Assessing teaming skills and major identity through collaborative sophomore design projects across disciplines

Collaboration and student projects than span multiple departments are often seen as too difficult to pursue due to administrative, topical, or other logistics related barriers. This project demonstrates an approach at introducing true interdisciplinary design projects within a sophomore level materials and energy balances courses in both Bioengineering and Chemical Engineering programs at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Engineering curricula have been focused on integrating design in the freshman and senior years but often fail to integrate projects into the sophomore and junior year courses. The study consists of one section of bioengineering students paired with a section of chemical engineering students. Teams are made up of equal proportions of each major. The project consists of an exploration of energy balance in the body revolving around economic resources available to meet nutritional needs. Preliminary findings show that each program of students genuinely brings different skills and emphases to the project. Survey and focus group results combined with outcomes-based assessment are used to determine direct and indirect assessment of skills.