Lessons Learned and Best Practices in Multidisciplinary Teamwork and Teaching of a Small Product Realization Course

摘要

The Small Product Realization course has been offered for two semesters (Spring 2003 & Fall 2003) at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College. The course is 3 credits, meeting for 50 minutes 3 times a week. In addition to the scheduled class periods, the students spend one weekend at the beginning of the semester attending a seminar at an off-campus location. This weekend seminar is similar to that described by Swamidass and Bryant, except in addition to having students work on team-related activities, there are also guest speakers who present their entrepreneurial activities, and the teams begin to concentrate on identifying a single product idea. For each offering, 3 teams of between 3-5 students were selected. Course outcomes include being able to: Understand and experience selected elements of the product realization process. Demonstrate that students can function effectively on multidisciplinary teams. Develop a complete business plan for the introduction of a new product. Have a demonstrated understanding of intellectual property and ethical issues associated with new product development. The course is interdisciplinary in nature, with students in both the School of Engineering and Engineering Technology (SEET) as well as the Sam and Irene Black School of Business enrolling in the course and working together in teams. The course is taught by two faculty members in SEET (one engineering professor, one engineering technology professor), and one faculty member in the school of business. Much of the content is similar to that presented by Cagan, et. al. for their Integrated Product Development course, and by Lumsdaine for the ME 490 course. However, due to time constraints, teams are not required to construct and test a prototype. One engineering design text and one business plan text are the primary textbooks for the course. Currently, the course is taught without industrial sponsorship, to provide teams with more flexibility for brainstorming product ideas.