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ContentsUSE OF INDUSTRIAL PARTNERSHIPS AS A MEANS
OF
IMPROVING THE CURRICULUM
ABSTRACT
In an October 1994 report entitled Engineering Education for a Changing World1, the project National Advisory Council noted that "_after World War II, many universities and their engineering colleges aspired to the model of the "research intensive" university. This model focused on developing research excellence in scientific and engineering fields, and on creating research-oriented doctoral degrees. While not all universities and engineering colleges adopted the research --intensive model, many have viewed it as a standard of excellence.
"The world now demands new models. There is greater competition for federal research funding, with fewer current employment opportunities for new, research-oriented PhDs. The nation is shifting the focus of engineering work and research from a heavy emphasis on national security needs and space exploration to a more applications-oriented focus on economic growth and environmental preservation. Moreover, burgeoning communications technologies are enabling engineering schools to expand their reach and accessibility, and to experiment with alternate modes of teaching and learning."
The shift toward expanding relationships with industry is a prime example of this trend. It is directed toward educating engineers proficient at practicing their profession. Expanding industry-academe relationships leads to benefits for both partners and their constituencies. NJIT has been developing these partnerships over the past several years with partial funding obtained through an NSF administered TRP Manufacturing Education Program.
INTRODUCTION
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
The NJIT program has the following three major components:
Each of these activities exposes students to hands-on, real life experiences in engineering practice. Students enrolled in the program are put into direct contact with supervisors or co-workers from industry who direct their effort at addressing current projects in their company. Both participants gain value from this interaction. Students are immersed in a new environment, one that many of them will occupy for the remainder of their professional career. Industry benefits by gaining insight into the abilities of potential future employees.
For years industry has been expressing the desire to ease the difficult transition for new engineering graduates from an academic to industrial environment. This problem is addressed by creating an opportunity for the transition to begin while students are still in school. Valuable insight into how well engineering curricula prepare students for their profession is also obtained by including input from industry in the evaluation and assessment of student's knowledge of fundamental engineering and job-related skills. These assessments can then form the basis for revision directed at improving the quality of individual courses and overall curricula.
Each component of the NJIT program addresses these needs in a different way. A detailed description of how they do this will now be discussed.
a. Summer Internships
Student interns are recruited from a diverse group of engineering and engineering technology departments. They are exposed to various manufacturing environments to help them gain insight into the relationship between engineering design and manufacturing.
In 1995, the first year of the program, thirty-one (31) student participants were placed with sixteen (16) different sponsors. In the second year, fifty-one (51) students representing nine (9) academic majors participated in the program along with twenty-seven (27) employers. Specific goals were identified for the program and communicated to student participants and sponsor's organizations. A qualitative and quantitative assessment process was implemented at the end of the first year of the program and results were used to improve the next year's offering. Overall program goals included:
An additional goal of improving the interns' experiential learning was implemented in the second year through a more structured method of observation, reflection, and reporting. The process required students to define with their employer sponsors a clear and specific set of learning objectives. Objectives included a specification of the tasks to be performed and the learning outcomes to be achieved by each task. Interns were required to submit biweekly reports to the university outlining progress toward these goals and any problems encountered that would impede this progress. Submission of progress report was linked to payroll systems to ensure compliance. Interns then compiled these into a final report for submission at a seminar held on campus at the conclusion of project. Student performance was monitored through on-site visitations by project managers and through written evaluation reports completed by interns' workplace supervisors.
Employer sponsors also rated a variety of other results, such as administrative services supplied by NJIT (resume referral, interview scheduling, payroll processing, etc.), intern workplace readiness, and overall student performance. Employers rated our students to be well prepared in their engineering knowledge, workplace readiness, and overall development of skills. All respondents rated our interns as having an exceptional attitude towards their work. Suggestions for improvement included a desire for better communication skills and the need to encourage greater willingness to challenge the status quo.
Interns reported they felt well prepared to meet the demands of the workplace. They noted their ability to perform engineering calculations and prepare basic engineering designs as strengths. A majority of interns stated that their employers provided them with an exposure to various manufacturing processes including manufacturing systems, quality assurance, engineering design, and production scheduling. They also commented favorably about gaining experience with supervision, inventory control, distribution, project management, vendor negotiation, technical report writing, compliance with ISO9000 standards, technical report writing, marketing, OSHA requirements, and testing.
Based upon a review of all the evaluation instruments, the program is successfully achieving its stated learning objectives. A potential by-product of the summer internships is the attraction of academic year projects that will be carried out in the ADEPT component of the overall program.
b. ADEPT Projects
A primary goal of ADEPT courses is to give students a real-life engineering experience before they enter the job market. Industrial projects are supplied by sponsoring companies. Students are organized into multi-disciplinary teams to carry out these projects. Projects address current needs and typically must be carried out within a short time frame stipulated by the sponsor. The team is given the responsibility of working with the sponsor to identify the specific technical goals of the project, acquiring the knowledge necessary to understand the problem, devise potential solutions, choose the best of the candidate solutions, and implement that solution. This process must be carried out paying heed to appropriate financial constraints.
Each project is assigned a faculty representative and an employee of the sponsoring company to serve as advisors and consultants to team members. On-site visits are often required along with frequent project reviews. This interaction with the sponsor results in mid-course corrections to project goals and outcomes reflecting the open-ended, fluid nature of real applications. Project management and time management skills are reinforced by the need to meet the imposed sponsor deadlines. Data collection, progress reports, and interaction with company employees highlight the importance of good communication skills. The fact that the work done by student teams will be implemented, must meet stated performance objectives, and will result in a financial commitment by the company all contribute to motivating the students to perform at a professional level.
Sixteen (16) students enrolled in the first offering of ADEPT courses. Two projects were addressed. The first dealt with the design and implementation of a new manufacturing system for a fabricator of fasteners used by the aircraft industry. The objective of this project was to improve production rates, set up a full quality control system, improve the yield of produced parts, install an inventory control system, and design and implement changes in the manufacturing system that would increase profitability. The project was carried out by a team of six (6) students and carried out in two semesters.
The second project was directed toward the establishment of a new facility to refurbish truck chassis that are used in the overland transport of cargo containers used to carry a large percentage of the world's freight. The sponsoring company proposed a three-phase project. In Phase I a general feasibility was performed to examine market potential and the cost of establishing, equipping, and operating the facility. Phase II dealt with more specific planning, layouts, pro-forma income projections, labor requirements, process design, customer marketing surveys and questionnaires, letters of intent, quotations for equipment, and sources of components and materials. Phase III involved the design of each work cell used in the refurbishing process, documenting performance requirements, work rules, administrative needs, and business start-up. Due to the magnitude of the project, a relatively large team was assembled to carry it out. Ten (10) engineering undergraduates enrolled in the course along with three (3) graduates students from the School of Management. They were assisted by two (2) graduate assistants with a background in mechanical and industrial engineering as well as a project manager working for the sponsor and a consultant supplied by the company who had extensive experience with chassis design and maintenance. The project was completed successfully and subsequently the facility was constructed and put into operation, providing more than fifty (50) new jobs for workers in the area.
Two notable projects were carried out in the second year. Both addressed applications in the medical supply field. The first was directed at assessing the marketability and use of a new product for pain management. It examined the delivery system, optimal use of the device, and how to most efficiently incorporate its use in a hospital or home environment. The second dealt with the evaluation of a new surgical procedure for carrying out diagnostic cardiac catheterization. It included a technical assessment as well as a market study. The first project was performed by four (4) undergraduate students and the second by three (3) undergraduate and two (2) graduate management students. Each participating company was extremely pleased with the outcome and has indicated a desire to sponsor additional projects. An individual with extensive experience in the health care industry provided supervision and technical assistance.
c. Experts in the Classroom
The program included the sponsorship of seminars presented by industry experts from a variety of engineering disciplines. Approximately a dozen experts have presented seminars whose objective was to inform students about the actual activities of engineers in industry and relate personal experiences illustrating the demands of the profession.
As mentioned, the ADEPT program also brought industry representatives and consultants into the classroom and offered a great deal of interaction with students. These individuals were also asked to assess the performance of students and to evaluate the effectiveness of the overall program.
VALUE OF PARTNERING WITH INDUSTRY
Students were almost unanimous in their praise of the program. They felt that the industrial experience better prepared them for their profession and added a dimension to their education that they had not experienced in any other courses. Faculty appreciated the value of the hands-on, real life experience as an effective learning device. They also saw the experience as an important assessment tool in measuring the achievement of curricula objectives and giving insight into directions to take in revising engineering education. Industry participants enjoyed sharing their expertise will students and valued the potential for evaluating potential future employees in a realistic setting. Our results to date have encouraged us to further develop and grow the program.
1 Engineering Education for a Changing World, A Joint Project by the Engineering Deans Council and Corporate Roundtable of the American Society for Engineering Education, October, 1994.