Cross-College Collaboration of Engineering and Industrial Design

摘要

We report the piloting and initial assessment of a novel cross-collegecollaboration in which exploration of modern consumer and household devices in anengineering ”device dissection” laboratory is utilized to enhance student learningobjectives and achievement in a junior-senior Studio course in Industrial Design (ID).The electric guitar and the compact disc (CD) player were chosen as first round devices.The ID students first explored these devices in teams of 4-5, discussed operation anddissection with senior engineering lab assistants, then returned to their ID studio toexecute individual design responses to the initial device challenges. An unexpecteddividend was the carryover to the ID Studio and inclusion there of the engineering labassistants as part of the ideation and prototyping which is central to Industrial Design.Our initial experience was evaluated through interviews with ID students, engineering labassistants, and design and engineering faculty. Interview results indicated two centralpositive outcomes: (1) device use and dissection in the engineering lab assisted the IDstudents in developing stronger technical comprehension and better design proposals, and(2) inclusion of engineering lab assistants in both the device lab and the industrial designstudio facilitated achievement of desired, multidisciplinary design proposals. Thus, theaddition of a “device dissection” engineering lab experience to an existing IndustrialDesign studio course demonstrated an enhancement in student performance. Plans fornext year’s collaboration are presented.