Conference Session

Multidisciplinary Endeavors: Engineering and Liberal Arts

Collection

2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Katie Evans, Louisiana Tech University; Kirk St.Amant, Louisiana Tech University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society, Multidisciplinary Engineering

communication and management acumen (e.g., technicalwriting, technical presentations, and project management). Such an approach is essential topreparing future engineers for the workplace [1]. The challenge becomes providing studentswith effective exposure to both kinds of skills within engineering programs.Traditionally, the development of such skills has been a matter of content-specific courseworkintegrated into a school’s engineering program(s). (A classic example is the technical writingcourse often offer by English or communication departments and required of engineeringundergraduates.) As institutional resources shrink and student demand increases, the need tofind alternative methods for offering training in these “soft-skill” areas grows

Conference Session

Multidisciplinary Engineering Programs

Collection

2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Robert M. Park, Metropolitan State University of Denver; Ananda Mani Paudel, Metropolitan State University of Denver

Tagged Divisions

Multidisciplinary Engineering

equipment and materials that are driving advanced manufacturing in the U.S. andaround the world, in both the additive and subtractive manufacturing areas, lies at the heart of theprogram.In addition to a focus on technical skills development, the new program emphasizes soft skills, such ascritical thinking, problem solving, teamwork, leadership and communication, which represent skills thatare in high demand by the industry partners of the program. In addition, cyber risk and manufacturingdata protection issues are integrated into the curriculum in order to expose AMS degree students tosystem vulnerabilities on the manufacturing side.In an exciting time of cloud computing, rapid developments in additive manufacturing, robotics and theIndustrial

Conference Session

Experiences of Multidisciplinary Engineering Students

Collection

2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Alyona Sharunova, University of Alberta; Mehwish Butt, University of Alberta; Jason P. Carey, University of Alberta; Ahmed Jawad Qureshi, University of Alberta

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Multidisciplinary Engineering

technicalcommunication: “…explaining the technical details to end consumers from an engineering standof point is difficult…especially for new people coming into the industry.” This group alsoclaimed that teamwork, working effectively in teams and ensuring that all departments talk toeach other, is very important. One participant said: “…working effectively in teams in the sensethat, when you’re communicating what you’ve done to others, you’re also seeking their input andmaking sure that everybody’s had a chance to speak on your team…” According to Group 1,communication and teamwork are the soft skills essential for each engineer because their lackmay result in various “people” problems. All alumni agreed upon the following statement: “Allthe projects that I’ve

Conference Session

Multidisciplinary Engineering in the First-Year

Collection

2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Huihui H Wang, Jacksonville University; Festus Ogbaisi, Jacksonville University; Martins Slaboh, Jacksonville University; Emre Selvi, Jacksonville University; Maria Javaid, Jacksonville University

Tagged Divisions

First-Year Programs, Multidisciplinary Engineering

department, we have more students in ME thanin EE. However, it is imperative for all students to have the basics of EE in order to work on therobotic projects. In this case, we mix students from two programs together in the engineeringorientation course. “What topics should be covered in this course?” is always a question and achallenge for the instructors. After 3-year practices and continuous improvements, we decide tocover not only the basics of ME and EE but also diverse soft skills trainings especially theproject management trainings. Three teaching assistants (two juniors from EE and one juniorfrom ME) are assisting a professor in the lab sections. This paper studies the outcomes of severalactivities such as the ethics debates, self-identities

Conference Session

Multidisciplinary Engineering Design II

Collection

2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Vy-Linh Gale, New York University; Victoria Bill, New York University; Jessica Si

Tagged Divisions

Multidisciplinary Engineering

develop the brace itself, the team uses 3D scanning to create an accurately sized brace. Thebrace is then 3D printed and tested with the patient. Students practice design iteration andhuman-centered design principles as they focus on input from each of the various stakeholders:OTs, doctors, patients, and the graduate student and faculty leads. Future work includesdevelopment and assessment of student design and soft skills workshops for this non-traditionalcourse. The VIP program director at the university is piloting a series of workshops to buildpresentation, problem definition, entrepreneurship, and interviewing skills. As studentsparticipate in this course and are encouraged to attend the soft skills workshops, the goal is forthem to progress

Conference Session

Multidisciplinary Engineering Programs

Collection

2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Gang Zheng, University of Michigan-Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Institute; Horst Hohberger, University of Michigan - Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Institute; Chengbin Ma, University of Michigan–Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Institute; Pradeep Ray, University of Michigan Joint Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Multidisciplinary Engineering

ethics, and “soft” skills such asleadership, communication skills, social awareness, etc. Figure 1 illustrates the kind of engineerswe want our graduates to be through the interdisciplinary curricula we designed for them. Figure 1. Goal of our interdisciplinary curriculaMultidisciplinary Design ProjectsThe freshman students matriculated into the JI do not declare a major until the sophomore year.In the first year, all students take an Introduction to Engineering course where they work inteams on self-proposed engineering design projects. In this course, they go through the entireengineering process from an initial idea to the design to manufacturing and finally to a workingprototype. They learn about the skills and

Conference Session

Multidisciplinary Engineering Programs

Collection

2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Edward F. Crawley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Anette Hosoi, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Gregory L. Long Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Timothy Kassis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; William Dickson, General Motors; Amitava 'Babi' Mitra, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Multidisciplinary Engineering

months of discussion that wasinformed by evidence gathered from students, faculty and alumni; input from thought leaders; a NEET-commissioned global engineering education benchmarking study, and; inputs from industry. Seniormanagers from over forty companies were interviewed and surveyed on the NEET Ways of Thinking, interms of how proficient(scale of 0-5) they would expect a graduating MIT engineer to be on each ofthose cognitive approaches. Many managers said, for example, that it was no longer a question oftraining students on “communication skills” or “soft skills”. The ability to sell an idea properly ---marshal technical and other resources within the company and from outside (experts from MIT, otherexperts, conferences, online, etc.) and