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UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY:How to attract moreengineering students throughsystematic lab expansion.

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Utah State University boasts its location inone of the most beautiful valleys in the RockyMountains. But that is definitely not the mainreason why this 120 years old institutioncaptivates students. Rather than the beautyof surrounding nature, Utah State Universityrelies on its reputation of intellectual andtechnological leadership and progressiveteaching and research – represented forexample by the Department of Electrical andComputer Engineering (ECE).

WORLD-CLASS HANDS-ONEXPERIENCE FOR STUDENTS.Back in early 2000’s, faculty of ECE startedto understand the value of teaching itsstudents multidisciplinary skills, combiningmechanical, electronic, control systems andcomputer engineering in one subject -Mechatronics. In 2002, they started to builda lab dedicated to the subject, which now, in2008, offers world-class hands-on experienceto the undergraduate and graduate students.How did they achieve it? “Definitely notovernight,” laughs Dr. YangQuan Chen,Assistant Professor at the department, “and we are still not done.”

ECE started to build the Mechatronicslaboratory utilizing the Quanser lab equipmentthe department already had and added newmodules every year. “The department has asteady flow of the State of Utah EngineeringInitiative funds for teaching improvement,targeting undergraduate education,” explainsDr. Chen. “That allows us to buy fewexperiments every year. We did not get anylarge funding to equip my Mechatronics Lab.”

MODULAR EQUIPMENT IS KEY.Building the lab over an extended period oftime, compatibility of all componentsbecomes vital. “The modularity of Quanserequipment was very nice for us, we couldbuild a sophisticated lab from scratchincrementally,” continues Dr. Chen. “Theenvironment remained the same - now wehave the Ball and Beam experiment, FlexibleLink, Flexible Joint, Rotary InvertedPendulum, 2DOF Robot Arm, Solar Trackerto name just a few and it is all ‘plug and play’– nothing really changed. We are pretty happywith that.”

Access to a wider range of experimentsacquired over the years is not the onlyadvantage the Mechatronics lab can offerstudents. “At the beginning, when we hadonly a few stations in the lab, students

Students can get hands-onexperience working onassignments in small groupsor individually.

Using rapid controlprototyping and real-timesoftware, students can easilycontrol physical systems.

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worked in larger groups,” notes Dr. Chen.“Eventually we achieved our goal, having onestudent per station.” That for sure increasesthe attractiveness of the Mechatronicscourse. “Yes,” agrees Dr. Chen, “ourMechatronics course is very lab-intensive.We attract students who previously did notget enough on-hands experience, which is avery important factor in why they select thiscourse.”

REAL TIME IN NO TIME.“Students like to work with Quanserequipment,” Dr. Chen goes on. “It is easy forthem to get started. They just follow thewiring procedure and everything else is just

mouse-clicking. Using Quanser rapid controlprototyping and real-time software they cancontrol physical systems in no time. As I say– ‘go to the real time in no time!’ That’s reallyexciting and the students are impressed.”Dr. Chen and his colleagues have alsodeveloped several in-house mechatronicplants such as liquid level control system,fractional horsepower dynamometer, fan-and-plate. “They can be easily hooked up to theQuanser real-time control toolbox toexperiment with real-time closed-loopcontrols,” explains Dr. Chen. “This rapidprototyping of real-time control systemenabled by Quanser products is reallyattractive to both undergraduate andgraduate students.”

REACHING OUT GLOBALLY.In the future Dr. Chen plans to continueadding new experiments to the Mechatronicslaboratory. He gets really excited hearingabout a 2DOF Ball Balancer, a new RotaryFamily experiment that Quanser released in2008. But he would also like to make his labaccessible to more students. “Even educationis getting global. I am really looking forwardto making my laboratory available to all thestudents in the world who want to getMechatronics hands-on learning, here atUtah State University,” says Dr. Chenenthusiastically.

Dr. YangQuan Chen joined UtahState University in 2002 and hasbeen an Assistant Professor in the

Department of Electrical and ComputerEngineering. Since 2004 he has been ActingDirector of Center for Self-Organizing andIntelligent Systems (CSOIS). He is teachinggraduate and upper level undergraduatecourses. His current areas of researchinterests include distributed measurementand distributed control of distributedparameter systems using mobile actuator andsensor networks, mechatronics and controls(intelligent, optimal, robust, nonlinear andadaptive) and fractional order controllertuning. He holds 13 granted and pending U.S.patents. He co-authored two researchmonographs (Springer 1999, 2007), 5textbooks (Tsinghua University Press 2002,2004, 2004, 2007, SIAM 2007, CRS2008) and authored over 200 refereedjournal and conference papers.

Dr. YangQuan Chen of UtahState University with hisTeacher Assistants in USUMechatronics ControlLaboratory.

Quanser modular control labequipment allows the students toexplore various control issues using a

wide range of Quanser experiments andintegrate seamlessly with common controldesign tools. It helps educators at both theundergraduate and graduate levels to teachan integrated approach to product design,touching on a variety of engineeringdisciplines. The company’s turn-keylaboratories focus especially on the controlengineering aspect of mechatronic design,which includes software, control boards andpower amplifiers that provide for more than50 Quanser-designed experiments.