BY KYLE LAKIN
kyle.lakin554@myci.csuci.edu
Less than 12 college campuses in the nation offer a mechatronics degree and CI is now counted among them. Mechatronics is a four-year program that is only available to incoming freshman. The program accepted 24 students for this fall and will be increasing that number by 24 each year until the total number of Mechatronics majors admitted each year is about 100.
The teachers and students in mechatronics are excited about this new major and the future it holds. “I’m excited to see where CSU Channel Islands is going to take it and see how well it goes,” said Ryan Flippin, a student majoring in mechatronics.
In this major, students are able to learn about both mechanical and electrical engineering. They will have many hands-on lab and internship opportunities
The graduates of this program will be able to work effectively in all aspects of robotics, automated manufacturing and the design of mechanical devices with embedded intelligence. It will prepare students for jobs in fields such as automotive, aerospace, defense systems, manufacturing and materials processing.
“We envision the following Program Learning Outcomes; our graduates will be competent engineers and problem solvers, possess a high level of erudition in the field of mechatronics engineering, have knowledge of standard engineering tools, and their application in the field, be effective communicators and be prepared to undertake engineering jobs in a wide variety of engineering fields,” wrote Michael Soltys, Mechatronics program chair, in his blog.
Though the Bureau of Labor Statistics does not provide specific salary information for mechatronics engineers, it does show that median annual wages for all specialized engineers not categorized was $92,680 as of May 2013.
