In this chapter, we explore how new technologies and requirements affect current design methodologies for mechatronics. We investigate gaps and directions needed for the methodologies of tomorrow in view of trends affecting mechatronics and current state of the art. To fully reap the opportunities of mechatronics with advances in materials, sensors, additive manufacturing, AI, computing and communication, but also to handle new requirements and regulations, there is a need for new methodologies and architectures. We introduce the concept of “MechaOps” and related considerations that promise to assist in enhancing scalability, smartness, performance and sustainability for extended mechatronic products that collaborate with a smart infrastructure, humans and other mechatronic systems. MechaOps refers to the integration of the concepts of Mechatronics and DevOps. As opposed to DevOps in software engineering, MechaOps encompasses data gathering, upgrades/downgrades as well as reconfigurations considering both mechanics and/or software in a mechatronic product. With the life-cycle view implied by the MechaOps concept, it becomes essential to design for upgrading, downgrading, maintenance, reuse and refurbishment. The development of new methodologies requires overcoming disciplinary gaps, with specific considerations of novel architectures including digital twins, interactions with humans, other systems and a smart infrastructure, the role of AI in mechatronics, and in assuring trustworthiness and sustainability. We believe that new methodologies and architectures will initially be especially relevant for high-end systems, supporting the creation of adaptable and flexible mechatronics products and services with improved performance and reduced environmental footprint.

In this chapter, we propose a roadmap for the development of education in mechatronics. This development is intended to support future mechatronics engineers in accepting challenges in evolution, development, and sustainability. We explore curricula design, learning strategies, and misalignment between education and professional needs in relation to these challenges. The exploration is based on the fact that the subject mechatronics has now been around for 50 years, and, in particular, relates to the experiences and previous research of the authors, who are based at KTH Royal Institute of Technology where most of the empirical data is from. In this chapter, we argue that the above challenges require new roles, skills, and competencies among mechatronics engineers. With examples from complex product development, we argue that an increased systems perspective with systems architect competencies and experiences can support the embracing of additional systems design factors, which, for example, can enable sustainable development aspects into product design. We explore the interface between mechatronics and systems engineering, via embedded systems, as a possible future development of the subject of mechatronics. Embedded systems can be seen as a related subject, or as a subset of mechatronics, or vice versa. With this chapter, we argue that the subject of embedded systems can provide a shortcut for mechatronics education to approach the role of systems engineering, thereby reaching a level of competence and skills where the above challenges can be approached. The mechatronics engineer can play an important role in sustainable development. With existing curricula, mechatronics engineers are prepared to accept complex problem-solving, utilize solutions from various domains and disciplines, and create domain-independent solutions. These skills are crucial in embracing sustainable development, which puts the mechatronics engineer in a unique position. We also bridge the above discussion with current trends in learning, such as life-long learning and e-learning. The mechanisms that enable the mechatronics engineer to achieve a systems engineering skillset, which, according to our results, needs to be based on engineering experiences, is facilitated both by a professional education system (life-long learning) and by a flexible setup (e-learning).

Professional skills have long been perceived as lacking in junior engineers. Adopting a social realist theoretical framework of knowledge in practice, a hypothesis-based survey study of early career engineers’ perceptions of engineering expertise was conducted. It investigated a professional skills readiness difference between initial career trajectories (hypothesis 1) through an analysis of engineering expertise perception, and whether this difference decreases over time as engineers mature (hypothesis 2). Both hypotheses were supported by three statistical tests which established the specific nature and size of this difference. Three themes were identified: Academic bias, Technical competence bias, and Rationality bias. Thematic analysis through the framework of these three themes indicates how context and complexity (Semantic dimension) and Knowledge and Knower (Specialisation dimension) were understood in practice. The three themes expressed challenges over these two dimensions in understanding Technical knowledge, Collaboration, and the Legitimate basis for practice, leading to recommendations for education and practice.

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) are integrations of physical systems with computations. Their design poses many challenges. For example, CPS design is interdisciplinary by nature, crossing the boundaries of many engineering disciplines. In addition, there is a potential mismatch between the discrete nature of today’s computing systems and typically continuous physical systems, and CPS design has to meet and adhere to many constraints and take many objectives into account. As a result, education for the CPS design is quite challenging. In this context, the special issue on education for CPS aims to provide educators, industrial representatives, and researchers with a view on the needs and share solutions for embedded and CPS education. The special issue addresses questions such as “How can we ensure that students will be able to work in interdisciplinary teams?,” “What skills and capabilities are required by the engineers of tomorrow?,” “How should the corresponding educational programs be formed?,” and “How can effective pedagogic methods be introduced in this domain?”

Cyber-physical systems (CPSs) have proliferated our daily lives. Hence, it is imperative that we create a workforce ready to take up the challenges offered by this domain. This article presents a survey regarding the educational efforts on CPS design all over the world -Partha Pratim Pande, Washington State University.

This paper discusses the character of teaching mechatronics and the mechatronics engineer, ground in a case study of an industrial mechatronic systems development project. The paper gives an overview of the development of the subject during the first 50 years of Mechatronics. Based on the results of the presented case study, the paper concludes with a discussion regarding future research directions for investigating the evolution of the subject, with industrial and academic implications.

Master students at our institute were graduating without acceptable research proficiency. We intervened by shifting our research training from teaching-centred to student-centred, and from research-related subject content to research-related processes. We performed a mixed methods study aimed to confirm there was improved research proficiency without a negative trade-off for our students’ engineering skills. Results indicated improvements to research proficiency, which our students were able to transfer to engineering-related learning activities to increase their ability to achieve engineering synthesis. This outcome was potentially supported by our courses including several perspectives on scientific knowledge production. This implies that research training, rather than having a negative effect on engineering skills, can be helpful in learning diametrically opposing aspects of thinking required by current engineering. As engineering education evolves towards more cross-disciplinary cooperation, this implies the need to pursue the increased opportunities for students to learn about different perspectives on knowledge production.