Progress report on the computers in manufacturing engineering knowledge thread

This paper describes a knowledge thread which is under development for the Greenfield coalition (coalition for a new manufacturing education). The coalition targets the education of a new breed of manufacturing engineer/engineering technologist. A key principle underpinning all of the Greenfield activities is the belief that experience-based education enhances learning. Rather than introducing the computer as a generic tool, each course in the knowledge thread is motivated by a purposeful end-goal: the design of an information system for a manufacturing facility. In the first set of modules, students learn: (1) basic computer concepts; (2) key applications; (3) structured programming; and (4) application integration