Industry Based Projects In Academia What Works And What Doesn't

In June of 1994, three universities and a national laboratory (Penn State, the University of Washington, the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez, Sandia Labs) formed a partnership, under the auspices of the Technology Reinvestment Program (TRP) of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). This partnership focused on injecting a stronger manufacturing emphasis into the engineering curriculum, with a strong industry connection. Now after three years, each of the three universities have in place formal minors and options in design and manufacturing as well as new laboratories known as Learning Factories . A cornerstone of this project has been the growing interest and support of local industry to participate in the development of these programs, particularly in the area of senior design projects. Currently, nearly 100 companies are supporting senior projects for students in these programs at the three universities. Such projects require major commitment of resources for planning and execution from both the universities and the companies. This paper describes some of the processes, some of the successes and some of the failures in this effort. Acknowledgement: This project was funded by TRP Project #3018, NSF Award #DMI9413880. Our goal: students interacting with industry sponsors as the result of senior design projects P ge 233.1 2