EDUCATION IN COLLABORATIVE SYSTEMS ENGINEERING FOR PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS

The increasing complexity of intelligent mechatronic products and their digital interconnectivity lead to new challenges in product development processes. In addition, considering social and ecological aspects in product development is becoming increasingly important to achieve global sustainability goals. This requires increased interdisciplinary cooperation. The theoretical teaching of these technological and methodological processes and interrelationships is often currently still very abstract in engineering education. It requires a high degree of imagination, which can only be assumed to a limited extent, particularly for young first-year students. To better convey this basic understanding, a multi-day teaching format was developed for use at the school/university interface, in which prospective students learn how interdisciplinary, collaborative engineering can be implemented in practice using the example of concrete development of a simple mechatronic and data communicating product. The assignment covers all key phases of product development, from requirements analysis, system design and implementation to verification and validation. This teaching offer aims to sensitise prospective students to the current topics of the product development process of intelligent mechatronic systems and the associated social and ecological sustainability issues and to familiarise them with the future challenges of systems engineering at an early stage. By highlighting practical and socially relevant fields of application, the aim is to sustainably promote interest in studying engineering by demonstrating how engineering themes relate to students' lives or the real world.