For more than ten years, via a partnership overseen by MIT.nano, MIT and Tecnológico de Monterrey (Tec), one of Latin America’s largest institutions of higher education, have united efforts to create groundbreaking academic and research endeavors, predominantly centered on nanoscience and nanotechnology, and, more recently, focusing on design and intelligent manufacturing. Now, this partnership has broadened to encompass undergraduate education. Seven Tec undergraduates are crafting techniques to produce affordable, desktop fiber-extrusion devices, or FrEDs, in collaboration with their counterparts at MIT within an “in-the-lab” educational environment, the FrED Factory.
“The FrED Factory functions as a factory-like educational platform for scaling up manufacturing, enabling scholars and researchers to participate directly in the shift from prototype creation to small-scale fabrication,” states Brian Anthony, associate director of MIT.nano and principal research scientist within the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering (MechE).
During on-campus instruction, participants observe, analyze, and actively engage in this progression, acquiring significant understanding of the intricacies involved in scaling manufacturing processes. The output from the FrED Factory consists of FrED kits — compact manufacturing kits that produce fiber and serve to impart smart manufacturing concepts. “We’re excited to welcome students from Monterrey Tec here at MIT, introducing fresh ideas and viewpoints, and assisting in the establishment of new teaching methodologies for manufacturing at both MIT and Tec,” remarks Anthony.
The FrED factory was initially constructed by a cohort of MIT graduate students in 2022 as their thesis project in the Master of Engineering in Advanced Manufacturing and Design program. They modified and expanded upon the original design of the device, created by Anthony’s student David Kim, transforming it into something that could be produced in multiple units at a significantly lower cost. The resulting CAD files were provided to Tec de Monterrey for use among faculty and students. Since the introduction of the FrED curriculum at Tec in 2022, MIT has co-hosted two courses led by Tec instructors: “Mechatronics Design: (Re) Design of FrED,” and “Automation of Manufacturing Systems: FrED Factory Challenge.”
This academic year introduces a new initiative where undergraduate Tec students are partaking in FrED Factory research immersions. The students collaborate on FrED projects at MIT and subsequently return to Tec to apply their knowledge — especially to aid in replicating and implementing what they have learned, with plans to inaugurate a new FrED Factory at Tec de Monterrey this spring. The ultimate aim is to seamlessly weave this project into Tec’s mechatronics engineering syllabus, wherein students acquire firsthand experience with automation and robotics through the devices.
Russel Bradley, a PhD student in MechE under Anthony’s guidance, leads the FrED Factory project and has been collaborating closely with the undergraduate Tec students.
“The act of designing and producing FrEDs is an educational journey in itself,” states Bradley. “Contrary to a conventional factory, which would likely not permit students to experiment with the machinery, the FrED factory offers an environment where failures are accepted as learning opportunities.”
The Tec undergraduates are organized into teams tackling specific projects, such as Development of an Educational 4.0 Framework for FrED, Utilizing Immersive Technology (AR) for Manufacturing Operations, Enhancing Advanced Manufacturing Education in FrED Factory through Gamification, and Creating Immersive Cognitive Factory Twins.
Sergio Siller Lobo, a student from Tec, is engaged in the creation of the educational framework for FrED. Alongside his peers, he is refining the code to enhance the interface’s usability, ensuring it effectively aids students in their learning while interacting with the devices. They are concentrating particularly on facilitating students’ engagement with topics like control systems, computer vision, and the Internet of Things (IoT) through both a digital course they are developing and hands-on interaction with the devices. The digital course can be presented by an instructor or completed independently by students.
“Students can learn theory through digital courses while also gaining practical experience with the device,” explains Siller Lobo. “This provides the advantage of combining both practical and theoretical approaches to learning.”
Arik Gómez Horita, an undergraduate from Tec involved in the educational framework, mentions that existing technologies for instructing students on control systems, computer vision, and IoT are often very limited in either capability or quantity.
“A crucial element of the FrEDs’ value is that we are amalgamating all these concepts and an educational module into one single device,” states Gómez Horita. “Introducing FrED into classrooms is transformative. Our primary objective is to empower educators by providing them with FrED for all its instructional potentials.”
When the students return to Tec de Monterrey with the educational modules they’ve crafted, there will be workshops featuring the FrEDs, along with chances for Tec students to unleash their creativity and iterate on the devices.
“The FrED is essentially a lab in a box, and one of its key advantages is its ability to generate data,” states Siller Lobo. “Discovering new methods to extract data from FrED significantly enhances its value.”
Tec students Ángel Alarcón and André Mendoza are gearing up to have MIT students evaluate the FrED factory, running a simulation with two primary roles: engineer and operator. The operator’s role assembles the FrEDs within workstations that mimic a factory setting. The engineer’s role analyzes the data produced on the factory side by the operator and seeks ways to optimize production.
“This provides a highly engaging way to teach manufacturing systems,” asserts Alarcón. “Many students studying manufacturing, at both undergraduate and graduate levels, finish their education without ever setting foot in a real factory. The FrED Factory offers students the invaluable opportunity to familiarize themselves with factory operations and experience an industrial environment without stepping off campus.”
The data gathered from the workstations — encompassing cycle time and defects in an operation — will be utilized to impart lessons on various manufacturing topics. Ultimately, the FrED factory at Tec will be employed to compare the advantages and disadvantages of automation versus manual labor.
Bradley remarks that the Tec students contribute a robust mechatronics background that offers significant insights to the project, and beyond the lab, it also fosters a rich multicultural exchange.
“It’s not solely about what the students are gaining from us,” states Bradley, “but it’s truly a synergistic process in which we are all enhancing each other’s knowledge.”