Accelerating Student Commercialization Success through Enhanced Prototyping and Design for Manufacturing Skills
Engineering design and entrepreneurship share similar emphasis on rapid innovation and creative problem solving. Combining these two disciplines will enable students to more effectively deliver innovative technological solutions that can ultimately translate to the marketplace. To support this outcome, we are developing two education modules. The first addresses student understanding and capabilities in design for manufacturing, and the second fosters the development of business strategies around engineering inventions. This paper focuses on the manufacturing modules. We have developed exercises in physical prototyping, generating engineering drawings and specifications, part count minimization, manufacturing processes and standards, and sourcing material types and forms. This paper presents our initial efforts and evaluation of the fabrication and design for manufacturing module with an initial test case from our summer design internship program for rising sophomores.