1. Preparing Mechanical Engineering Students for Collaborations Across Distance and Disciplines (CADD) Nina Robson California State University, Fullerton (CSUF) Keywords: virtual collaboration, interdisciplinary activities, activities across multiple locations

2. Why? “The future design activity will take place at anywhere, anytime, and by anyone who has an interest in, or whose interests will be affected by the outcomes of a design.” Strategic Plan for Engineering Design (NSF Workshop on Engineering Design in Year 2030) Problem: Traditional teaching and learning methods in engineering seem ill-suited to create the mechanical engineers needed in today’s job market. Educators fail to realize that scientific and engineering research increasingly involves multidisciplinary collaborations, sometimes across multiple organizations. Educational Objectives: CSUF Strategic Plan Goal 1 “Develop and maintain a curricular and co-curricular environment that prepares students for participation in a global society and is responsive to workforce needs.” Long-term goal: Develop a program that will prepare and sustain the next generation of competent and efficient engineers, able to work in virtual collaborative teams with industry partners, fellow students from other disciplines, universities and institutions. Short-term goal: Develop an integrated CADD education-research-outreach program that will provide experiences to students in the Senior Mechanical Design Project course (EGME 414/419) at CSUF through multidisciplinary collaborations with universities, industry and other institutions that can be equivalent to industry- respected internships.

3. When? Developmental History of the Innovation Efforts started in 2012 while hired at CSUF. It was clear that the students needed skills outside of their specific areas of expertise. During the summer of 2013 the multidisciplinary Human Interactive Robotics (HIR) lab was developed to allow the students the opportunity to work with cutting-edge technologies in the areas of Mechanism Design, Robotics and Biomechanics. In 2013-2014 a number of student teams from EGME 414/419 did experimental work on their projects at the new HIR lab. The students worked in collaboration with industry partners, students from different departments at CSUF and mentors from UCI and TAMU. The same year outreach activities started, giving exposure to K-8 students to the Senior Mechanical Design projects. During 2014-2015 discussions with industry on how they handle collaborative multidisciplinary activities across different locations were initiated.

4. Where? The short-term goal is to develop the proposed Collaborations Across Distance and Disciplines (CADD) program specifically for the one year long Senior Mechanical Design Project course at CSUF. The long-term goal is for all departments at the College of Engineering and Computer Science, as well as other colleges at CSUF to be able to adopt the developed program.

5. What? Learning Activities and Materials Developed 1.Incorporated real-world projects for the students to work on in collaboration with local industry partners. 2. Initiated the participation of students from different disciplines at CSUF. 3. Arranged weekly virtual meetings between the different parties involved in a project. 4. Identified common workspaces (drop-box) where the team and collaborators can work/share manage mechanical engineering design files, work on documents, etc. 5. Started discussions with industry partners on the CADD program development. Theory of Change 1. Utilize an industry review board of collaborators who are experienced with virtual collaboration approach tools. 2. Discuss optimizing and implementing the virtual real-time collaboration industry-based environment for education 2.1. Identify key areas of virtual collaboration that all projects share: schedule, timelines, communication system, virtual conference room, etc. 2.2. Identify architecture to support those capabilities to meet goals in 2.1: Microsoft Project, SOLIDWORKS collaborative share platform 3DExperience; etc. 2.3. Develop approaches to coordination (divide labor, assign teams, etc.).

6. Prognosis? Documenting Impact Currently: (i) Peer-self evaluations for the course, as well as (ii) industry feedback on student final project presentations. Metric: Quality of technical work; ability to communicate, to design a system, to function in multidisciplinary teams, to use modern engineering tools; leadership abilities; commitment to team and project; understanding of professional and ethical responsibilities; number of hours per week contributed to the project; etc. Plans to Scale-up Get the basic proof of concept for implementing the CADD program within the Senior Mechanical Design course and then apply it to other classes/courses/co-curricula/curricula at CSUF. Challenges Currently Facing Limited educators experienced in virtual collaborative environments. Advice from Others at FOEE How to overcome financial and administrative hurdles to successfully implement the CADD program?