MECHATRONICS: A PRAKTIKUM EXPERIENCE FOR PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS APPROACH TO THE ETSID

The 2010/11 academic year, the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV in Spanish), in collaboration with the Generalitat Valenciana (Spain), launched the Campus Praktikum Program, an initiative that intends that high school students can establish a first contact with the University, to facilitate the subsequent selection of a degree. Under this program, a set of selected high school students developed a small project in the field of Mechatronics at the School of Design Engineering (ETSID in Spanish).

In this work, we summarize the main features of the Mechatronics project and its practical implementation. From this analysis, we conclude that the participation and motivation of students in this initiative was very successful. Students have appreciated the development of the project, highlighting the key role in bringing students to the university environment in general, and the degrees in which the project is related in particular.