The Design and Implementation of a Low-Cost Demo Tool to Teach Dynamics in the IOT Era

A primary concern in the teaching of an engineering curriculum is to deliver interesting contents to keep the students engaged during a lecture. In this IOT era, students rely on resources posted online by their professors to preview the lectures. The extensive use of online postings, on one hand, provides much convenience to the students; however, it also creates problems to the professors on how to exceed the students’ expectations such that they would choose to attend the lectures. This paper describes a solution to the challenge of creating interesting contents for a machine dynamics/mechanical vibrations course. The approach includes the use of a live demonstration platform to facilitate in-class participation and discussion. The use of demos not only will make the explanation of complex concepts much easier, it will also help the students retain concepts discussed in class much easier.