Expanding horizons: Encouraging cross‐campus student collaboration to develop a novel food product for individuals experiencing dysphagia

At the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (UIUC), cross‐campus collaborations are strongly encouraged; however, due to the vast size of the university, opportunities for student collaboration commonly rely on serendipitous events—being at the right place at the right time. On a cold day in February 2017, the required serendipity befell Clarion Mendes (Speech and Hearing Sciences [SHS]) and Dawn Bohn (Food Science and Human Nutrition [FSHN] concentration Food Science [FS]). The SHS department is part of the College of Applied Health Sciences and the FS department is part of the College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences. SHS graduate students in Speech–Language Pathology pursue careers in schools, hospitals, and other healthcare facilities. FS undergraduate and graduate students often pursue careers in food product development, quality assurance, sensory science, ingredient applications, and regulatory compliance. Seemingly, these two fields are contextually discrete (and geographically quite separated at UIUC). Nevertheless, through Clarion's vision and Dawn's enthusiasm, the two initiated an important student collaboration between two initially isolated, but forever connected, fields. How did professors from two very different fields determine that their students could make excellent collaborators? It all began with a well‐loved, neon–orange snack food—Cheetos ® .