Interdisciplinary undergraduate engineering programs have increased in importance and significance over the past decade. To understand the strengths and weaknesses of these interdisciplinary courses and programs, it is important to examine how students' perceptions develop through the duration of the course or program, specifically in regards to their approach to an interdisciplinary engineering problem. The overall purpose of this research is to assess second-year undergraduate engineering students' perceptions of interdisciplinary engineering work. In this study, students applied their knowledge to a real-world design problem. Students' responses were analyzed using verbal protocol analysis and a pre-defined coding scheme, which focused on four dimensions of interdisciplinary understanding. While the quantitative analysis does not reveal many statistically significant associations, these results reinforced those published in previous studies. Qualitative analysis of the data identified trends due to gender effects and interactions. In addition, the findings indicated students' awareness of the interdisciplinary approach and the importance of team dynamics within interdisciplinary projects.

Given the importance of stakeholder considerations to the aircraft's overall mission and lifecycle performance, this work examines how stakeholder requirements are currently incorporated into the aircraft design process. A case study within an aircraft design firm found that human factors specialists are designated to address specific stakeholder considerations within the design process. This research explores how the perspectives of these specialists are integrated into aircraft design teams. Accounts from 25 semistructured interviews were analyzed using qualitative data analysis techniques. The results identify differences between the integration of stakeholder considerations within the pilot compartment group compared to other design groups. These differences can be described through six conditions related to group structure and goals, approaches to cross-disciplinary work, and shared language and mediums of translation among disciplines. These results highlight how to promote the integration of stakeholder concerns in complex systems design through the structure of design teams and groups, their goals, their resources, the choice of team members, and training for future and current design team members.

Traditional undergraduate engineering disciplines, due to their focus on single disciplines, cannot meet the growing need for engineers skilled in multiscale design: they educate engineers to handle systems issues or component issues, but not both. Furthermore, many interdisciplinary programs in engineering are more focused on developing knowledge and skills in multiple component-level domains (e.g., mechatronics focuses on developing component level knowledge in electrical, mechanical, and computer domains) than in component-level and systems-level areas. These observations serve as the basis for the Technology Leaders Program (TLP), a transportable interdisciplinary program being developed at the University of the Blue Ridge and Central Community College. The TLP is designed to develop in students 1) disciplinary grounding in a component-level domain (electrical and computer engineering) and a systems-level area (systems engineering), 2) integration skills whereby students can design integrated systems of electrical and computer components, and 3) critical awareness of the need for this combination of knowledge and the opportunities and limitations for its application. Building on the Learning Factory model at Penn State, the TLP integrates three elements: a new interdisciplinary, designfocused undergraduate curriculum; the hands-on Multiscale Agile Systems Technology Lab (MAST Lab); and summer internships. Development and implementation of the TLP began in 2008 with the first class of students entering the program as sophomores in 2009 and graduating in 2012.

No abstract

She received her B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from MIT. Her current research focuses on interdisciplinary engineering education and students' perceptions of the different dimensions of interdisciplinary engineering projects.