A collection of student projects from the Mechatronics bachelor course at AAUC

ModGrasp

A Wave Simulator and Active Heave Compensation Framework

JOpenShowVar, a communication interface to Kuka robots

I want to share my teaching experience with the Mechatronics course at Aalesund University College. Here you can find a collection of small student projects and assignments from the Spring semester 2012, bachelor course.

At AAUC, during their study courses, students are involved with realistic problem settings and scenarios that reflect real application prospectives. Very often, students are divided into groups that stimulate their teamwork skills and critical thinking abilities. From a social point of view, group dynamics are also relevant. In order to prepare the students for their working life, the preferred method of putting groups together is randomly, with a random leader. This method is perceived as fair by the students. Moreover, normal working conditions are simulated in which the team members are usually unable to select their own team. In addition, this approach also establishes new social networks in the classroom. Our experience is that the students perform better when they know each other well. This probably has to do with the fact that they feel safer in the learning environment and are less afraid of possibly embarrassing situations. However, in generating random groups, an attempt is made to break up the existing “frozen” social ties, thereby forcing the students into new roles. As such, an industry-like social situation is created.