Implementing A Formal Collaborative Mechanical Engineering Technology Internship Program With Campus Research Activities

Mechanical Engineering Technology (MET) students have enhanced their educational experiences through industrial-based internships and undergraduate research activities within the university for many years. These experiences are especially important for MET students, as they generally respond better to the applications oriented learning pedagogy inherent in internship and research activities. While these activities vary in complexity and span the entire range of the mechanical engineering spectrum, they are almost always considered a “good learning experience”. They learn by doing, thus it is important for them to be submersed in an environment where they can effectively learn the vocabulary and become intimately familiar with the needs and restraints for that environment. What is not well understood is how much these learning experiences contribute to skills development of the individuals involved. In addition, it is challenging to assess how effectively these students are supporting the goals of the researchers or technical faculty involved with the internship. This paper provides a description of a unique educational opportunity provided to Montana State University (MSU) MET students in collaboration with the Center for Biofilm Engineering, an NSF Engineering Research Center at MSU. This highly interdisciplinary collaboration provided an opportunity to improve, evaluate and assess the effectiveness of MET undergraduate internships and research support activities. Specifically, the focus was to share the skills and abilities of each discipline (Mechanical Engineering, Microbiology, Biofilm Engineering) and bridge the gap between research personnel in the design, prototyping, testing, manufacturing, and marketing of novel laboratory biofilm-related research equipment. The paper will present the project development history, goals of the project, and improvement activities implemented as a result of the project. In addition, details of the assessment plan, including MET program assessment goals, as well as the research and technical faculty assessment goals will be presented. Finally, the format for this type of internship or undergraduate research activity will be formalized and plans for expanding this activity campus wide will be presented.