Project Title: Acquisition of Electronic Devices and Circuits 3D Printer

Project Lead's Name: Xinyi Xiao

Project Lead's Email: xiaox8@MiamiOH.edu

Project Lead's Phone: 513-529-0712

Project Lead's Division: CEC

Primary Department: Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering

Other Team Members:

• Amit Shukla
• James Chagdes
• Yingbin Hu

List Departments Benefiting or Affected by this proposal:

• Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering
• Computer Science and Software Engineering
• Electrical and Computer Engineering

Estimated Number of Under-Graduate students affected per year (should be number who will actually use solution, not just who is it available to): 160

Estimated Number of Graduate students affected per year (should be number who will actually use solution, not just who is it available to): 4

Describe the problem you are attempting to solve and your approach for solving that problem:

The proposed acquisition of a desktop electronic component and circuit printer helps our department and the whole college address two specific activities and would greatly benefit our student's hands-on experience in design and control for their career preparation.

1. A circuits printer allows more complex designs to be completed without much human effort or outsourcing the project. This flexibility in design advantages in control and electronic design class or senior capstone projects. In addition, the 3D printed circuit boards (PCBs) are way cheaper than the traditionally manufactured PCBs. For larger projects, the assembly speed would be much faster than the traditional manufacturing process, and the design modification can be completed at a much more efficient rate. Last but not the least, the 3D printing PCBs process can be completed without waste. This process saves resources and the cost of the creation of the PCBs. The current manufacturing industry adopted advanced manufacturing techniques to fulfill the functionality of their designs. Our engineering students need to gain experience using these advanced tools to prepare them for their future careers. Compared to the traditional 3D printers which mainly deposit plastic/metal materials and ultimately form a 3D shape, a PCBs printer can combine such a technique with the traditional control system and further with 4D printing. It will serve as a bridge to quickly modify and make novel designs in the circuit boards which can be mainly used in wearable devices, foldable cellphones, and such new electronic devices areas.
2. The second function of the desktop electronic component would be to provide a needed PCBs to our MME 434, and 436 courses. The MME 434 course mainly focuses on traditional and advanced manufacturing processes. The students are required to design and prototype the product to meet the requirements. However, with the more demands for wearable devices, the 3D product with only the fulfillment of the shape cannot meet the needs. The desktop PCBs printer can easily deposit the polymers, dielectric nanoparticles, and conductive nanoparticles onto the 3D shapes that are produced through other manufacturing processes. The MME436 class focuses on the software control of the Arduino boards. The students can gain more hardware manufacturing knowledge using the proposed acquisition PCBs printer, thus providing a better understanding of the invention of integrated circuits, which subsequently led to the control of these electronic components.

How would you describe the innovation and/or the significance of your project:

The motivations of the proposed acquisition PCBs printer are to promote a better understanding of the advanced manufacturing techniques and extend its application to novel techniques (wearable devices,...) to the students. The electronic and circuits printer can significantly enhance the depth of our MME curriculum and strengthen the linkage between our curriculum to the industry. Our students are only focusing on one area from either manufacturing or software control. With such a PCBs printer, the bridge between advanced manufacturing and control can be easily developed. In addition, these new skills can open new opportunities for students to interact more and develop more interdisciplinary senior capstone projects.

How will you assess the success of the project?

We expect that the students have learned fundamental circuits and electronic design skills, and use the acquired PCBs printers to build functional controllable electronic circuit boards and apply them to physical devices. The success of the projects will be determined by the completeness of controllable devices. In addition, the satisfactory evaluation of the projects and the equipment experience will also be conducted at the end of the semester. Besides, a showcase of the outcome from the controllable devices by using the acquired devices will be prepared. The scoring from the whole engineering students of these outcomes will be used as an important assessment factor for the proposed project.

Financial Information

Total Amount Requested: $10,000

Budget Details:

• $9,000: Two Voltera V-One PCB Printers
• $1,000: Initial supply of solder wire, Particle Photon Templates, and disposable printing nozzles for student use

Please address how, if at all, this project aligns with University, Divisional, Departmental or Center strategic goals:

The proposal aims at achieving the following objectives:

1. Accelerate the adoption of advanced manufacturing to the departmental curriculum and foster the student's creativeness and innovativeness to meet the learning outcomes for the ABET accreditation.
2. The hands-on opportunities that can be obtained from the project will provide the type of experiential learning necessary for mechanical and manufacturing engineering students as not only design or software engineers but as interdisciplinary engineers and can boost their career opportunities in the industry.
3. The quick design, modification, and prototype of the electronic components are always necessities in the senior capstone projects. The proposal will boost the abovementioned design-build process and maintain the material and budget cost at a minimum.