Teaching Laboratories
The teaching laboratories and fabrication facilities are available to students for personal projects and class-related work. In the approximately 6,000 square-foot space, students conduct experiments that range in complexity from basic instrumentation and fundamental exercises to advanced experiments in such diverse areas as automatic controls, heat transfer, fluid mechanics, stress analysis, vibrations, microcomputer-based data acquisition, aerodynamics, and control of mechanical systems.
The teaching lab is replete with state-of-the-art equipment, including data acquisition systems, dynamic strain indicators, an Instron testing machine, photo-elastic demonstrations, a wind tunnel, and Digital Image Correlation (DIC) systems. Students can also utilize the tools of a fabrication facility. Equipment in the fabrication portion of the laboratory includes 3-axis CNC milling machines, manual and CNC lathes, drill presses, band saws, power hacksaws, sanders, surface grinders, 3D printers (15 Prusa MK3S+ and 2 Fortus), and laser cutters.
This lab also functions as a teaching space for the following undergraduate courses: Intro to Machining, MECE Lab I and II, Machine Design, and Senior Design. In addition, it serves graduate students enrolled in fabrication-heavy courses such as Robotic Studio and Digital Manufacturing and graduate students pursuing research. The lab is also a major hub for all the MECE student organizations that use the space to host club meetings and depend on access to tools and equipment to make their projects competition-ready each year.
MechTech Laboratory
The MechTech Laboratory affords the opportunity for hands-on experience with microcomputer-embedded control of electromechanical systems. Facilities for the construction and testing of analog and digital electronic circuits aid the students in learning the basic components of the microcomputer architecture. The laboratory is divided into work centers for two-person student laboratory teams. Each work center is equipped with several power supplies (for low-power electronics and higher-power control), a function generator, a multimeter, a protoboard for building circuits, a microcomputer circuit board (which includes the microcomputer and peripheral components), a microcomputer programmer, and a personal computer that contains a data-acquisition board. The data-acquisition system serves as an oscilloscope, additional function generator, and spectrum analyzer for the student team. The computer also contains a complete microcomputer software development system, including editor, assembler, simulator, debugger, and C compiler. The laboratory is also equipped with a portable oscilloscope, an EPROM eraser (to erase microcomputer programs from the erasable chips), a logic probe, and an analog filter bank that the student teams share, as well as a stock of analog and digital electronic components.
CAD Lab
The CAD Lab is a modern computer-aided design laboratory equipped with 30 Dell Precision 670/650 workstations with Wildcat 6100 or Quadro FX 3400 video cards. Machines have software for design, CAD, FEM, and CFD, including Pro Engineer, Maya, IDEAS, FLUENT, and FEMLAB.
Other resources include the Columbia MakerSpace. Learn more about this affiliated workshop here.