Combined Research - Curriculum Development in Smart Structures

The field of smart structures is one of several areas of engineering where knowledge, which has been heretofore compartmentalized in several different engineering disciplines, must be integrated into a functional unit because the application crosses disciplinary boundaries. A successful understanding of the concept of a smart structure depends on an in-depth appreciation of how the fields of mechanics of materials, mechanical vibrations, structural analysis, and system modeling and control interact when applied to the analysis and design of a structural system that will contain built-in sensors, control and diagnostic components. At the University of Missouri-Rolla, an interdisciplinary curriculum is being developed under the sponsorship of the National Science Foundation. The primary objective of the present effort is to integrate research results with curriculum development in the cross-disciplinary area of smart structures for the benefit of students in Electrical, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and Engineering Mechanics. We are in the process of developing a two-course sequence integrated with a multidisciplinary laboratory in smart structures. Both courses are team taught with one instructor from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and one from Electrical Engineering. We wish to share the experience in teaching multidisciplinary courses in smart structures.