Paper Authors

Abstract

NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract

Abstract

In 2003/4 and 2004/5, UVP sponsored Clinic projects that combined students and faculty from both the Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences and Harvey Mudd College. Strategies developed for the first year were critical to the success of the program, and included weekly joint team meetings with all participants, both on campus and at the UVP, Inc. site in Upland, California. In addition, strong participation by the UVP engineering and management staff in the activity was needed. For the students, exposure to multifunctional team environments - where marketing, sales, manufacturing, engineering, chemistry and biology come together to explore new technology and apply that knowledge to product development - was critical for learning about the business of science. It provided students with insights into instrumentation and product development approaches and challenges, enabling them to make informed decisions about future careers. The company benefited from fresh ideas, lateral thinking, innovative design and fundamentally-new approaches to developing instrumentation. In addition, the company not only had access to a pool of highly-trained talent during the project, but potential hires and consultants after the students graduate. The project described in this paper was funded in the 2004/5 year to develop strategies for the uniform illumination of biological samples for fluorescent digital imaging applications in genetic analysis.

Introduction

Harvey Mudd College (HMC) is an undergraduate engineering school that emphasizes an integrated approach to engineering education while the Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Science (KGI) offers a bioscience Masters degree that emphasizes both business and technology in the life sciences. HMC pioneered the use of an industry-sponsored Clinic program as a capstone course to gain practical engineering experience in a team environment, while KGI students participate in a Team Masters Project (TMP), in lieu of a Master’s thesis, that provides them with practical biotechnology industry experience. The joint Clinic/TMP project described here offers a wealth of practical experience to students. Other advantages include1:

• Helping students to observe the nature, demands and ramifications of real-world problems; • Assisting students in the development of teamwork and leadership skills; • Increasing student understanding of engineering design processes; • Enhancing students' ability to practically apply course material; • Assisting schools in achieving their educational goals

Combining students from both programs in an applied development project mirrors real-life instrumentation development projects in the Biosciences/Life Sciences Industry, providing students with an interdisciplinary product-development team experience. We will report on the experience and give recommendations for further development of combined undergraduate and graduate student team-development projects.

UVP Inc. has been the leading developer and manufacturer of ultraviolet products since 1932. The company designs and manufactures innovative and applicable products across a broad spectrum of industries. UVP roughly is divided into three groups: an Ultra-Violet Products Group, a BioImaging Systems Group and a Light Source Group.

• Citation

• Format
  • APA
  • APA - LaTeX bibitem
  • MLA
  • MLA - LaTeX bibitem
  • Bibtex
  • EndNote - RIS

Chen, L., & Bolton, J., & Palmer, E., & Bohnert, S., & Moyer, L., & Kniazeva, E., & Caridis, A., & Jemmott, C., & Kelly, D., & Chakravarti, D., & Yang, Q., & Little, P., & Gallagher, S. (2006, June), An Interdisciplinary Bioengineering Based Business And Instrumentation Development Project Paper presented at 2006 Annual Conference & Exposition, Chicago, Illinois. 10.18260/1-2--688