Establishment of mechatronics engineering professional groups in Jordan

This paper describes the motivation and work performed to establish ways to link between academia and industry in Jordan, in the field of mechatronics engineering. Two efforts are described. First, the creation of an on-line forum, called the Jordan Mechatronics Network (JMN), for mechatronics professionals inside and outside of Jordan to share knowledge and facilitate cooperation, considering that many Jordanian engineers find employment in Arab Gulf states. This forum operates in the English language, is open, free, and user driven. This setup helps sustain JMN over time with minimal cost and overhead. The second effort is placed into the establishment of a society for mechatronics engineers in Jordan under the umbrella of the Jordan Engineers Association (JEA). The ongoing work currently finalizes the rules and regulations of the society, which is named Jordan Mechatronics Engineers Society (JMES). The JEA was established in 1958 and currently has over 81000 members. The JEA and JMES follow a traditional rigorous setup in the Arabic language with regulations for elections, membership, funding, investment, social and political activities, etc.