The field of mechatronics is multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary, encompassing the intersection of mechanical systems, electronics, controls, and computer science. Mechatronics engineers work in industries ranging from space exploration to semiconductor manufacturing and product design, and specialize in the integrated design and development of bright systems. It may come as a surprise to students looking to study mechatronics that one of the most powerful teaching tools available for the subject is simply a pen and paper.
“To be creative, students need to be able to solve problems on a piece of paper, make sketches and write down key calculations,” says a professor of mechanical engineering at MIT David Trumperwho has taught class 2.737 (Mechatronics) since joining the Institute in the early 1990s. The subject is a combination of electrical and mechanical engineering, he says, but more than anything else, it is design.
“If you’re just doing electronics but you don’t know how to make mechanical parts work, you’re not going to find really creative solutions. You have to see ways to solve problems in different areas,” Trumper says. “MIT students tend to see a lot of math and a lot of theory. The hands-on part is really key to building that skill set; through hands-on experience, they’re going to be better able to imagine how other things might work when they design them.”
Very similar to magic
Video: Department of Mechanical Engineering
Audrey Cui ’24, currently a junior studying electrical engineering and computer science, agrees that Trumper “really emphasizes the ability to do math on a napkin.” This simplicity is intentional, and the critical thinking it promotes is crucial for aspiring designers.
“When you’re sitting at a computer terminal, you’re using some existing tool in a menu system, and you’re not thinking creatively,” Trumper says. “To see the trade-offs and to get rid of the clutter in your thinking, it’s helpful to work with a really simple tool—a piece of paper and, hopefully, multicolored pens to code things—you can design much more creatively than if you’re stuck behind a screen. Being able to sketch things is so important.”
Trumper works broadly in precision mechatronics, with a particular interest in mechatronic systems for demanding resolutions. Examples include projects using magnetic levitation, linear motors to power precision semiconductor manufacturing, and position control for spacecraft. His work also includes lathes, milling applications, and even bioengineering platforms.
Class 2.737, which is offered every other year, is laboratory-based. Sketches and concepts come to life in focused experiences designed to introduce students to key principles in a hands-on way and are largely based on what Trumper has found critical in his research. Two-week lab explorations include motor control, evaluating electronic balances, and vibration isolation systems built on a loudspeaker. In one year, students built a working atomic force microscope.
“The feel and the sense of how things actually work is really important,” Trumper says. “As a designer, you have to be able to imagine. If you’re thinking about some new engine configuration, you have to imagine how it’s going to work and see how it works so you can iterate on the design in that imagined space—to make that happen, you have to have experience with the actual thing.”
He says his tardy colleague, Woodie Flowers SM ’68, MEng ’71, PhD ’73, used to call it “running a movie.” Trumper explains, “Once you have a picture in your head, you can more easily visualize what’s going on with the problem—what’s getting hot, where’s the stress, what I like and don’t like about the project. If you can do that with a piece of paper and your imagination, now you’re designing new things quite creatively.”
At the time of his death in October 2019, Flowers was a retired professor of mechanical engineering at Pappalardo University. He is remembered for his pioneering approach to education and played a key role in shaping MIT’s practical approach to engineering design education.
The 2.737 class attracts students who enjoy designing and building their own things. “I want people who are moving toward being hardware geeks,” Trumper says with a laugh. “And I say that with love.” He says his ultimate goal for the class is for students to learn about real tools that will prove useful in their own engineering research or practice years from now.
“Being able to see how many parts fit together to create one functioning system is really empowering for me as a budding engineer,” Cui says.
For fellow 2.737 student Zach Francis, the course provided a foundation for the future along with a vital connection to the past. “This course reminded me of what I love about engineering. You look at it as a little kid and think, ‘That looks like magic!’ and now as an adult you can do it. It’s the closest thing I’ve ever seen to a wizard, and I love that.”