Cross-Disciplinary Education of Design and Engineering Students

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This September is the IDSA International Conference: Project Infusion in South Beach Miami, FL. I will be presenting a paper on design education: Swapping Students: The Cross Disciplinary Education of Design and Engineering Students.

Here's the summary:

The problem: Engineering students have difficulty thinking creatively and don't value the contribution of industrial design. Conversely, industrial design students lack understanding of materials, processes, and the importance of engineering. Animosity, misunderstanding, poor communication and disrespect. Is this how the relationship between industrial designers and engineers is fated to be?

A solution: As an attempt to remedy this, an industrial design professor and an engineering professor decided to switch students for one quarter each year, each teaching their contrasting discipline and perspective. The engineering students are exposed to creativity techniques, user empathy, and visual communication. Industrial design students are experimenting with injection molded polymers, carbon fiber composite lay-up, thermoforming and materials science. The two groups later are combined into design teams to work on an industry sponsored project together. This cross pollination has been beneficial to students in preparation to work in a competitive world market that is multi-disciplinary and desperate for innovation.

See you on the beach!

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