Abstract:

Generally, students in engineering education tend to carry out their Final Degree Project tutored in one discipline, but collaboration between different areas of knowledge or disciplines in the tutoring of Final Degree Projects enriches the training of students. This paper presents the experience of cooperation between the areas of knowledge of Thermal Machines and Electronics through the combined tutoring of Final Degree Project, aimed at obtaining the degrees of Electronic, Robotics and Mechatronics Engineering and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Malaga. All the projects have been focused on the development and manufacture of a test bench for a laboratory Stirling machine that can work either as a thermal engine, producing mechanical power, or as a refrigeration machine, if it is mechanically driven by an electric motor. With this co-tutoring, the students have had the possibility to develop skills both in the field of electronics and thermal machines. The tutoring of all the Final Degree Projects has been carried out simultaneously, encouraging collaborative work among the students.

In addition to the tutoring of the Final Degree Projects, common scripts have been prepared for practical laboratory lessons in the Electronics and Thermal Machines subjects.

Keywords:

Engineering education, Stirling machine, Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), Virtual electronic instrumentation, Practical lessons.