How to conduct a faculty development program in mechanical engineering?

Currently India ranks third among the most attractive investment countries for technology in the world. Also India ranks second in terms of the contribution towards the high-quality scientific research in the world.

In addition, we have created a lot of buzz around the world lately with the announcements of numerous Indian space missions and Make-in-India initiative.

These points make us realise that India is establishing itself as a leader in industrialisation and technological development. For such establishment to happen, India will be needing a lot of engineers, especially mechanical engineers who are well trained in latest technologies.

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1. Automobile Prototyping

2. RC Aircraft

3. IC Engine

4. 3D Printing

5. Drone with Autopilot System

6. Tricopter Design

7. CNC Machine using Arduino

8. Computational Fluid Dynamics

9. Sphere Drone

10. Gear Train Design

11. Biplane Aircraft

This poses a great challenge to all the engineering colleges, where they need to produce quality mechanical engineers who can work hands-on latest technologies. For this to happen, these colleges need to strengthen their faculty and help them gain necessary technological skills through various hands-on courses and faculty development programs.

Realising the current trend already a number of colleges started organizing faculty development programs in mechanical engineering on latest technologies to help their faculties gain skills. We, at Skyfi Labs, have helped a number of mechanical engineering departments in colleges in organizing this program. Doing so, we realized that organizing an effective faculty development program in mechanical engineering is not easy and it needs a collaborative effort from the management and department authorities.

So to help you, here I am suggesting the mistakes which you should avoid while organizing the faculty development program in mechanical engineering,

1. Avoid conducting faculty training programs on outdated & irrelevant technologies:
The main objective of conducting faculty development programs is to train your faculties on latest technologies. So proper care should be taken while selecting the right topic for your faculty development program.

The topic that you select should deal with one of the latest technologies and has to be relevant to your department. Some of the trending technologies in mechanical engineering are mechatronics, automobile engineering, UAV’s, engine propulsion etc. You can also browse online or consult some industrial experts to know about the technologies that are trending currently and organize a faculty development program on it.

2. Avoid conducting faculty training programs for shorter durations:
Since you are going to train your faculties on latest and trending technologies, sufficient duration should be given for them to learn it effectively. The ideal duration for the faculty development program will be 5-7 days. Anything lesser than this will make it difficult for the faculties to learn the concepts and any duration more than this, will make it boring for the faculties and they will lose focus as the days progress.

3. Avoid making it as a compulsory program for all faculties:
Your motive to conduct this faculty development program is to make your faculties in mechanical engineering learn and get skilled in latest technologies. So avoid making it as a compulsory for all the faculties to attend this program. Allow only the faculties who are really interested in learning that technology. By this way, the program will become more successful and the interested faculties will learn the technology thoroughly and in turn help your students to develop projects on them.

4. Check the credibility of the company thoroughly before finalizing:
One important thing to look at before organizing the faculty development program is the credibility of the organization who you are inviting to conduct this program. Since there a lot of companies available, you need to check the background of their founders, industrial partners & relations they have and also the expertise of the faculty who will conducting the session. You can also check their social media presence and Google/ Facebook reviews to understand more about them. Doing this right will solve most of the problems and you can turn your faculty development program into a more successful event.

What are the faculty development programs that you can conduct in mechanical engineering?

Mechanical engineering finds its application in a number of fields and is integrated into almost all the industries. So you can select a multi-disciplinary topic for your faculty development program to help your faculties learn and get skilled in new technologies. Some of the best topics for faculty development program in mechanical engineering are,

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1. 3D printing:

3D printing is an additive manufacturing technique which is being widely used by a lot of hobbyists and enthusiasts to create a physical 3D object from a CAD model. The objects are printed by depositing layers of materials. The technique used in 3D printers is similar to that of the working principle of an inkjet printer. This particular technology is becoming extremely popular among all the industries where they can implement it to increase the efficiency of machines and also can achieve a significant cost reduction.

By attending this faculty development program, your faculties will not only learn the concepts behind 3D printing, but also design a 3D printer, learn programming and generation of CAD models also.

2. CNC Machine:

Almost all the engineering colleges have CNC machine in their laboratories which is used to carry out multiple functionalities. Although it is one of the simplest machines available for machining, it is still the most reliable and efficient machine among others.

By attending this faculty development program, your faculties will learn the concepts behind the CNC machining and fabricate a fully functional 3 axis CNC machine that uses Arduino programming to perform actions like drilling, milling and cutting. With such good hands-on experience, they can learn all the concepts needed and in turn can teach students to build their own CNC machine.

3. RC Aircraft and Quadrotor:

UAV’s are now becoming more popular as much as robotics and this is mainly due to the varied applications that it offers to the industries. And a lot of industries have already started investing a lot of money on this innovative technology to develop solutions to carry out their operations efficiently. By doing this faculty development program, your faculties will get a good hands on experience on building UAV projects. As designing and fabricating a UAV is very complicated, getting expert assistance is recommended to learn this amazing technology.

Recommended to: This faculty development program is recommended to the faculties who actively engage students in developing good projects and work on UAV’s. Also if you are looking to setup an aeromodelling club in your college, then you need to provide this training to your faculties prior so that they can assist your students effectively.

4. IC Engines and Automobile Prototyping:

IC Engine or Internal Combustion Engine is the most widely used automotive engine in the locomotive industry. It is a very good example to demonstrate the concept of heat transfer. Also with the advent of electric cars, automobile industry is shaping into an entirely new industry providing a lot of opportunities for mechanical engineers. By undergoing this program your faculties will get a great hands-on experience on the concepts behind IC engines design & working and also get a good grasp of the methodology used in automobile manufacturing process.

Recommended to: This faculty development program is recommended to those who are very much interested to get acquainted with the automobile technology. Also the faculties who assist students on building projects should join this training program, as this will provide them with a good core knowledge on working of IC engines and automobile design, which in turn they can teach students to develop good projects.

5. Mechatronics Projects (like Animatronics/ Robotic Arm):

Mechatronics is a latest engineering concept that infuses both electronics and mechanical engineering concepts. As this is an upcoming field, not proper materials or sources available to learn the concepts. So providing faculty development program on this topic to your faculties will help them learn and develop hands-on skills on mechatronics technology from core. By doing this training program they will not only learn the concepts behind the mechatronics technology but also use the learnings to develop two different mechatronics project hands-on.

Recommended to: As this is a multi-disciplinary field, faculties from varied departments who are interested can participate in this training program. Also the mechanical engineering faculties who assist final year students in developing projects should undergo this training so that they can provide better guidance for them in building projects on latest technologies.

6. Robotics:

Robotics is one of the technologies that is advancing so fast that it is being implemented in almost all the industries to carry out various industrial process. It is an innovative way of providing solutions to the industrial difficulties and help greatly in increasing the efficiency of process. Although it is not a direct application of mechanical engineering, a lot of mechanical engineers are needed to assist in the process of implementing them on core industries.

By doing this training program, faculties will learn the concepts behind the design and fabrication of advanced robotics. They will not only the theoretical concepts behind it, but also use the concepts learnt to develop great robotics project hands-on.

7. IOT (Internet of Things):

Internet of Things or simply IOT is an advanced technology that is being used by a lot of industries now to understand the efficiency of their production methodologies and take necessary decisions on improving them. Most of the industries that use heavy machineries also beginning to adapt IOT to store the data onto the cloud and generate analytics which can be interpreted to modify and improve the overall production process.

By doing this faculty training program, your faculties of mechanical engineering department will get a good hands-on experience on IOT by developing cool projects. They will not only learn the concepts behind the working of sensors, data interpretation and programming logics, they will also use the knowledge gained to develop some interesting IOT projects.

Why Skyfi Labs for faculty development programs in Mechanical Engineering?

Skyfi Labs is an edu-tech company started by IIT Kanpur alumnus people with a vision to infuse latest technologies on Indian engineering system and make it easy for anyone to learn latest technologies by building projects hands-on. With the courses developed with highest quality through continuous R&D and interaction with industrial experts, the faculty development program offered in mechanical engineering will prove to be one of its kind and will definitely help your faculty members to bring in a change themselves and also with their interaction with the students community.

All the best. Hope you will all have a great mechanical faculty development program in your college soon!

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How to conduct a faculty development program in mechanical engineering?