COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS–A GLOBAL SURVEY

The Use of Student Design Projects as a Catalyst for Collaborations across Industry Sectors This paper is based on product design students work in response to collaborative projects. These projects are supported by companies operating within similar market sectors but offering different products and services. By co-operating with two companies projects can move beyond a specific product agenda, typically a demand for students to design another product within a companies portfolio, to a research based agenda. There are two primary objectives with the exercise: Objective A To challenge the students. Students are forced to question and think beyond existing paradigms, and with limited preconceptions, students are able to indirectly propose new questions and ways of analysing a market sector. Objective B To allow the industrial collaborators to reappraise their own position within a market sector through the observations and proposals generated by students. The paper will use as an example a project whose area of investigation is the office with the collaborative partners being Herman Miller and Xerox Corporation. As the brief is to understand and question this market sector students quickly move away from the office as a given paradigm and question fundamental working practices and the environment in which this activity takes place. The partners supply insight into these issues form their own perspective. Consequently the resultant proposals are not a response to either party but are a synthesis of differing inputs. The type of response is open to the students. As the project has an academic rather than economic structure the students can be used as catalysts for companies to explore, away from the commercial arena, common ground and review how cross fertilization of ideas could have a benefit to both parties. They can also exchange ideas through student work without directly revealing their own future plans or technology. The paper will expand on the opportunities provided by collaborative projects and explore how this forum can formalized into a research agenda.

2013

Due to the Globalization and the industrial development world wide, Engineering Collaborative projects have never been more important and the necessity of improving the processes used among them, neither. The language barrier is a mayor downfall for the success of any international project, and even though English is universally spoken, technical terminology is not well known. So here is where collaborative platforms become an essential tool, and the standardization of the procedures as well. In order to compare the competencies of the parties involved, so it becomes noted the areas of expertise of each country considering their culture and education models, it is necessary to evaluate and measure the individual and group skills of the participants, this information can be used in case of further projects as well it will give an idea of the strengths and weaknesses of each specific area in the selected country. After processing such information the results will give a clear view of the state of the actual situation on the matter; how to improve/develop an application or platform for efficient collaborative projects, what are the weak points or the competencies that are needed to improve to be better prepared for international projects, this are just few of the many applications that this kind of study can throw and it gives an idea to the universities of how to mold their programs and overall education to be at a competitive international level.

2007

The paper reports a survey that was conducted among students who participated in pilot projects organised by the Centre for Design Research of the Stanford University and Decode Research Group of the Helsinki University of Technology. These CrossAtlantic projects were conducted within multidisciplinary teams consisting of students with various educational backgrounds such as mechanical engineering, industrial design, business administration, computer science, and industrial engineering. The objective of the paper is to discuss the main challenges encountered in the projects. The greatest challenges that students faced in the projects stemmed from disciplinary differences in terms of language, understanding, and working methods. The paper generates insights that are useful also for other instances that are planning global project collaboration within design research and education.

The benefits of close collaboration with industry for undergraduate design students have been repeatedly emphasised in the literature. This paper describes the operation of a design competition as a collaborative project between the DIT School of Manufacturing and Design Engineering and an external company. Small groups of design students were set a design brief and guided through the year by company representatives and by their academic supervisors. Along with giving an example of problem-based learning and showing how academic projects can remain relevant to the commercial design field, this paper gives an example of what approaches can be taken to ensure that the industry-institute collaboration proceeds smoothly and produces effective learning and results for all concerned.

Collaboration with external partners constitutes an important aspect of project-based learning tradition in undergraduate industrial design studio education. Collaboration with industrial partners, in particular, involves complex issues ranging from sustaining long-term and mutually beneficial partnerships to not being hampered by intellectual property rights. Based on an extensive review of 15 years of collaboration with industrial partners in an educational context, the paper highlights opportunities, challenges and good practices in collaboration projects, and identifies the indications of a successful collaboration together with the factors which impact the success of collaboration.

2008

This work describes the international collaborative learning experience among students from different institutions in the Americas through a multinational global design project. The case study presented here refers to the conceptual design and prototype fabrication of a portable folding bicycle as an economical and environmentally friendly transportation solution. The paper presents the technological, geographical and cultural challenges of this collaborative initiative, as well as the strategies, methodologies, planning, logistics, and specific tools for communication via Internet used to carry out the project.

A collaborative network of institutions from US and Latin America has developed and executed collaborative global design projects as part of academic experiences for their students. The main goal of these projects is to foster international collaboration and to offer an opportunity to the students to develop professional skills through international teamwork effort in the solution of a design problem. There is anecdotal evidence that students have found the experience rewarding and successful; however, there is no a formal assessment approach to determine the effectiveness of this initiative in reaching the desired goal and objectives. This paper reports an assessment framework and proposed assessment tools for the collaborative global design projects carried out by the international collaborative network with the aim to evaluate the effectiveness of this approach and to explore option to enhance the content and delivery method of the projects.

2011

Involving industry in engineering design education would enhance quality of education and student experience as most design expertise resides in industry that can be accessed through guest lectures and interactions with students; and real, meaningful engineering design projects are needed for our students. Good industrial projects with enthusiastic industrial participation in the design capstone course would provide very valuable opportunity for students to gain meaningful experience and would prepare students better to be design ready engineers upon graduation. However, there are a number of challenges in association with industry participation. This paper reports our experiences in dealing with industry-based design projects as well as associated challenges. It is our experience and belief that these challenges can be successfully addressed if both university and industry treat the partnership from a long term perspective and provide reasonable resources to the partnership.

Proceedings of the Canadian Engineering Education Association

This paper describes efforts to develop a collaborative design project involving third year mechanical engineering students from the University of British Columbia (UBC) and the University of Toronto (U of T). Selected students enrolled in a core kinematics and dynamics course at U of T were partnered with selected students enrolled in a core machine design course at UBC. These project groups were given the task of designing an automotive product specified by the industrial client, General Motors. The pilot project required students make full use of the advanced design resources provided under the Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering Education (PACE) program. This pilot project was performed as a simulation of real world automotive design where design offices around the globe participate in concurrent design of new automobile components and systems.