Designing a Multi-Disciplinary Hybrid Vehicle Systems Course Curriculum Suitable for Multiple Departments

In recent years an increasing emphasis is being placed on the inclusion of multi-disciplinary programs or in courses having multi-disciplinary content.Including this content can be challenging especially among the various engineering disciplines.This is exacerbated by the challenges associated with making this type of course content accessible to a wide range of students with varying levels of background in mathematics and simultaneously ensure its relevancy and technology advancement contemporaneousness.Students from different traditional engineering disciplines, such as electrical, computer and mechanical engineering, and also from non-traditional technology-based disciplines have different course requirements and depth in core mathematics, static systems, dynamic systems, systems modeling, power systems and electronics.Developing a course curriculum which crosses over multiple programs and disciplines and yet is relevant to a broad class of students is difficult.This paper describes some results from a concerted effort to accomplish the inclusion of a multi-disciplinary content in a new multidepartment course series.The hybrid vehicle systems course series (2 semesters) was designed to accommodate the needs of traditional electrical and mechanical engineering curriculums while including the necessary content to be relevant and welcomed as part of the electrical and automotive engineering technology programs at Minnesota State University, Mankato.This paper discusses the differences in curriculum between these different departments as it pertains to core subject preparation and competency and the modifications made in developing the hybrid vehicle course sequence to enable broad applicability to the students in different departments.The paper concludes with the specific curriculum topics and the teaching methods used to convey similar analysis results and conclusions using both calculus and algebraic concepts.