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Supporting an Emphasis in Product Development: Integrating Electronics Design, Simulation and Implementation CAD Tools Across the Curriculum Introduction

Over the past several years, several institutions of higher learning have developed courses and emphases in product development to introduce their students to entrepreneurship.1,2,3 In this same spirit of “doing” versus “lecturing”, the Electronics and Telecommunications (EET/TET) Programs at Texas A&M University have been developing an emphasis in electronics product design. To this end, the curriculum has been augmented to include topics such as electronics manufacturing, system integration, innovation, project management, and entrepreneurship. An initiative to team engineering technology students with business students who understand marketing and small business plan development has also gained substantial momentum over the past three years.4 Finally, all students are required to participate in a capstone design sequence where they work in teams to develop the concept for a product and implement a fully functional prototype.5

In addition to changes in the curriculum, the faculty also recognizes that most of the applied research being done in the Programs also centers on the development of product prototypes for industrial partners across a range of market sectors including RFID, medical, security, communications, and power. While the particular focus area of research can be quite different between faculty members, the goal of most funded research products is quite often a product or a system that provides an application solution for the customer. For these reasons, the Programs recently decided to ask industry to help guide them in formalizing this new direction. This led to the recent “Product Development Summit” held by the Programs on the Texas A&M campus. In this meeting, industry was asked to help answer the following questions:

≠ What does product/system development mean to your organization? (ie, is it focused on internal or external customers, is it focused on software/hardware or something else, what might the final product/system look like) ≠ What product/system development methodologies are used within your organization? (ie, interfacing with the customer, project management tools, idea generation techniques, system planning tools, documentation requirements) ≠ What does the career path of an individual in product/system development look like? (what would be the progression of promotions, what internal/external training would be required) ≠ What attributes are necessary to be a successful product/system developer? (ie, technical skills, “soft” skills, personality) ≠ What educational components would serve the future product/system developer best? (While we know that companies will probably not hire new graduates directly into product/system development roles, we want to prepare them with an interest in this area, and the skills to maximize the likelihood of success.)

An immediate action that resulted from working with these industrial experts was the need to develop a more holistic approach to product development. It was recognized that for students to

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Porter, J., & Morgan, J., & Zhan, W., & Wright, G. (2009, June), Supporting An Emphasis In Product Development: Integrating Electronics Cad Tools Across The Curriculum Paper presented at 2009 Annual Conference & Exposition, Austin, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--5713