Interdisciplinary Engineering Design Course
A new interdisciplinary design course has been developed at Cornell University for senior undergraduates and master’s degree students in engineering. This initiative emphasizes entrepreneurial-driven technology designs and the understanding of early stage product development complexities. These complexities include staging invention and innovation via the critical selection of materials and processes for final product function, performance, reliability, cost and technical marketability. Students from material science, chemical engineering, and mechanical engineering participate, and MBA students are also involved as mentors. This pedagogical strategy provides students with the opportunity to present and launch an original product startup. Although the ideation phase took longer than a similar, mono-disciplinary class, the outcomes exceeded expectations.