into different categories namely
My graduate research was in the area of Automated Design, where I worked on Knowledge Representation (using graph grammars) of Planar Mechanisms and implemented an Optimization-based method to generate multiple linkages based on user requirements. This was primarily a position-based analysis and involved development of a Kinematic Analysis tool named Planar Mechanism Kinematic Simulator (PMKS).
I was advised by Prof. Matthew I. Campbell (currently at Oregon State University) and Prof. Ashish Deshpande (at the University of Texas at Austin for 1 year).
Shown above is a snapshot of the overall implementation. A user sketches the profile that is required to be traced by a linkage. The optimization-based tool generated different linkage options in a reasonable amount of time. In addition to showing the potential of an automated design process, the goal was also to showcase the usefulness in generating multiple designs for the same problem. This would be ideal in a variety of different situations and unlike a manual process whereby generating such multiple solutions will take a long time. Shown below is a snapshot of the results generated by the tool for benchmark problems.
The PMKS tool’s UI development was spearheaded by Prof. Matthew I. Campbell using Microsoft Silverlight in Visual C#.
[For more info about this work, feel free to Contact me]
In the age of unrestricted internet access, you can find information on most concepts and solutions to a lot of problems. Therefore, as a teacher, I feel my goal is to provide an elevated experience whereby a student should be able to clearly understand the concept, implement those concepts to design and analyze a complex system and then infer data from experiments to defend those design choices. To cater to the ever-increasing demands from the industry and academia for all-rounders, I feel as a teacher, I should be able to provide those previously stated experiences in a holistic manner.
I believe that students should be exposed to a lot of examples so that they can at least remember a part of that as they graduate from one course and move into another course. I also believe that there should be a continuity in the content from one course to another so that students understand their applications from an overall systems perspective. I have always felt that course organization is very important as students appreciate standardization without surprises. As a teacher, I should be open to criticisms, admitting mistakes, open to learning, and open to new ideas. I have had a lot of learning from students in courses and projects through their probing questions during lectures and office hours. It is also important to provide easy access to the teacher and encourage communication and interaction without any fear. I should be well prepared to teach, promote interest in the subject and above all, keep students’ interest and development as the paramount objective.
The Engineering Mechanics sequence involves three courses namely Introduction to Static Systems (ES2501), Stress Analysis (ES2502) and Introduction to Dynamic Systems (ES2503). The details of these courses are given below.
Introduction to Static Systems (ES 2501)
This first year course is one of the fundamental engineering courses that develops basics mathematical and physical reasoning skills to analyze a variety of engineering systems spread across different fields. Core concepts include understanding static equilibrium and the ability to identify and resolve forces acting in a system through free-body diagrams. In addition to homework and exams, design labs will be conducted in-class to expose students to real-world problems. This is a pre-requisite for many advanced engineering courses. Additional details can be found in the undergraduate catalog.
Stress Analysis (ES 2502)
This course introduces you to the mechanics of solids with applications in engineering. This introductory course addresses the analysis of basic mechanical and structural elements with focus on the geometry of motion and deformation of structures, forces on and within different structures and systems and the relationship between forces and motions and deformations. Topics include general concepts of stresses, strains, and material properties of common engineering materials. Also covered are two-dimensional stress transformations, principal stresses, Mohr’s circle and deformations due to mechanical and thermal effects. Applications are to uniaxially loaded bars, circular shafts under torsion, bending and shearing and deflection of beams, and buckling of columns. Both statically determinate and indeterminate problems are analyzed (click here for catalog description).
Introduction to Dynamic Systems (ES 2503)
This freshman/sophomore level course introduces students to the analysis of moving systems with rigid bodies subject to various forces. The focus will be on the kinematics and kinetics of particles and rigid bodies such that a firm understanding is developed to solve practical problems. Fundamental principles describing the motion and acceleration are discussed along with the associated mathematical techniques. The topics covered include kinematics of particles and rigid bodies, equations of motion, work-energy methods, and impulse and momentum. Varied topics will be explored with some exploited in detailed. Software tools applicable in this area will also be used in this course. Additional details can be found in the undergraduate catalog.
Class Structure
I generally teach these courses over summer. In-class sessions generally involve two three-hour sessions weekly. Online sessions involve recorded lectures, and online testing and submission. Online sessions also have one-on-one office hour sessions on demand. Class participation activities, Homework and Projects account for the course grade. Students involved in these projects produce reports that are used in higher level courses such as Modeling and Analysis of Mechatronic Systems and Advanced Engineering Design as reference guides.
I have also taught Statics and Stress Analysis during the regular academic year. During that time, students in Statics were required to work on a project similar to what is stated above. The teams presented their work in a poster presentation at the end of the term.
Statics: Engineering Mechanics: Statics by R.C.Hibbeler Stress: Mechanics of Materials by R.C.Hibbeler Dynamics: Engineering Mechanics: Dynamics by R.C.Hibbeler | Engineering Mechanics: Statics by R.C.Hibbeler
Other references: Statics: analysis and design of systems in equilibrium by Sheppard et al. Engineering Mechanics: Statics by Dietmar Gross et al. Schaum’s Outline of Engineering Mechanics: Statics by E. Nelson et al. (available as an online book via the library website)
Tools Used
MS Excel, AutoCAD, SolidWorks Sketch, PMKS+, Matlab, Working Model
My research and project interests are guided by past graduate research and my teaching commitments.
Graduate Research Work
My graduate research was in the area of Automated Design, where I worked on Knowledge Representation (using graph grammars) of Planar Mechanisms and implemented an Optimization-based method to generate multiple linkages based on user requirements. This was primarily a position-based analysis and involved development of a Kinematic Analysis tool named PMKS (Planar Mechanism Kinematic Simulator). I was advised by Prof. Matthew I. Campbell (currently at Oregon State University) and Prof. Ashish Deshpande (at the University of Texas at Austin for 1 year)
Shown above is a snapshot of the overall implementation. A user sketches the profile that is required to be traced by a linkage. The optimization-based tool generated different linkage options in a reasonable amount of time. In addition to showing the potential of an automated design process, the goal was also to showcase the usefulness in generating multiple designs for the same problem. This would be ideal in a variety of different situations and unlike a manual process whereby generating such multiple solutions will take a long time. Shown below is a snapshot of the results generated by the tool for benchmark problems.
The PMKS tool’s UI development was spearheaded by Prof. Matthew I. Campbell using Microsoft Silverlight in Visual C#. [For more info about this work, feel free to Contact me]
Insights from Teaching
At WPI, as I started my full-time teaching career and began teaching various courses, I realized the following:
Availability of qualified teaching assistants is always a challenge. Teaching assistants (TAs) are always in demand. Besides, most graduate students are not necessarily familiar in all topics and find it difficult to learn and simultaneously provide quality feedback to students (there have been very good TAs/graders but hard to come by). Quality feedback to students is very important and given the increasing enrollment and workload, this takes a backseat and so does the student learning. Similar issue plagues online delivery of course content.
Generic software tools (solid modeling and analysis) do not provide students with design alternatives and analysis insights, such as whether something is correct or not and what changes needed to be done for improvement. They also do not correspond to the analyses being taught in various courses because those software tools are generally a melange of various methods. Besides, students should be able to quantify performance characteristics through analytical means and make comparisons with software results.
Manufacturing and assembly are aspects that are consistently overlooked at various universities due to the emergence of new techniques like 3D Printing. But there are a lot of machines that are still an amalgamation of multiple assembled parts. Students with no experience find it difficult to prototype quality systems. There are also no means to provide feedback on their designs.
Commercial tools are expensive and are too specific for courses with low-enrollment. If some of the requirements listed earlier are important, then a lot of tools do not satisfy those requirements either.
There are a lot of research developments happening in different labs across campus and the world. A lot of those developments do not necessarily percolate into courses at various levels. It is important for students to be exposed to those developments. For instance, the common refrain I hear from students enrolled in Mechanical Engineering is that they do not want any part of programming or controls systems but those are integral in design and manufacturing. But, it is important for all students to be exposed to different fields without overwhelming them.
Research Themes
My research themes are centered around addressing the challenges listed above and ensuring that students have an elevated learning experience. The projects are centered around the following themes:
Automated Design and Manufacturing
Entertainment and Medical Engineering
Kinematics, Dynamics and Design Education
Optimization, Machine Learning and Software Development
All the projects are currently handled through the undergraduate Major Qualifying Projects (MQPs), undergraduate and graduate Independent Study Projects (ISPs) and Master’s Thesis. MQPs are group activities while ISPs and Master’s Thesis activities are individual activities.
All the projects adhere to the following characteristics:
Be generic so that the design can be easily customized to suit different requirements
Adopt low cost and easily accessible techniques (for instance, use of 3D printing and open-source tools)
Adhere to strict analysis methods using analytical and/or numerical techniques to validate design and performance
Develop modules that can be easily adapted as course projects and modules to expose students to new developments in different fields
Automated Design and Manufacturing
In Automated Design and Manufacturing, my focus is to develop tools and techniques to automatically synthesize designs and generate manufacturing plans based on user specifications along varied scales (macro,micro,nano). Not only this, the plans are fed into different machines to automatically produce the parts and work with an integrated assembly system to assemble the devices. The ultimate aim is to develop demonstrable products that have real uses.
Within this broad area, I am also exploring the use of different techniques and the outcomes from various projects in other areas of interest to personalize and automate aspects of mechanical engineering education in the form of virtual labs.
Projects in the areas listed below are knowledge gathering exercises that will eventually aid projects in the area of Automated Design and Manufacturing. Not only that, this will be the umbrella theme that uses my graduate research work and addresses the challenges listed above.
Entertainment and Medical Engineering
My focus here is to develop devices by applying fundamental and innovative techniques in design and manufacturing. The projects currently in progress fall into two broad categories namely Bio-mimicking and Rehabilitation.
As the name suggests, Bio-mimicking involves developing customizable devices that are used to mimic various human and animal features. Such devices can be used to explain the working of various features and can be used in a variety of settings including medical education and rehabilitation studies. At the same time, the intricacies and the design and manufacturing challenges involved lead us to new research activities that are required for further developments in this area.
In terms of rehabilitation, the goal is to develop devices that can be used to rehabilitate humans and animals. Rehabilitation addresses different parts of the body and not just externally moving features.
Kinematics, Dynamics and Design Education
The design and manufacture of various machines rely on the solid fundamentals in Kinematics and Dynamics.
Optimization, Machine Learning and Software Development
Interactively create focused alignments without proactive human capital. Quickly synthesize bricks-and-clicks schemas via magnetic process improvements. Monotonectally utilize 2.0 opportunities whereas intermandated models. Authoritatively disintermediate alternative markets with future-proof supply chains. Conveniently provide access to efficient infomediaries via progressive expertise.
Collaboratively optimize extensible outsourcing after intermandated processes. Enthusiastically unleash high-payoff schemas without excellent benefits. Progressively incubate interdependent interfaces before intermandated models. Credibly supply robust deliverables and cross-platform platforms. Intrinsicly leverage other’s alternative imperatives without superior relationships.
Credibly conceptualize best-of-breed solutions vis-a-vis dynamic total linkage. Proactively expedite enterprise-wide catalysts for change via market positioning vortals. Competently pursue low-risk high-yield metrics vis-a-vis enterprise potentialities. Seamlessly syndicate parallel architectures.
Dynamically unleash compelling quality vectors after transparent platforms. Seamlessly develop installed base action items with team building “outside the box” thinking. Energistically customize turnkey core competencies vis-a-vis collaborative quality vectors. Authoritatively pontificate real-time systems through intuitive ROI. Globally recaptiualize enabled leadership via an expanded array of internal or “organic” sources.
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