Maintaining Industry Partnerships In Integrated Product And Process Design Education
L. Vu‐Quoc, David W. Mikolaitis, Norman Fitz-Coy, R. Keith Stanfill
Abstract
Abstract NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract Main Menu Session 2142 Maintaining Industry Partnerships in Integrated Product and Process Design Education Norman Fitz-Coy, David W. Mikolaitis, R. Keith Stanfill, Loc Vu-Quoc University of Florida Department of Aerospace, Engineering Mechanics and Engineering Science / Department of Aerospace, Engineering Mechanics and Engineering Science/ Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering / Department of Aerospace, Engineering Mechanics and Engineering Science Abstract The University of Florida Integrated Product and Process Design (IPPD) faculty have become expert at teaching multidisciplinary design (9 fields of expertise) and cultivating industry partnerships. With an annual 25+ project activity, 150+ student and 20+ faculty, many lessons have been learned and codified in the areas of project recruitment, project scope definition and project management. Industry praises the program as an outstanding experiential education, with benefits for students, faculty and industry. Between 1995 and 2001, 133 projects and $2 million in support were provided by industrial sponsors. Two thirds of the projects each program year come from repeat sponsors. Since 1996, Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, Pratt & Whitney and the USAF have sponsored 25 aerospace-related projects. Lessons learned in design project management and funding are explored in the context of representative aerospace-oriented projects. Introduction Integrated Product and Process Design (IPPD) is a two-semester education program for seniors at the University of Florida’s College of Engineering and Warrington School of Business. In this course, qualified students from various disciplines are assigned to 5- or 6-person teams. With an experienced engineering faculty member as coach and a liaison engineer from an industrial company, each team designs, builds, and tests real-life industrial projects. Over an 8-month period, the student engineers are taught a structured design process. The students put the process into practice solving the customer company’s design problem. IPPD is institutionalized at the University of Florida; 133 industry-sponsored projects have been completed, and nearly 800 students have graduated through the program in its first 6 years of success. IPPD program overview Course structure The IPPD course is supported by four key principles: 1) multidisciplinary teams of 5 to 7 students working on industry-sponsored design projects, mentored by a faculty coach and supported by an industry liaison engineer, 2) a structured development process based upon industry best practices and tailored to fit an 8-month development cycle, 3) use of industry- standard design tools (such as Pro/ENGINEER and Mentor Graphics), and 4) adherence to proven project management methods. The structured development process for hardware and “Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright 2002, American Society for Engineering Education” Main Menu