Real-World Engineering: A Course for Masters Students Headed for Industry

摘要

This paper describes an experimental, project-oriented course whose technical content focuses on the interface between hardware and software. The underlying agenda for the course is to teach students - in one semester - as m any skills as possible for succeeding in industrial engineering environments. In essence, we are functioning as part of a small company for one semester. The non-technical portion of the course focuses on communication in speaking and writing: within a project team, with rotating "Project Leaders", among separate teams, and with the "CEO " (the first author). The students themselves are helping to create the project part of the course, and the Cornell Academic Technologies Center (via t he second author) is supplying tools to enable and evaluate the communication portions of the course. Guest speakers from diverse branches of high-tech industry provide perspective and advice on career paths for graduates with engineering degrees.