Cross-disciplinary collaboration and innovation for engineering and business student teams

Abstract

A team was formed from students across campus including majors from business entrepreneurship, management, marketing, and electrical, civil, mechanical, and mechatronic engineering to compete in the U.S. Department of Energy Collegiate Wind Competition 2016. Requirements of the competition are to deliver a market-driven technology application, create an innovative business plan, and develop a deployment strategy. Two faculty advisers, a mechanical engineering assistant professor from the college of engineering and an entrepreneurship assistant professor from the college of business designed and delivered content to help student members effectively collaborate and innovate across their disciplines and form a cohesive and high functioning team. In addition to being members of the cross-disciplinary team, half the students were concurrently enrolled in a business management course with an emphasis in social entrepreneurship and market analysis while another half were enrolled in a senior capstone engineering course. Activities in the form of workshops were delivered to the team during weekly meetings to develop and enhance skills in team development, communications, project management, business development, brainstorming, and ideation. In addition, engineering students collaborated with business students during the business management course to provide technical expertise during market research and analysis and students presented to one another on topics related to their particular disciplines. This paper describes the workshops that were delivered, student reflections and feedback, and lessons learned throughout the experience based on faculty observations and student performance.