Manufacturing Engineering Education

Education is a key feature in manufacturing. The USA's Society of Manufacturing Engineers say that over the next 10 years, it is predicted that 3.5 million manufacturing jobs will become available. But, without the right "skilled" workers for those jobs, around 2 million of those jobs could go unfilled, with a consequent impact on the USA's productivity and the economy in general.

The robust momentum of manufacturing has helped the U.S. economy continue to grow throughout 2014. In its mid-year report, the U.S. Federal Reserve concluded that industry capacity utilization - a measure of how many companies are using their resources, recorded its highest level in 6 years. Nevertheless, manufacturers are facing the continuing challenge of a widening skills gap and finding skilled workers, especially those with CNC programming, machine operating and welding skills.

Manufacturing Engineering is currently defined as a discipline "which involves the ability to plan the processes and practices of manufacturing and to research and develop systems, processes, machines, tools and equipment for producing quality products". Recently, manufacturing engineering has been applied to modern subjects such as nanomanufacturing, biomanufacturing as well as aspects related of sustainable manufacturing. This book covers manufacturing engineering education with a special emphasis on curriculum development, pedagogy and didactic aspects.

This book plans to include original and unpublished chapters that develop the applications of the manufacturing engineering education field. Chapters will convey innovative research ideas that have a prodigious significance in the life of academics, engineers, researchers and professionals involved with manufacturing engineering.

Today, the interest in this subject is shown in many prominent global institutes and universities. International experts have written on chapters for the book, due to the diversity of the subjects. Each chapter is planned to consist of 25-35 pages, including figures and tables. About 10-15 figures and tables per chapter are also proposed

• Includes original and unpublished chapters that develop the applications of the manufacturing engineering education principle
• Applies manufacturing engineering education to curriculum development
• Offers research ideas that can be applied to the work of academics, engineers, researchers and professionals