Open Access

Die akustischen Anforderungen an den PKW nehmen zu, da Nebengeräusche im Antriebsstrang bei Elektroantrieben zukünftig nicht mehr durch den Verbrennungsmotor maskiert werden. Antriebswellen werden üblicherweise so ausgelegt, dass die erste Biegeeigenfrequenz über 200Hz und damit oberhalb der Anregung der zweiten Ordnung eines Vierzylindermotors liegt. Längswellen zur Drehmomentübertragung im Allradfahrzeugen werden aufgrund ihrer Länge oft zwei- oder dreiteilig konstruiert und über Kardan- oder Gleichlaufgelenke miteinander verbunden und in Zwischenlagern gehalten, um Eigenfrequenzen unterhalb von 200 Hz zu vermeiden.

Formula Student is known worldwide as a design contest for engineering students, in which they train technical skills and engineering thinking by developing and manufacturing a single-seated race car every year. The efficient transfer of highly specialized and professional knowledge about physics and manufacturing has to be ensured every year, as the members turn into alumni. This requires much more than only technical skills. In this contribution, we want to present how the Bonn-Rhine-Sieg University of Applied Sciences supports its Formula Student team in order to foster and exploit its great potentials with a systematic approach, under the supervision of its team faculty advisor. We show how senior students learn how to teach their fellow students in their highly specialized skills in a so called “Race Academy”. This aims at the evolution of teaching content, and the art of teaching itself, by systematically involving peers in the teaching process.

At the Bonn-Rhine-Sieg University of Applied Science, Germany, students now learn about sustainability in each semester. Climate change and limitations of fossil resources are demanding problems engineers have to solve today and much more in future. They will be asked to find solutions for providing energy from renewable sources, reducing consumption of resources and enhancing efficiency of energy and material input. To prepare the students for this challenging work, the department of Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Technical Journalism (EMT) has decided to educate their students of electrical and mechanical engineering in every semester in topics of sustainability and the students of Technical Journalism in ecology and environmental sciences. This continuous sequence of topics in the curriculum is called the “Blue Track“. Contents are e.g. E-Mobility, Smart Grids, sustainable product development and renewable energies.

The proper use of protective hoods on panel saws should reliably prevent severe injuries from (hand) contact with the blade or material kickbacks. It also should minimize long-term lung damages from fine-particle pollution. To achieve both purposes the hood must be adjusted properly by the operator for each workpiece to fit its height. After a work process is finished, the hood must be lowered down completely to the bench. Unfortunately, in practice the protective hood is fixed at a high position for most of the work time and herein loses its safety features. A system for an automatic height adjustment of the hood would increase comfort and safety. If the system can distinguish between workpieces and skin reliably, it furthermore will reduce occupational hazards for panel saw users. A functional demonstrator of such a system has been designed and implemented to show the feasibility of this approach. A specific optical sensor system is used to observe a point on the extended cut axis in front of the blade. The sensor determines the surface material reliably and measures the distance to the workpiece surface simultaneously. If the distance changes because of a workpiece fed to the machine, the control unit will set the motor-adjusted hood to the correct height. If the sensor detects skin, the hood will not be moved. In addition a camera observes the area under the hood. If there are no workpieces or offcuts left under the hood, it will be lowered back to the default position.

A traditional way to teach bachelor students in electrical engineering is organized such that theoretical knowledge is predominant in the first year while applications and practical experiences are reserved for later stages of their education. In this contribution, we want to introduce a reverse approach: In a freshmen course at Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Science, students gain hands-on experience with resistances, condensers and other active parts, like transistors or relays from the very first day. We present how the combination of practical experience directly linked with theoretical knowledge enhances students' learning. It promotes deeper understanding of the theory and a better transfer between theory and practice. This teaching approach is adapted to address two main goals: First, to give practical experience to first-semester students as a basis for further laboratory and working situations. Second, to create a deeper and more sustainable understanding of physics by directly observing the effects that are described in formulas. The key to success is to find an efficient solution to carry out this approach with the given spatial and financial resources-which means, to do it in the lecture hall with very few material resources. To show that this innovative teaching concept really enhances the competencies of the students, an innovative evaluation approach was used where the students have to reflect upon their competencies before and after the course.