Welcome to the Mechatronics Engineering Department at Philadelphia University (PU) in Jordan. PU is one of the mechatronics engineering pioneers in the middle east region. The mechatronics program was initiated in year 2000 and accredited by the Ministry of Higher Education in Jordan by 2004. The mechatronics faculty at Philadelphia includes well qualified professors with educational and industrial experiences from around the globe: USA, Japan, England, and Egypt.
At our department, we emphasize on practical engineering skills where we encourage the students to build mechatronic systems prototypes. Our laboratories include Robots, Automatic Systems, CNC machines, DSP and microcontroller kits, Fluid systems and much more.
Today, Mechatronics System Engineering has gained much recognition and importance in the industrial world and became an engineering discipline in high demand. Our department has grown from thirty nine to one hundred and sixty students in three years
What is Mechatronics?
Mechatronics can be defined as the analysis, design, and integration of mechanics with electronics through intelligent computer control. The term Mechatronics was first used in the late 1960s by a Japanese Electric Company to describe the engineering integration between mechanical and electrical systems
Department Stats
The mechatronics faculty now includes:
- Two Associate Professors
- Three Assistant Professors
- One Masters degree Engineer
- Four Engineers (three lab supervisors and one technician)
The number of students have grown from 39 to 197
The Need for Mechatronics
The plan to launch a Mechatronics curriculum at PU was motivated by several factors:
- Industrial Needs
As regional industry developed through automated production and computerized manufacturing, requirements for multi-disciplinary engineers with in-depth knowledge of mechanics, electronics, and computers increased. The demand for such system engineers was fast developing, even though “mechatronics” as a term was still not known in the industry.
- Educational Motivation
As interaction among different engineering fields increased, students were encouraged to study system functionality. This developed the need for a curriculum that offers integrated system engineering.
- Mechanical Engineering Development
As technology advanced, computers and electronics started to play bigger roles in mechanical systems and therefore more and more mechanical engineers started to take computer and electronics courses in order to strengthen their grasp on mechanical system technology.
The Objectives
Given the above three main motivations, PU underscored that its main objectives in launching the mechatronics curriculum was to provide the following
- Integrated system education to students in order to equip the graduates with the necessary knowledge and skills needed for the regional industry.
- In-depth knowledge in the Analytical, Experimental, and Computational areas of Mechanics, Electronics, Control, and Computer Engineering
- Knowledge and Skills to Analyze, Design, Program, Build, and Maintain Fully Integrated Engineering Systems
The main Fields of Study
Mechatronics Engineering can be divided into 4 integrated fields
- Electrical and Electronics
This field includes Electrical Circuits, Electronics, Power Electronics, Drive Circuits, Electric Machines, Logic and Digital Electronics
- Mechanics
This field includes Statics, Dynamics, Vibrations, Thermodynamcis, Heat Transfer, Fluids, CAD, Manufacturing, Material Science, Machine Design, Hydraulic and Pneumatic Systems
- Control and Instrumentation
This field includes Analog and Digital Control Systems, Robotics, Signal Processing, Sensors & Actuators, Statistics and Quality Control
- Computer Engineering
This field includes Microprocessors, Microcontrollers, PLC, Programming, Simulation, Interface, and Machine Intelligence
Finally, Mechatronic System Design This field concentrates on the integration among electronics, mechanics, computer, and control in order to analyze and design fully integrated systems.
|
