Computers in acoustics education at Lehigh Free

In the late 1970's the Industrial Engineering Department and the Mechanical Engineering Department of Lehigh University joined forces to develop and promote an integrated approach to the progression from mechanical design to manufacturing with computer graphics systems providing the man/machine interface. The primary focus of the CAD/CAM program is the education of the approximately 600 undergraduates in the two departments with the emphasis on the design and manufacturability of products so that an engineer can understand the ramifications of his design decision in an integrated CAD/CAM environment. The aim of the program is to provide state‐of‐the‐art computer graphics systems as tools to improve design and manufacturing innovation. Educationally the goal is to implement the computer graphics technology into every undergraduate course in the two departments, which include such diverse topics as statics/dynamics, thermodynamics, mechanical vibration, statistics, operation research as well as the classical design and manufacturing. Some courses stress extensive use of these computer systems and the means to manage them, while others use the facilities for projects or homework assignments. By hard wiring the CAD and CAM laboratories to classrooms, the color real‐time dynamic displays can be used as dynamic blackboards to visualize complex three‐dimensional geometry or to illustrate multi‐dimensional mathematical relationships. Growing from a strong undergraduate base the program has attracted graduate research from several engineering disciplines supported mainly by Lehigh's industrial partners.