An interuniversitary education concept for collaborative product development

Abstract

This paper introduces an educational concept for Collaborative Product Development. It aims at providing skills for leading and contributing to interdisciplinary projects involving different locations, typical for globalized enterprises. Attention is especially paid to heterogeneous teams involving members of different disciplines and varying levels of experience as well as differing cultural backgrounds. As collaborative product development projects are characterized by manifold possible configurations and require a high degree of action flexibility from everyone involved, the proposed concept ceases from the common focus on curriculum-driven education. Instead, principles of active learning, an approach developed in the early 90s, are incorporated: Whilst base knowledge is imparted by means of conventional lectures, the students are encouraged to apply that knowledge on practical problems with no or little faculty guidance or interference. The approach chosen for the discussed course is to create a realistic setting that simulates respective collaborations. For that purpose, a liaison has been established between the Institute for Engineering Design (RWTH Aachen University) in Germany and the Departments of Industrial Design and Mechanical Engineering of Hongik University in South Korea. Students from each involved department on the two sites participate in project teams to develop a product. During the project, the lecturers predominantly assist as consultants, acting mainly if explicitly asked for help. It is intended to let critical situations emerge as under realistic conditions, so the students learn by first hand when and how certain techniques can be applied.