Jim Brazell
2004-2014, Jim was a freelance researcher serving the University of Texas Austin, Innovation, Creativity and Capital think tank and customers such as DARPA, forecasting,TSTC.edu, and the Texas Workforce Commission. Projects range from international technology commercialization to STEM jobs forecasting, to games for learning, to cybersecurity public policy.
Jim Brazell is an author, speaker, and workshop leader specializing in innovation strategy and technology forecasting. In collaboration with Bob Allen, from IDEAS Orlando, his work has contributed to learning designs for CASIS, the International Space Station, and the Dr. Philips Performing Arts Center, in Orlando.
For the past 13 years, Jim has been a featured speaker at National School Boards Association and NSBA Technology and Learning events. 2003-2004, he was project manager for DARPA’s Digital Warrior, designing video games to improve decision making for Army Battle Captains. In 2009, Jim was the only person to give comments to Office of Science and Technology Policy and the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) on the topic of STEM and modern career and technical education (CTE).
Learn more about Jim’s message about STEM and change, delivered in 2013 for the Colorado School Board Association: STEM 2.0, http://goo.gl/TTwQek. Jim is now President of armour.io, leading a start-up team to commercialize next generation cryptology--dynamic, rather than static key crypto.
Supervisors: Murat Tanik, John Carbone, C. V. Ramamoorthy, and C. V. Ramamoorthy
Jim Brazell is an author, speaker, and workshop leader specializing in innovation strategy and technology forecasting. In collaboration with Bob Allen, from IDEAS Orlando, his work has contributed to learning designs for CASIS, the International Space Station, and the Dr. Philips Performing Arts Center, in Orlando.
For the past 13 years, Jim has been a featured speaker at National School Boards Association and NSBA Technology and Learning events. 2003-2004, he was project manager for DARPA’s Digital Warrior, designing video games to improve decision making for Army Battle Captains. In 2009, Jim was the only person to give comments to Office of Science and Technology Policy and the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) on the topic of STEM and modern career and technical education (CTE).
Learn more about Jim’s message about STEM and change, delivered in 2013 for the Colorado School Board Association: STEM 2.0, http://goo.gl/TTwQek. Jim is now President of armour.io, leading a start-up team to commercialize next generation cryptology--dynamic, rather than static key crypto.
Supervisors: Murat Tanik, John Carbone, C. V. Ramamoorthy, and C. V. Ramamoorthy
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Papers by Jim Brazell
Many children and teachers have helped us to refine our ideas. The children and teachers at South Park School (Victoria, BC), Shirley Primary School, Ilam Primary School and Westburn Primary School (Christchurch, New Zealand) were guinea pigs for many activities. We are particularly grateful to Linda Picciotto, Karen Able, Bryon Porteous, Paul Cathro, Tracy Harrold, Simone Tanoa, Lorraine Woodfield, and Lynn Atkinson for welcoming us into their classrooms and making helpful suggestions for refinements to the activities. Gwenda Bensemann has trialed several of the activities for us and suggested modifications. Richard Lynders and Sumant Murugesh have helped with classroom trials. Parts of the cryptography activities were developed by Ken Noblitz. Some of the activities were run under the umbrella of the Victoria “Mathmania” group, with help from Kathy Beveridge. Earlier versions of the illustrations were done by Malcolm Robinson and Gail Williams, and we have also benefited from advice from Hans Knutson. Matt Powell has also provided valuable assistance during the development of the “Unplugged” project. We are grateful to the Brian Mason Scientific and Technical Trust for generous sponsorship in the early stages of the development of this book.
Special thanks go to Paul and Ruth Ellen Howard, who tested many of the activities and provided a number of helpful suggestions. Peter Henderson, Bruce McKenzie, Joan Mitchell, Nancy Walker-Mitchell, Gwen Stark, Tony Smith, Tim A. H. Bell1, Mike Hallett, and Harold Thimbleby also provided numerous helpful comments.
We owe a huge debt to our families: Bruce, Fran, Grant, Judith, and Pam for their support, and Andrew, Anna, Hannah, Max, Michael, and Nikki who inspired much of this work,2 and were often the first children to test an activity.
We are particularly grateful to Google Inc. for sponsoring the Unplugged project, and enabling us to make this edition available for free download.
We welcome comments and suggestions about the activities. The authors can be contacted via csunplugged.org.
Contents
Introduction i
Acknowledgements ii
Data: the raw material—Representing information 1 Count the Dots—Binary Numbers 3 Colour by Numbers—Image Representation 14 You Can Say That Again! —Text Compression 23 Card Flip Magic—Error Detection & Correction 31 Twenty Guesses—Information Theory 37
Putting Computers to Work—Algorithms 43 Battleships—Searching Algorithms 45 Lightest and Heaviest—Sorting Algorithms 64 Beat the Clock—Sorting Networks 71 The Muddy City—Minimal Spanning Trees 76 The Orange Game—Routing and Deadlock in Networks 81
Telling Computers What To Do—Representing Procedures 84 Treasure Hunt—Finite-State Automata 86 Marching Orders—Programming Languages 101
Engineer
Inside You?
A Comprehensive Guide to Career Decisions in Engineering
Celeste Baine
The University of Texas at San Antonio Edition
More Secure and
Prosperous Texas
A Report from the
TEXAS CYBERSECURITY, EDUCATION, AND
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL
Updated Version
December 1, 2012
Texas Cybersecurity, Education,
and Economic Development Council
In 2011, the 82nd Texas Legislature passed and the Governor signed Senate Bill 988, which authorized the creation of the
Cybersecurity, Education, and Economic Development Council. The legislation directed the Department of Information
Resources to appoint a nine-member council from across government, academia, and industry. The Council is to provide
recommendations to the Texas Legislature regarding ways to 1) improve the infrastructure of the state’s cybersecurity
operations with existing resources and through partnerships between government, business, and institutions of higher
education; and 2) examine specific actions to accelerate the growth of cybersecurity as an industry in Texas.
Texas Economy and Critical Technology Infrastructures at Risk
Cybersecurity threats continue to evolve and are outpacing Texas organizations’ ability to protect
the state’s cyber environment, compromising the physical safety, financial security, and privacy of
Texas citizens. Public, non-profit, and commercial entities within the state are challenged to
collaboratively identify and mitigate large-scale cyber events by national and international entities
with intent and ability to cause critical outages, steal private information, or harm Texas
government and business in other ways.
In response to the rapidly expanding Texas and national cyber threat landscape, the 82nd Texas
Legislature took steps in 2011 to leverage public/private partnerships to examine the infrastructure
of the state’s cybersecurity operations. These operations include the administrative and technical
measures taken to protect business against unauthorized access or attack, including preventing
criminal or unauthorized use of electronic customer data. The effort is intended to produce
strategies to accelerate the growth of cybersecurity as an industry within Texas. This includes both
cybersecurity businesses that create and market security products and services, as well as those
businesses with significant cybersecurity operations requirements. The goal is to encourage all
industry members to call Texas “home.”
The Texas Cyber Environment Today
The U.S. cyber environment is clearly at risk. From October 2011 through February 2012, more than
50,000 cyber-attacks on private and government networks were reported to the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security, including 86 attacks against “critical infrastructure networks.” These attacks,
regardless of originating country, likely represent a small fraction of cyber-attacks carried out in the
United States. It is important to note that cyber-attacks are not confined to the realm of cyberspace.
A cyber-attack can also inhibit, intrude upon, or damage physical property such as machines,
motors, and physical processes controlled by computers. Today, underlying control systems and
technologies are converging due to the acceptance of Internet Protocol (IP) as the de facto method
of linking these systems. Thus, the cyber environment includes a symbiotic relationship with virtually
all public and private economic clusters because of the computers, software, telecommunications,
and embedded control systems at the heart of critical infrastructure.
Texas organizations rely on the state’s cyber environment to deliver many commercial, government,
and education products and services to Texas’ more than 26 million citizens. The Texas environment
includes public organizations such as state agencies, higher education institutions, local
governments, K–12 education, and emergency management districts, as well as private entities. This
environment also encompasses for-profit and not-for-profit corporations, including faith-based
organizations, 50+ U.S. Fortune 500 companies headquartered in Texas, and many U.S. and global
firms with significant business operations in the state. Texas business must ensure it effectively and
continuously protects the state’s cyber environment in order to support the Texas economy.
Danny Sharon Michael Sekora Philip Battle
James Brazell Alexander Cavalli David Smith
Dean McCall Edward Preston Alexander Grammer Kinman Chan Jeeyoung Heo Kenneth Kan
Yue Kuang Prakash Mohandas Xiaoxiang Zhang
The US in general and Central Texas in particular face a daunting challenge: our capacity to sustain the creation and growth of businesses and jobs is being undermined. The emergence of global competitors’ greater cost efficiencies, productivity, and technological sophistication greatly challenge our economic future.
If Central Texas can embrace these changes by creating an environment which supports rather than retards the process of change, we will create a powerful motor for job creation and growth, which in turn will increase consumer choice and promote cultural diversity. If Central Texas fails to do so, or fails to do so rapidly enough, there are real risks that our businesses and citizens will be sidelined by the digital convergence revolution being embraced by businesses, users and governments around the world.
Digital convergence is a process that is expected to provide a level of competitive advantage and wealth creation to nations, regions, industries and companies, surpassing that created in the past by the emergence of the automotive, aerospace and semiconductor industries.
The purpose of this document is to introduce to regional stakeholders, a new approach to technology- based economic development—The Digital Convergence Initiative.
The mission of the Digital Convergence Initiative is to catalyze public and private collaboration to transform the Waco-Austin-San Antonio corridor into a global competitor in digital convergence products and services.
1. 2.
3.
4.
5.
Executive Summary ..............................................................................................................................1
What is Digital Convergence and Why Does it Matter?........................................................................2
2.1. Digital Convergence Defined............................................................................................................2
2.2. Scope of Digital Convergence..........................................................................................................3
2.3. Digital Convergence Drivers and Constraints ..................................................................................4
Digital Convergence Centers of Excellence .........................................................................................5
3.1. Central Florida ..................................................................................................................................6
3.2. Washington DC.................................................................................................................................7
3.3. San Diego .........................................................................................................................................8
3.4. Los Angeles- Orange County ...........................................................................................................9
3.5. San Francisco and Silicon Valley ...................................................................................................10
3.6. New York- Newark, NJ Region.......................................................................................................11
3.7. South Korea....................................................................................................................................11
3.8. Finland ............................................................................................................................................12
Central Texas Digital Convergence Leadership—Assets and Challenges ........................................13
4.1. Central Texas SWOT .....................................................................................................................14
4.2. Central Texas Infrastructure ...........................................................................................................15
4.3. Central Texas Technology Resource Map .....................................................................................18
The Digital Convergence Initiative ......................................................................................................22
5.1. Cross-Sector Horizontal Integration ...............................................................................................24
5.2. Developing and Using Better Tools................................................................................................25
6.
Bibiolography ...............................................................................................................................................49 Endnotes......................................................................................................................................................54
Directory of Waco – Austin - San Antonio Digital Convergence Organizations .................................26
Table 1 Central Florida Indicators ................................................................................................................ 7 Table 2 Washington DC Indicators............................................................................................................... 7 Table 3 Virginia Indicators ............................................................................................................................ 8 Table 4 Maryland Indicators ......................................................................................................................... 8 Table 5 San Diego County Indicators........................................................................................................... 9 Table 6 Los Angeles Indicators .................................................................................................................... 9 Table 7 San Francisco and Silicon Valley Indicators ................................................................................. 10 Table 8 New York – Newark Indicators ...................................................................................................... 11 Table 9 South Korea Indicators .................................................................................................................. 12 Table 10 Finland Indicators ........................................................................................................................ 13 Table 11 Austin Indicators .......................................................................................................................... 15 Table 12 San Antonio Indicators ................................................................................................................ 15 Table 13 Waco-Kileen-Temple Indicators .................................................................................................. 16
Executive Summary
Mechatronics is a system of technologies which integrates mechanical and electrical systems through control systems and information technology. Mechatronics is another way of saying “intelligent mechanical systems.”
The National Council on Competitiveness estimates that 100 million new jobs will be created in the 21st century at the intersection of disciplines rather than in individual disciplines. Mechatronics technicians exhibit this multi-disciplinary or multi-cra requirement today and are in high demand across all of Governor Perry’s targeted high growth industries
There is no mechatronics industry sector; rather, it is an enabling approach to technology that is increasingly applied in a number of economic sectors including:
Biotechnology, Life Science & Medical; Electronics & Applied Computer Equipment; Telecommunications & Information Services; Distribution, Transportation & Logistics; Heavy &
Special Trade Construction; Energy, Mining & Related Support Services; Petroleum Rening &
Chemical; Transportation Equipment; Production Support & Industrial Machinery; Agriculture, Forestry & Food; Aerospace, Homeland Security and Defense.
Mechatronics is at the heart of systems such as cochlear ear implants for the hearing impaired and anti-lock breaks in automobiles. Mechatronics is an enabling manufacturing technology for traditional industries and also a foundational manufacturing technology for micro-to-nano scale manufacturing
Mechatronics is another way of saying “intelligent mechanical systems” and it is the foundation of many 21st century enabling technologies. Mechatronics involves the integration of mechanical and electrical systems with control systems and information technology.
Mechatronic products and processes are increasingly pervasive across a broad range of industries. These same industries are expressing a clear demand for highly skilled employees capable of excelling in these technologically advanced environments and competent in the multidisciplinary application of technologies associated with mechatronics. Colleges should to respond to these employer demands by updating curriculum and creating new courses and programs to serve this emerging technology workforce need.
The analysis and information resources provided in this report will aid colleges in developing Mechatronic programs and certificates. This publication includes an overview of mechatronic technology and analysis of related occupations and salaries, inventory of existing mechatronic curriculum and considerations for colleges considering developing related programs and lists of industry experts and mechatronics companies.
Conference Presentations by Jim Brazell
Many children and teachers have helped us to refine our ideas. The children and teachers at South Park School (Victoria, BC), Shirley Primary School, Ilam Primary School and Westburn Primary School (Christchurch, New Zealand) were guinea pigs for many activities. We are particularly grateful to Linda Picciotto, Karen Able, Bryon Porteous, Paul Cathro, Tracy Harrold, Simone Tanoa, Lorraine Woodfield, and Lynn Atkinson for welcoming us into their classrooms and making helpful suggestions for refinements to the activities. Gwenda Bensemann has trialed several of the activities for us and suggested modifications. Richard Lynders and Sumant Murugesh have helped with classroom trials. Parts of the cryptography activities were developed by Ken Noblitz. Some of the activities were run under the umbrella of the Victoria “Mathmania” group, with help from Kathy Beveridge. Earlier versions of the illustrations were done by Malcolm Robinson and Gail Williams, and we have also benefited from advice from Hans Knutson. Matt Powell has also provided valuable assistance during the development of the “Unplugged” project. We are grateful to the Brian Mason Scientific and Technical Trust for generous sponsorship in the early stages of the development of this book.
Special thanks go to Paul and Ruth Ellen Howard, who tested many of the activities and provided a number of helpful suggestions. Peter Henderson, Bruce McKenzie, Joan Mitchell, Nancy Walker-Mitchell, Gwen Stark, Tony Smith, Tim A. H. Bell1, Mike Hallett, and Harold Thimbleby also provided numerous helpful comments.
We owe a huge debt to our families: Bruce, Fran, Grant, Judith, and Pam for their support, and Andrew, Anna, Hannah, Max, Michael, and Nikki who inspired much of this work,2 and were often the first children to test an activity.
We are particularly grateful to Google Inc. for sponsoring the Unplugged project, and enabling us to make this edition available for free download.
We welcome comments and suggestions about the activities. The authors can be contacted via csunplugged.org.
Contents
Introduction i
Acknowledgements ii
Data: the raw material—Representing information 1 Count the Dots—Binary Numbers 3 Colour by Numbers—Image Representation 14 You Can Say That Again! —Text Compression 23 Card Flip Magic—Error Detection & Correction 31 Twenty Guesses—Information Theory 37
Putting Computers to Work—Algorithms 43 Battleships—Searching Algorithms 45 Lightest and Heaviest—Sorting Algorithms 64 Beat the Clock—Sorting Networks 71 The Muddy City—Minimal Spanning Trees 76 The Orange Game—Routing and Deadlock in Networks 81
Telling Computers What To Do—Representing Procedures 84 Treasure Hunt—Finite-State Automata 86 Marching Orders—Programming Languages 101
Engineer
Inside You?
A Comprehensive Guide to Career Decisions in Engineering
Celeste Baine
The University of Texas at San Antonio Edition
More Secure and
Prosperous Texas
A Report from the
TEXAS CYBERSECURITY, EDUCATION, AND
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL
Updated Version
December 1, 2012
Texas Cybersecurity, Education,
and Economic Development Council
In 2011, the 82nd Texas Legislature passed and the Governor signed Senate Bill 988, which authorized the creation of the
Cybersecurity, Education, and Economic Development Council. The legislation directed the Department of Information
Resources to appoint a nine-member council from across government, academia, and industry. The Council is to provide
recommendations to the Texas Legislature regarding ways to 1) improve the infrastructure of the state’s cybersecurity
operations with existing resources and through partnerships between government, business, and institutions of higher
education; and 2) examine specific actions to accelerate the growth of cybersecurity as an industry in Texas.
Texas Economy and Critical Technology Infrastructures at Risk
Cybersecurity threats continue to evolve and are outpacing Texas organizations’ ability to protect
the state’s cyber environment, compromising the physical safety, financial security, and privacy of
Texas citizens. Public, non-profit, and commercial entities within the state are challenged to
collaboratively identify and mitigate large-scale cyber events by national and international entities
with intent and ability to cause critical outages, steal private information, or harm Texas
government and business in other ways.
In response to the rapidly expanding Texas and national cyber threat landscape, the 82nd Texas
Legislature took steps in 2011 to leverage public/private partnerships to examine the infrastructure
of the state’s cybersecurity operations. These operations include the administrative and technical
measures taken to protect business against unauthorized access or attack, including preventing
criminal or unauthorized use of electronic customer data. The effort is intended to produce
strategies to accelerate the growth of cybersecurity as an industry within Texas. This includes both
cybersecurity businesses that create and market security products and services, as well as those
businesses with significant cybersecurity operations requirements. The goal is to encourage all
industry members to call Texas “home.”
The Texas Cyber Environment Today
The U.S. cyber environment is clearly at risk. From October 2011 through February 2012, more than
50,000 cyber-attacks on private and government networks were reported to the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security, including 86 attacks against “critical infrastructure networks.” These attacks,
regardless of originating country, likely represent a small fraction of cyber-attacks carried out in the
United States. It is important to note that cyber-attacks are not confined to the realm of cyberspace.
A cyber-attack can also inhibit, intrude upon, or damage physical property such as machines,
motors, and physical processes controlled by computers. Today, underlying control systems and
technologies are converging due to the acceptance of Internet Protocol (IP) as the de facto method
of linking these systems. Thus, the cyber environment includes a symbiotic relationship with virtually
all public and private economic clusters because of the computers, software, telecommunications,
and embedded control systems at the heart of critical infrastructure.
Texas organizations rely on the state’s cyber environment to deliver many commercial, government,
and education products and services to Texas’ more than 26 million citizens. The Texas environment
includes public organizations such as state agencies, higher education institutions, local
governments, K–12 education, and emergency management districts, as well as private entities. This
environment also encompasses for-profit and not-for-profit corporations, including faith-based
organizations, 50+ U.S. Fortune 500 companies headquartered in Texas, and many U.S. and global
firms with significant business operations in the state. Texas business must ensure it effectively and
continuously protects the state’s cyber environment in order to support the Texas economy.
Danny Sharon Michael Sekora Philip Battle
James Brazell Alexander Cavalli David Smith
Dean McCall Edward Preston Alexander Grammer Kinman Chan Jeeyoung Heo Kenneth Kan
Yue Kuang Prakash Mohandas Xiaoxiang Zhang
The US in general and Central Texas in particular face a daunting challenge: our capacity to sustain the creation and growth of businesses and jobs is being undermined. The emergence of global competitors’ greater cost efficiencies, productivity, and technological sophistication greatly challenge our economic future.
If Central Texas can embrace these changes by creating an environment which supports rather than retards the process of change, we will create a powerful motor for job creation and growth, which in turn will increase consumer choice and promote cultural diversity. If Central Texas fails to do so, or fails to do so rapidly enough, there are real risks that our businesses and citizens will be sidelined by the digital convergence revolution being embraced by businesses, users and governments around the world.
Digital convergence is a process that is expected to provide a level of competitive advantage and wealth creation to nations, regions, industries and companies, surpassing that created in the past by the emergence of the automotive, aerospace and semiconductor industries.
The purpose of this document is to introduce to regional stakeholders, a new approach to technology- based economic development—The Digital Convergence Initiative.
The mission of the Digital Convergence Initiative is to catalyze public and private collaboration to transform the Waco-Austin-San Antonio corridor into a global competitor in digital convergence products and services.
1. 2.
3.
4.
5.
Executive Summary ..............................................................................................................................1
What is Digital Convergence and Why Does it Matter?........................................................................2
2.1. Digital Convergence Defined............................................................................................................2
2.2. Scope of Digital Convergence..........................................................................................................3
2.3. Digital Convergence Drivers and Constraints ..................................................................................4
Digital Convergence Centers of Excellence .........................................................................................5
3.1. Central Florida ..................................................................................................................................6
3.2. Washington DC.................................................................................................................................7
3.3. San Diego .........................................................................................................................................8
3.4. Los Angeles- Orange County ...........................................................................................................9
3.5. San Francisco and Silicon Valley ...................................................................................................10
3.6. New York- Newark, NJ Region.......................................................................................................11
3.7. South Korea....................................................................................................................................11
3.8. Finland ............................................................................................................................................12
Central Texas Digital Convergence Leadership—Assets and Challenges ........................................13
4.1. Central Texas SWOT .....................................................................................................................14
4.2. Central Texas Infrastructure ...........................................................................................................15
4.3. Central Texas Technology Resource Map .....................................................................................18
The Digital Convergence Initiative ......................................................................................................22
5.1. Cross-Sector Horizontal Integration ...............................................................................................24
5.2. Developing and Using Better Tools................................................................................................25
6.
Bibiolography ...............................................................................................................................................49 Endnotes......................................................................................................................................................54
Directory of Waco – Austin - San Antonio Digital Convergence Organizations .................................26
Table 1 Central Florida Indicators ................................................................................................................ 7 Table 2 Washington DC Indicators............................................................................................................... 7 Table 3 Virginia Indicators ............................................................................................................................ 8 Table 4 Maryland Indicators ......................................................................................................................... 8 Table 5 San Diego County Indicators........................................................................................................... 9 Table 6 Los Angeles Indicators .................................................................................................................... 9 Table 7 San Francisco and Silicon Valley Indicators ................................................................................. 10 Table 8 New York – Newark Indicators ...................................................................................................... 11 Table 9 South Korea Indicators .................................................................................................................. 12 Table 10 Finland Indicators ........................................................................................................................ 13 Table 11 Austin Indicators .......................................................................................................................... 15 Table 12 San Antonio Indicators ................................................................................................................ 15 Table 13 Waco-Kileen-Temple Indicators .................................................................................................. 16
Executive Summary
Mechatronics is a system of technologies which integrates mechanical and electrical systems through control systems and information technology. Mechatronics is another way of saying “intelligent mechanical systems.”
The National Council on Competitiveness estimates that 100 million new jobs will be created in the 21st century at the intersection of disciplines rather than in individual disciplines. Mechatronics technicians exhibit this multi-disciplinary or multi-cra requirement today and are in high demand across all of Governor Perry’s targeted high growth industries
There is no mechatronics industry sector; rather, it is an enabling approach to technology that is increasingly applied in a number of economic sectors including:
Biotechnology, Life Science & Medical; Electronics & Applied Computer Equipment; Telecommunications & Information Services; Distribution, Transportation & Logistics; Heavy &
Special Trade Construction; Energy, Mining & Related Support Services; Petroleum Rening &
Chemical; Transportation Equipment; Production Support & Industrial Machinery; Agriculture, Forestry & Food; Aerospace, Homeland Security and Defense.
Mechatronics is at the heart of systems such as cochlear ear implants for the hearing impaired and anti-lock breaks in automobiles. Mechatronics is an enabling manufacturing technology for traditional industries and also a foundational manufacturing technology for micro-to-nano scale manufacturing
Mechatronics is another way of saying “intelligent mechanical systems” and it is the foundation of many 21st century enabling technologies. Mechatronics involves the integration of mechanical and electrical systems with control systems and information technology.
Mechatronic products and processes are increasingly pervasive across a broad range of industries. These same industries are expressing a clear demand for highly skilled employees capable of excelling in these technologically advanced environments and competent in the multidisciplinary application of technologies associated with mechatronics. Colleges should to respond to these employer demands by updating curriculum and creating new courses and programs to serve this emerging technology workforce need.
The analysis and information resources provided in this report will aid colleges in developing Mechatronic programs and certificates. This publication includes an overview of mechatronic technology and analysis of related occupations and salaries, inventory of existing mechatronic curriculum and considerations for colleges considering developing related programs and lists of industry experts and mechatronics companies.