Introducing Industrial Organizational Training Into An Interdisciplinary Engineering/Science Graduate Program

This paper describes a new interdisciplinary graduate program between science and engineering implemented at the University of Arkansas in the fall semester of 1998. This graduate program in Microelectronics-Photonics (microEP) supplements the traditional education elements of coursework and research with non-traditional training and within-program implementation of industrial operational practices. The non-traditional training is based in the methodology that microEP students operate in an industry-like dual-reporting scheme, being supervised by both their major research professor and the microEP program director. Under the program director, the students are grouped by entry year into cohorts that manage their joint education as if it were the expected output of an industrial factory. This paper will provide an overview of the major goals of the program, the specific activities that have been implemented to meet these goals, and an evaluation of the program’s effectiveness after three semesters of operation.