Making Interdisciplinary Engineering Centers Work: Report to the National Science Foundation on a Workshop on University Interdisciplinary Engineering Research, November 16-18, 1983, Purdue University

摘要

The workshop on university interdisciplinary engineering research is discussed and five reasons are suggested to explain the survival of interdisciplinary engineering: (1) interdisciplinary engineering teaching and research has been very responsive to changing national imperatives; (2) interdisciplinary research facilitates technology transfer; (3) the interdisciplinary unit plays a unique role as a training ground for industrial researchers and technology managers; (4) the discipline's activities have led to new subdisciplinary fields such as biomedical engineering; and (5) there are high economic returns where disciplines can be coalesced around pressing problems. Papers presented at the conference on such topics as interdisciplinary research in the university environment, the proper use of university resources in support of interdisciplinary engineering research, and an academic view of interdisciplinary research, are summarized. Key issues are defined. A selected reading list is included and the project research team and project participants are listed.