THE ICT APPLICATION IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION

ABSTRACT

The exponential of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has continued for many years, and it seems likely to continue for another 10-15 years. "Computational" (Computational Modeling) has emerged as an important new way to represent and solve problems in mathematics, science, and other disciplines. When all of these areas of rapid progress are combined, they provide a substantial potential for significant improvements in curriculum, instruction, and assessment in math education. This is a lecture, demonstration, discussion, and hands-on workshop /or course. It is expected that participants will spend considerable time exploring the Website resources that have been brought together to support the workshop or course.

INTRODUCTION

Nowadays ICT plays an important part in human life. The ICT application can make life much easier. ICT application is also used in engineering industry. One example in application is CNC of milling, turning, lathe and many more. This unusually practical introduction to numerical control technology fully explains the most recent developments in machining and programming. Logically organized, it begins with a review of basic concepts and principles and moves on to tooling, work holding, machine setting, speeds and feeds, and part programming before concluding with a discussion of advanced techniques. Both beginning and advanced readers will find a wealth of information in this complete overview of computer numerical control. The abbreviation CNC stands for computer numerical control, and refers specifically to a computer "controller" that reads G-code instructions and drives a machine tool, a powered mechanical device typically used to fabricate components by the selective removal of material. CNC does numerically directed interpolation of a cutting tool in the work envelope of a machine. The operating parameters of the CNC can be altered via software load program. CNC was preceded by NC (Numerically Controlled) machines, which were hard wired and their operating parameters could not be changed. NC was developed in the late 1940s and early 1950s by John T. Parsons in collaboration with the MIT Servomechanisms Laboratory. The first CNC systems used NC style hardware, and the computer was used for the tool compensation calculations and sometimes for editing.

IMPLEMENTATION OF COURSES

The most part of movement CNC machines usually use a basic motion for a controller is to move the machine tool along a linear path from one point to another. Some machine tools can only do this in XY, and have to accept changes in Z separately. Some have two further axes of rotation to control the orientation of the cutter, and can move them simultaneously with the XYZ motion. Lately 4, and 5 axis machines have become popular. The 2 additional axes allow for the work surface or medium to be rotated around X and Y. For example, a 4-axis machine can move the tool head in XY and Z directions, and also rotate the medium around the X or Y axis, similar to a lathe. This is called the A or B axis in most cases. All motions can be built from linear motions if they are short and there are enough of them. But most controllers can interpolate horizontal circular arcs in XY. Lately, some controllers have implemented the ability to follow an arbitrary curve (NURBS), but these efforts have been met with skepticism since, unlike circular arcs, their definitions are not natural and are too complicated to set up by hand, and CAM software can already generate any motion using many short linear segments. With the advent of the vetch router CNC quad drive system which utilizes four (bidirectional) motors and drive, users are able to achieve greater speeds and accuracy. The most part in a drilling CNC machines can be used to drill holes by pecking to let the sward out. Using a special tapping tool and the ability to control the exact rotational position of the tool with the depth of cut, it can be used to cut screw threads. A drilling cycle is used to repeat drilling or tapping operations on a work piece. The drilling cycle accepts a list of parameters about the operation, such as depth and feed rate. To begin drilling any number of holes to the specifications configured in the cycle, the only input required is a set of coordinates for hole location. The cycle takes care of depth, feed rate, retraction, and other parameters that appear in more complex cycles. After the holes are completed, the machine is given another command to cancel the cycle, and resumes operation.

RESULT OF THE IMPLEMENTATION

In the previous sections we discuss the contents of the requirements engineering course at Blekinge Institute of Technology, and how the course is conducted. From this we identify a number of “success factors” that define and permeate the course, further described in this section.

Reflection instead of practice.

Because the course is held for master students, and because the students have previous experience from relatively large industry initiated software engineering development projects, the course is focused on reflections rather than numerous practical assignments. Theory, current state of practice, and state of the art are analyzed by the students using their own experience as a base, rather than inventing fake requirements, situations, and problems. This is of course made possible since the students have practical experiences from development and requirements engineering coming into the course. Our experiences with this is that although the students find it challenging to try to think about their experience in this way, they are often pleased with the result afterwards. We can also see in our discussions with the students that they gain a deeper understanding of the subject since they are able to see it in the perspective of personal experiences.

Market-driven requirements engineering.

The complexity of product development is not really represented by the bespoke requirements engineering practices that dominate most text books. For this reason, the complex reality of market-driven product centered requirements engineering and product development is put forward as a complement. The main idea is to prepare students for industry, and not stick to accepted practices

and views that to some extent do not reflect reality. It is however important to realize that in our case we provide the market-driven perspective as a complement, utilizing things learned from traditional requirements engineering, but taking it a step further by showing how traditional practices and techniques can (or can not) be used in another context.

Research connection.

Rather than just having a course about best practices, the intention is to also provide an up to- date view of current requirements engineering research. State of the art research is thus included in the lectures, and the students are expected to have a strong research connection in their assignments. In our

experience, the students often use a small set of “obvious” literature sources for the first assignment but when the assignments move to the forefront of requirements engineering research (as with the report on market-driven

requirements engineering) the students are able to follow, and are capable of identifying and using relevant and recent research results. As a forerunner to e.g. their masters’ thesis, this gives the students good practice in absorbing and critically investigating the current state of the art research.

Industry Connection.

Theory is constantly tied in with the experiences that the teachers have from industry state of practice on requirements engineering, and the students

are also involved and encouraged to reflect upon their own industry experiences (real and/or simulated through prior student projects). During the lectures, a student may be asked to tell the other students how they work in a company that he or she is or has been affiliated with. This is then discussed in class with active participation of all students, and in particular the student that first provided

the experience. During the assignments the students are requested to connect the theory with their own experiences and with their observations from industry.

Hence, a culture of sharing and understanding industry state of practice is nurtured, and one student’s experience is shared with others, giving all additional points of reference in reality to anchor the theory provided by literature. The case study performed offers a reality check. The students get a first hand view of state-of-practice, realizing that industry reality is not the same as in academia. In addition, each student group gets this reality check affirmed as all groups share results through seminars after the process assessments, making it possible

to identify similarities and to some extent common challenges between companies. Connecting this to studies performed in research prepares students for industry practice, and gives them an idea of how they could contribute in industry as they themselves become practitioners.

CONCLUSION

In a production environment, a series of CNC machines may be combined into one station, commonly called a "cell", to progressively machine a part requiring several operations. CNC machines today are controlled directly from files created by CAM software packages, so that a part or assembly can go directly from design to manufacturing without the need of producing a drafted paper drawing of the manufactured component. In a sense, the CNC machines represent a special segment of industrial robot systems, as they are programmable to perform many kinds of machining operations (within their designed physical limits, like other robotic systems). CNC machines can run over night and over weekends without operator intervention. Error detection features have been developed, giving CNC machines the ability to call the operator's mobile phone if it detects that a tool has broken. While the machine is awaiting replacement on the tool, it would run other parts it is already loaded with up to that tool and wait for the operator. The ever changing intelligence of CNC controllers has dramatically increased job shop cell production. Some machines might even make 1000 parts on a weekend with no operator, checking each part with lasers and sensors. Higher persistence length of vertebrate CNC indicates that the conserved information in vertebrates and insects is organized in functional elements of different lengths. These findings might be related to the higher morphological complexity of vertebrates and give clues about the structure of active CNC elements. Shorter persistence time might explain the previously puzzling observations of highly conserved CNC within each phylum, and of a lack of conservation between phyla. It suggests that CNC divergence might be a key factor in vertebrate evolution. Further evolutionary studies will help to relate individual CNC to specific developmental processes.