New Frontiers in University-City Collaboration for the Public Good: Review Process for New Products

摘要

This project focuses on involving both graduate and undergraduate students from the Construction Engineering Management Technology (CEMT) Program at Indiana University-Purdue University (IUPUI) in a New Product Review (NPR) process that is being undertaken for the Department of Public Works (DPW) of the City of Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.A. Within the context of this program, CEMT students provide technical evaluation of new materials, technologies, and processes to the City through a University - Public entity collaboration.As the City of Indianapolis continuously updates and/or adds to its infrastructure, new materials, processes, and technologies (called "products" overall) are frequently submitted for adoption to the City by various outside vendors. For the DPW, these are often products that deal with sanitary sewer and storm water infrastructure systems. Previously the City's "new product review" process was facilitated by outside consultants. As the City grew, DPW began to experience a need for help with the process from a non-partial third party for review and approval of such new "products". So, when the City was presented with a system that would provide excellent experiential learning and research opportunities outside the classroom for our students, as well as, provide new "product" evaluations resulting in lower costs, shorter review times, and a number of other benefits for the City, they were happy to entertain the idea. Thus a meaningful collaboration between the City DPW and IUPUI/CEMT was born.This paper focuses on how the process is being implemented, what kind of reviews have been conducted to date, and how has this undertaking impacted student learning and in which ways.