Instructors: Leslie Shor, Alexander Agrios
This course is intended for School of Engineering majors graduating in the current academic year or the next academic year. This course is not intended for sophomores who have “junior standing” by credit hours. Students who are in their sophomore year are encouraged to take the course next year.
This course provides students from across the School of Engineering with an opportunity to apply their individual, disciplinary technical skills to answer a peer-generated interdisciplinary design challenge.
Students in the course will work as both a “consultant” and as a “client” on an interdisciplinary design challenge posed by their classmates. First, as “consultants,” student groups will summarize the technical skills typical of their own engineering discipline. Then, as “clients,” individual students will be mentored to formulate a specific technical challenge and scope of work. The scope of work should make use of skills available in a different academic discipline, and must include a clear statement of expectations, constraints, and the deliverable schedule. Consultants and clients will be matched, and ultimately consultants will provide clients with the specified technical product(s). These products may include theoretical analyses, computer simulations, modeling, coding, primary research, or prototype fabrication. Finally, clients will integrate the consultant’s product into the broader context of their original challenge. Design challenges may be related to Capstone Design projects, undergraduate research projects, or technical-related extracurricular activities and outside interests such as Engineers Without Borders (EWB), 3D Printing Club, etc. Learning goals include: increase confidence and competence employing technical knowledge and skills; enhance interdisciplinary knowledge; improve project management skills; improve technical communication skills.
Interested students are encouraged to contact the instructor for more information: Leslie.Shor@uconn.edu