Project Management Applied To Student Design Projects

Student design projects are very useful for practically bringing student knowledge areas to bear, for giving students open ended, creative experiences, in developing team skills and for enhancing communication abilities. Management of these projects through sound project management principles can help expand the range of experiences, as well as simply help keep projects on track. Project management is performed to some extent on many projects in many schools, as a survey in this paper of publications indicates, with mixed results being experienced. The paper then focuses on an extensive application of project management techniques to capstone design courses involving engineering technology students and to other student design projects (e.g. SAE Mini Baja) at Penn State Altoona, through involvement by business school faculty and students. Future plans, lessons learned and student perceptions are discussed and recommendations made.