2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

IUSE: Agile Methods Coupled with Project Based Learning to Train Mechanical Engineers in the Era of Industry 4.0

Presented at NSF Grantees Poster Session I

As the Industry 4.0 revolution reshapes manufacturing, design, and engineering processes, the role of mechanical engineers is expanding beyond traditional boundaries. Since mechanical systems are increasingly interconnected with digital technologies, training the next-generation mechanical engineers in Internet-of Things (IoT) programming and software engineering methodology is critical for meeting industry demands. However, these critical skills are often missing in traditional mechanical engineering curriculum. To address this challenge, we have modernized our curriculum by integrating IoT technologies and software engineering concepts in a new course. Specifically, we couple project-based learning and Agile methods, which represent the best practices in the IoT industry, to provide mechanical engineering students with a highly practical, hands-on learning experiences. In this paper, we present details of the Agile method component of the new course.

Authors

Dr. Xinghui Zhao Washington State University [biography]

Dr. Xinghui Zhao is the Director of the School of Engineering and Computer Science, and Associate Professor of Computer Science at Washington State University Vancouver. She received her Ph.D. from Department of Computer Science at the University of Saskatchewan in 2012. She previously received an M.Sc. from the same university, and a B.Sc. from Department of Computer Science, Nanjing University. Dr. Zhao’s research interests lie in the general areas of parallel and distributed systems, big data computing, cloud computing, and machine learning. Dr. Zhao is a member of IEEE, ACM, ASEE, and IEEE Women in Engineering, and has been actively contributing to the professional community. She served as the general chair for the 15th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Utility and Cloud Computing (UCC2022) and the 9th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Big Data Computing, Applications and Technologies (BDCAT2022). She also served as the local arrangement chair for IEEE CLUSTER 2021. She was the guest editor for Special Issue on Integration of Cloud, IoT and Big Data Analytics, Software: Practice and Experience (Wiley Press). In addition, she has served on the technical program committee for a number of conferences, and as reviewer for various journals.
Prof. Hakan Gurocak Washington State University-Vancouver [biography]

Prof. Gurocak is the founding director of Professional and Corporate Education (PACE) program at Washington State University Vancouver. His research interests include haptics, robotics and automation.
Dr. Kristin Lesseig [biography]

Kristin Lesseig is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education in the College of Education at Washington State University Vancouver. She earned her PhD at Oregon State University and currently teaches elementary and secondary mathematics content and

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 22, 2025, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 25, 2025

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