A web-based curriculum development on nontraditional manufacturing with interactive features

The engineering challenges faced by traditional manufacturing has facilitated the development of nontraditional manufacturing (NTM) processes. The multidisciplinary nature and the diversity of NTM education have posed more challenges than education in traditional manufacturing processes. To overcome these challenges, the different NTM processes are systematically presented from introductory to advanced levels by web implementation with interactive capabilities. Apart from text, images and sound, the interactive methods employed in this project include: interactive exploration of physical processes with JAVA applet; Macromedia Shockwave based animation; 3D virtual reality (VR) animation of NTM process simulations; and 2D movies of process simulation by finite element modeling (FEM).