Industry and university cooperation to enhance manufacturing education

This paper shows how industry and university cooperation is used to enhance manufacturing education in Mexico and Spain. The Tecnológico de Monterrey (Mexico) and the Universitat de Girona (Spain) have exchanged engineering education experiences and established similar industry-university mechanisms to enhance manufacturing education through (a) cooperation with the consumer and durable products industry and (b) cooperation with the manufacturing technology products industry. Also, this paper describes the general structure of the mechanisms and associated case studies in Mexico: (a) development of a manual press for souvenir manufacturing, (b) die and mold development projects, (c) high-speed milling for industrial design prototyping; and in Spain: (d) development of a power tool for polishing and (e) development of a mechanical press for license plate manufacturing. The cooperation between industry and university has shown significant benefits for manufacturing companies and for engineering students. These benefits are described in some detail.