Providing Access to Smart Manufacturing Equipment to Enhance the Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Student Experience

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Educational Instrumentation project at Cal Poly Pomona will strengthen undergraduate learning in industrial and manufacturing engineering. Specifically, this project will secure an Industry 4.0 training system, which will allow students to learn from simulations of real-world assembly processes. An estimated 325 students will utilize the project-funded equipment each year in four courses: Introduction to Computer Integrated Manufacturing and Automation (course and laboratory); Discrete Systems Simulation (course and laboratory); Data Analysis: Application in Industrial and Systems Engineering; and Industrial Applications of AI and Robotics. The goals of this project are to enrich the learning and experiences of undergraduate students by providing critical equipment in industrial and manufacturing engineering. The Industry 4.0 training systems will replace outdated equipment and allow students to gain hands-on experience to learn the fundamentals of smart manufacturing and automation. Recent growth in the domestic manufacturing sector has created significant need to grow the skilled workforce, and this project will directly prepare students for high-paying jobs in these critical industries. The project will assess the impact of the project funded equipment using student outcomes data and surveys administered before and after the integration of the project-funded training systems. This project is funded by the HSI Program, which aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education, broaden participation in STEM, and increase capacity to engage in the development and implementation of innovations to improve STEM teaching and learning at HSIs. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.