Computer integrated manufacturing education to mechanical engineering students: teaching, research and practice

This paper details the research and development of Computer Integrated Design and Manufacturing at Islamic University of Technology (IUT), Bangladesh, a subsidiary organ of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). IUT isbasically an educational and research institution offering undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in the field of Engineering and Technology. The objectives of Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) education are to provide industry with a new generation of engineers having interdisciplinary skills necessary to deal with state of the art technology in designing, manufacturing, maintenance, selecting, and procuring manufacturing engineering systems. The research activities on CIM systems, the course coverage and laboratory facilities are discussed in the paper. The available programs are four-year Mechanical Engineering degree program specialising in production engineering, Masters Program, and PhD. There is a thirty-two-weeks research project at the undergraduate curricula of mechanical engineering. Areas of research topics include CAD (computer aided design), CAM (computer aided manufacturing), CAPP (computer aided process planning), CNC (computer numerical control) machine tools, DNC (direct numerical control machine tools), FMS (flexible manufacturing systems), ASRS (automated storage and retrieval systems), use of robotics and automated conveyance, computerized scheduling and production control, and a business system integrated by a common database in the Department of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering at IUT.