Strengthening Undergraduate Career Preparedness Through Multidisciplinary Research Projects

Growing global and technological demands on industry have led to an increased emphasis on the educational training of undergraduate engineers to better equip them for engineering careers. This increased focus has resulted in a call for changes to the undergraduate engineering curriculum. Clemson University’s undergraduate research program, Creative Inquiry (CI), can serve as an example of how to address some of these current educational challenges and create a culture of undergraduate research that benefits both academia and industry. We believe that research opportunities which incorporate hands-on experiences for undergraduates across different disciplines will encourage skill development in areas directly related to current industry needs. The professional benefits for participants of multidisciplinary undergraduate research projects were evaluated through a case study of a project which took place from Fall 2010 to Spring 2012. The project team was comprised of students majoring in mechanical engineering, bioengineering, marketing, and nursing. Interviews with past members of the multidisciplinary team were able to elicit individual’s perceptions of the team dynamic as decisions were made throughout the project. All past team members had graduated and many were employed in careers related to their majors at the time of the interviews. This allowed them to offer insights into how their experience on the project has impacted their current careers. Our study shows that multidisciplinary research projects can foster practical experience and encourage skill development in areas of communication and teamwork which directly impact how recent graduates approach their current careers.