Education, Knowledge and Innovation from a Mechatronics Perspective

The new European strategic framework for 2014-2020 focuses on intelligent, durable development, favorable to inclusion. In this context, the role of the educational system is essential from both perspectives: it supports the development of the society through learning and contributes to the research and innovation activities. Applied in education and research, the Mechatronics concepts allow a higher involvement of all the actors in the learning process. At the same time, Mechatronics ensures the framework for the conceptual approaches, operating methods and tools for reaching the objectives of the Integrated Education and the development of the educational technologies suitable for a knowledge-based society. This paper addresses the synergy between education, knowledge and innovation from the perspective of the Mechatronics education due to the fact that the education system has a major contribution in developing the new profile of a worldwide citizen. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license.