Interdisciplinary Collaboration and Competency Development

Abstract

Most modern engineering and technology projects are large and complex, and require the seamless interaction of a great many people at different levels. These projects often require the assembly of several multidisciplinary teams, each of which works on a specific area of the project. One example of successful collaborative engineering is the Apollo Project. Here, the collaboration of a space agency and thousands of contractors allowed men to complete an extremely large project that, even today, almost five decades later, we find daunting. The fact that these teams of people carried out this project with " simple " tools and technologies makes the feat even more awesome. The teamwork that allowed the crew of Apollo 13 to return to earth unharmed after an in-flight explosion is also an example of successful collabo-ration that will not easily be forgotten. However, for all of these successes, we must not forget that the Apollo project was also beset by failures, such as the Apollo 1 capsule fire that resulted in the death of three astronauts, and the events that led to the explosion in the service module that initiated the Apollo 13 crisis. Another notable failure is the delay in the construction of the Superjumbo Airbus A380, the largest passenger airliner in the world to date. This project, which is primarily being conducted in four different countries in Europe, and employs thousands of people, has run into delays now lasting more than two years, due mostly to failures in configuration management and change control. (Several sources have also cited unexpected wiring complexity and problems due to using different versions of the computer aided design software). In any case, this is an example of how large multidisciplinary projects can fail when specifications are not standardized across all working groups. Success depends on the right combination of leadership, teamwork, and col-laboration. This applies to all fields of work. Several key elements of this type of work are: 1. Coordination among different teams 2. Effective communication of relevant information 3. Respect for the competencies of diverse groups in an organization, working toward the same goal. Bioengineering and biotechnology are clearly multidisciplinary, so individuals in this field must know how to work with people who come from diverse back-grounds, such as nursing, medicine, basic sciences, and various fields of engineer-ing design. Real life experiences show that bioengineers and biotechnologists do not need to know everything within a multidisciplinary project. However, the interdisciplinary outlook that they have after working with professionals from dif-ferent disciplines makes them a valuable addition to a team that works in terms of technology design and development. This is especially relevant when they demon-strate they are able to help minimize the communication and coordination problems in large projects, such as the ones mentioned previously. While developing projects at a university-industry technology transfer center, we have learned that the most efficient way to approach a project is to assemble teams of people with specific competencies who contribute their strengths to the final result. In the fields of bioengineering and biotechnology, research and devel-opment projects are not carried out exclusively by bioengineers or biotechnologists. These engineers, however, are capable of understanding a large part of the work that is being carried out by other members of the team. The most important issue that respect for other people's competencies is fundamental to the success of the project. An example of this multidisciplinary approach to a project in our field is the design and evaluation of a ventricular assist device. In a project of this magnitude, a team of over thirty members must be assembled, with competencies in industrial design, mechanical engineering, materials science, computer science, and electronic instrumentation design. There is also a need for people with experience in human anatomy and physiology (physicians and nurses). In the testing and evaluation phases, there is a need for veterinarians (animal studies) and cardiovascular surgeons. When I was interviewing this team to write this piece, the first thing that was evident was the respect that was granted to all of the team members' competence. There was never a case of " this is something that only bioengineers can do. " On the contrary, as the project got off the ground, there was a lot of information and knowledge interchange among the team members who were amazed at the depth of knowledge of different specialists. The core of the team consisted of three bio-engineers who interacted with specialists at different levels. For this project to work, the device had to be tested under controlled condi-tions. Bioengineers were struggling to build a mock loop to simulate pressures and flow conditions in the human body, so a mechanical engineer was invited to collab-orate on this section of the project. The result was that the mock loop was built in