STATUS OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING IN THE FIELD OF MACHINES AND MECHANISMS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES LIKE SAUDI ARABIA

摘要

Machines and mechanisms have always been used as a tool to improve upon both the lives and lifestyles of mankind. Human beings started using them by converting natural resources into various forms and shapes of ancient man-made tools. Similar has been the case with one of the most basic areas of mechanical engineering: machines and mechanisms, a field in which human species' invention of wheel emerged as the foremost and basic entity. Starting from those ancient days of human civilization, discoverers and inventors never looked back, be it the design of a simple toy car or a complex aircraft and spaceship system. In such a scenario, the role of academicians in the context of education, research and training has always been most critical and tedious. As the engineering world progresses the upcoming engineers have not only to get educated and trained for these latest technological developments but also have to add more to them in the form of R & D so that the human race continues to benefit from these ubiquitous tools, machines, mechanisms, and, finally, the technologies. Present paper aimed to get an overview of the educational status and training facilities in the field of 'machines and mechanism' in a developing country like Saudi Arabia. The study revealed that the Kingdom is presently focusing on such areas as mechanics, kinematics, machine design, machine dynamics and theory of machines which are mostly taught in the universities across the Kingdom. How does the educational and training status of universities in Saudi Arabia compare with those of educationally advanced countries like USA in the field of 'machines and mechanism' is discussed. The study revealed that the nature of laboratory-based training work, the coverage of the related areas and the methods of teaching these highly technical courses in Saudi universities need to be further improved in order to become comparable to the best in the world. Recently, the Kingdom has initiated work in the field of 'nano technology'. What would be its impact on the design and development of future curricula pertaining to machines and mechanisms is highlighted. The paper concludes with certain recommendations that might prove to be helpful to the policy planners in the field of engineering education, in general, and machines and mechanism, in particular for the successful future run of the developing nations of the world to keep pace with the latest innovations.