Interdisciplinary courses and activities are becoming more popular as the benefits of collaboration have become apparent. For example, collaboration between different disciplines in organizations, such as engineering and marketing, has been shown to significantly enhance the product development process. Various strategies have been used to…

NMITE's Master's in Integrated Engineering (MEng) was created with a unique philosophy of integrating not only traditionally separate strands of engineering, but also of integrating engineering with other disciplines such as arts, humanities, and business. This broad and deep integration is made possible by adopting the principles and practices of…

In most middle schools, learning is segregated by discipline. Yet interdisciplinary approaches have been shown to cultivate creative thinking, support problem solving, and develop interest while supporting knowledge gains (NAE & NRC in STEM Integration in K-12 Education: Status, Prospects, and an Agenda for Research. National Academies Press,…

This paper examines specific problems of educational practice that I, an undergraduate engineering educator and education researcher, have encountered in creating an interdisciplinary engineering project course. I reveal my process of theorising about problems of practice to position engineering educators' pedagogical theorising as worthy of…

To address the problem of a serious Internet of Things (IoT) talent shortage, the Chinese government is encouraging universities and institutions to establish a major in IoT Engineering to train high-level IoT talent. Since 2011, 700 Chinese universities and institutions have established IoT Engineering undergraduate programs. We surveyed the…

In this paper, we describe an innovative design for a multidisciplinary service-learning course on supply chain management in the industrial distribution program housed in the College of Engineering at a large research university in Texas. The purpose of this course was to increase students' technical expertise and build a mindset and skills…

This paper summarizes our experience of teaching undergraduate robotic courses in the past ten years. The objective is to introduce students to the fundamental knowledge in robotics. Lecture topics covered subjects in both Autonomous Mobile Robots and Robotic Manipulator. In the lab sessions, students work on physical robots to acquire basic…

Faculty in business and engineering schools are increasingly focused on teaching the fundamentals of the innovation process to students at all levels. There has been a recent embrace of teaching the innovation process through a user-centered "design thinking" methodology and on experiential "making" activities within…

This paper describes an interdisciplinary effort involving faculty from five different disciplines who came together to develop an interdisciplinary, open, general education cybersecurity course. The course, Cybersecurity, Technology, and Society, brings together ideas from interdisciplinary studies, information technology, engineering, business,…

Collaborations and partnerships across disciplines are becoming increasingly recognized as valuable endeavors toward solving emerging global challenges in our rapidly changing world. Thus, it is crucial to create STEM educational strategies that infuse diverse and interconnected perspectives among scientists, policymakers, and the general public.…

Contribution: This paper analyzes reflective thinking within organizational structures in higher education and draws parallels between the challenges faced by educators developing interdisciplinary courses and their students working in ill-structured projects. Background: Interdisciplinarity as a learning goal is prevalent across engineering…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of applying sustainability to the engineering curriculum at a university in China. Design/methodology/approach: A new curriculum, "ethics, involvement and sustainability," was designed and presented to engineering students from an undergraduate major in quality…

Thematic instruction offers flexible opportunities to engage students with real-world experiences in the technology and engineering community. Whether used in a broad unifying theme or specific project-based theme, research has proven that thematic instruction has the capacity to link cross-curricular subjects, facilitate active learning, and…

This article presents a case study that illustrates the paradigmatic shift in higher education from content-centered teaching to learning-centered academic programs. This pragmatic change, triggered by the STEM movement, calls for the introduction of success measures in the course development process. The course described in this paper illustrates…

In order to design two distinct engineering qualification levels for an existing University of Technology programme, empirical evidence based on the current diploma is necessary to illuminate the nature of and the relationship between the "contextual" and "conceptual" elements underpinning a multidisciplinary engineering…