OPEN ACCESS World Congress on Engineering Education 2013

Validating the value of industry-university collaborations in graduateengineering educationRapinder Sawhney1,*, Sima Maleki2, Kaveri Thakur2

ABSTRACT

The Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE) program within the Center for Productivity Innovations

(CPI) in the Industrial and Systems Engineering department at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville

provides an opportunity for students to utilize industry as a laboratory for learning and developing

research ideas. This paper presents an effective educational model being used in ISE-CPI to prepare

a new generation of industrial engineering leaders. These young leaders’ educational experience is

enhanced as they are equipped with the technical, organizational, and social skills necessary for them

to tackle global challenges and create value for society. A survey was developed to assess the

contribution of the ISE-CPI program (in comparison with other mechanisms of acquiring education)

from the students’ perspective. The results validate the success of the ISE-CPI program model in

combining formal education and career experiences to train effective leaders through industry-related

projects.

Keywords: engineering education, graduate research and education, industry-university interaction,industrial engineering

Cite this article as: Sawhney R, Maleki S, Thakur K. Validating the value of industry-universitycollaborations in graduate engineering education, QScience Proceedings (World Congress onEngineering Education 2013) 2014:22 http://dx.doi.org/10.5339/qproc.2014.wcee2013.22

http://dx.doi.org/10.5339/qproc.2014.wcee2013.22

Submitted: 18 January 2014Accepted: 30 April 2014ª 2014 Sawhney, Maleki, Thakur,licensee Bloomsbury QatarFoundation Journals. This is an openaccess article distributed under theterms of the Creative CommonsAttribution license CC BY 4.0, whichpermits unrestricted use,distribution and reproduction in anymedium, provided the original workis properly cited.

1Professor and Department Head,

Industrial and Systems Engineering

Department, University of Tennessee,

Knoxville, TN 379962Ph.D. Candidates, Industrial and

Systems Engineering Department,

University of Tennessee, Knoxville,

TN 37996

*Email: sawhney@utk.edu

1. INTRODUCTION

At the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK)’s Industrial and Systems Engineering department (ISE),

the Center for Productivity Innovations (CPI) houses an innovative program, Industrial and Systems

Engineering (ISE-CPI) that enhances the educational experience and creates real value through industry

projects. This model allows graduate students to use industrial projects to gain real-world career

experience. Research in cognition and learning has shown that learning by doing/experiencing rather than

being taught from textbooks improves a student’s cognitive ability to retain information.1 The articulation

and organization of thoughts improves as a student learns by means of practical hands-on projects, and

assessments of learningmethods have shown that hands-on trainingmethods improve students’ chances

of retaining and being able to retrieve information. Skills and techniques learned during a hands-on

experience also allow one to understand the reasoning behind the process (Available from: http://www.

ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/content/cntareas/science/eric/eric-2.htm). An empirical study. in which

participantswere grouped in activities-based training in science classes acquired20percentmore than the

traditional training group.2 Reports of proficiency in high-intensity performance skills such as graphing and

data interpretation suggest improvement with hands-on training.3 In addition to that, the communication,

teamwork, and technical excellencedemandedby today’s employers aremore likely tobedevelopedwhen

students are engagedwith realistic and relevant experiences.4 Because the educational environment plays

an important role in providing real-world experience, according to Piaget’s theories, It is essential to have a

rich physical experience in an educational setting in order to understand concepts and evaluate options.5

Different organizational cultures require different skill sets and implementation techniques. The climate

and cultural factors of a training work environment have been reported to show a direct relationship to

post-training behavior and knowledge gained in training.6

In an experientially based program, students are forced to use critical thinking during hands-on

training because they must interpret observed events as opposed to simply memorizing correct

responses. This leads to the development of a natural cause-and-effect thinking process. The overall

experience promotes less dependence on authority and greater development of leadership skills.7

The development of effective leadership, according to John Kotter8, is based on acquiring six different

attributes: motivation, personal values, development of abilities/skills, development of reputation,

development of relationships/networks, and the development of organizational and industry

knowledge. These attributes are acquired by four different mechanisms/experiences that occur

naturally through an individual’s lifetime:

. Birth – A few leadership attributes originate at birth, which include motivation, abilities, and

skills (basic mental capacity, interpersonal capacity, and energy level).

. Early Childhood – Another subset of leadership attributes is developed early in one’s life in the

form of personal values, motivation, and the development of specific abilities and skills.

. Formal Education – Abilities and skills are the only attributes that are enhanced during an

individual’s formal educational process, which includes experiences at institutions of higher

learning.

. Career Experiences – A significant number of leadership attributes are acquired only

through “career experiences,” such as the ability to develop relationships, the ability to

work in industry, the development of organizational knowledge, and the development of

one’s reputation and track record.

From these mechanisms, it can be seen that an effective leader must obtain formal education as well

as career experience. Currently, there are three distinct modes of interaction between university and

industry to enhance engineering education: industry-driven projects (projects conducted within

industry, such as internships and engineering training), university-driven projects (those conducted

within the university with some input from industry), and industry-university collaboration

(projects conducted at the university and having strong interaction with industry).9,10

Career experiences may be gained by industry-driven internships and co-op engineering

opportunities during education. Many students work full-time for a specific period of time under both

options, and this creates a gap between students and their educational environment. Hence, schools

may lose control over their students’ education and therefore have to rely on a student’s industrial

supervisor to provide the appropriate experience (Available from: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/

areas/issues/content/cntareas/science/eric/eric-2.htm).11 In contrast, university-driven projects and

industry-university collaboration approaches bring industry to students within a university

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environment. These approaches can also realistically simulate career experiences if the appropriate

intent and structure are provided. According to Thompson and Edwards, successes with these projects

are a result of assessing, obtaining, approving, and managing projects, along with providing

appropriate academic support.12 University projects that use real-world industry experience to teach

students have been in existence within many educational institutions in the U.S. and overseas.11,13

State University of New York (SUNY), for example, has used this approach to involve graduate research

associates and faculty to address electronics packaging/manufacturing issues with industry. Research

funding exceeding several millions of dollars was utilized to graduate over 100 graduate students.14

Effective university-driven projects and industry-university collaborations to enhance engineering

education can be achieved in a robust educational environment. In order to provide this opportunity for

students to enhance their experience in facing real-world problems, industry can be effectively utilized

as a laboratory for learning, forming, and developing research ideas. The ISE-CPI program is based on

the belief that a robust educational experience requires the learning of fundamental knowledge, the

ability to apply this knowledge to projects, and the utilization of experience to enhance the current

body of knowledge in a thesis or dissertation format. The ISE-CPI program provides students with

simulated work experiences that enhance their leadership attributes and critical-thinking capabilities

as well as improving their technical, organizational, and social skills. That these skills enhance

students’ success both in the university and in their careers is evident in measurable results, including

higher student graduation rates, an increased number of publications, and a wider sponsor network for

potential funding. The impact can further be measured by the millions of dollars affecting the local

economy, in addition to the intangible social benefits gained. For detailed information about the

program and its outputs, readers are referred to Sawhney et al.15

This paper presents an effective educational model that is preparing a new generation of industrial

engineering leaders equipped with the technical, organizational, and social skills to tackle global

challenges and create value for society. The remainder of the paper is organized as follows: Section 2

presents the ISE-CPI program model and management structure. Section 3 describes and discusses the

assignment of projects and responsibilities to students, transformation of leadership attributes through

this process; it also presents student perceptions of the program’s contribution to their leadership

attributes through survey results. Section 4 concludes the paper.

2. ISE-CPI STRUCTURE

Figure 1 illustrates the structure of CPI’s ISE program, which inherently takes incoming graduate

students and involves them with research and application-oriented projects in a manner that results in

the development of unique leadership attributes in M.S. and Ph.D. students.15 The ISE-CPI program

Figure 1. ISE-CPI structure (Source Sawhney et al.15).

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involves students in a range of projects, from consulting to purely research-based projects, as

outlined below:

. Consulting Projects implement existing productivity models in existing domains of application.

An example of this type of project would be the application of operational excellence to an

existing manufacturing concern.

. New Applications projects apply existing productivity models to new domains of application.

An example of this type of project would be the application of operational excellence to

newborn babies with drug addiction with a focus on reducing the babies’ weaning time.

. New Models projects develop new productivity models for existing domains of application.

An example of this type of project would be the development of the new concept of Releanability

(Lean and Reliability Engineering16) and the application of this concept to manufacturers,

hospitals, and government organizations.

. New Body of Knowledge projects involve the creation of a new body of knowledge related to

productivity improvement. An example of this type of project would be the development of

Natural Interaction, which is the application of technology to human capability to enhance

productivity by reducing learning curves.

The last three categories of projects have an increasingly large research component that distinguishes

ISE-CPI from a typical consulting firm. This program model enhances the leadership attributes of the

students by allowing them to develop their skills, develop a reputation, develop relationships with

sponsoring agencies, and develop organizational knowledge of both the university and the sponsoring

agencies. This exposure of students to career experiences enhances the competitive edge of the

students in the university, government, and industrial worlds. It is this unique approach that attracts

sponsors while allowing ISE-CPI to have a social and economic impact on the community.

The ISE-CPI management structure is presented in Figure 2. The management structure includes the

ISE-CPI director, the project and publication coordinators, the project team leaders, the domain

subgroup lead and team members, the educational program coordinator, and the laboratory lead.

The ISE-CPI director is responsible for the overall health of the center as well as the ISE-CPI program.

The publication coordinator works with all project teams and domain subgroups to coordinate the

publication record. The ISE-CPI project coordinator, in coordination with the director, assigns graduate

students as team leaders and team members to projects. The project coordinator works with each

project team leader and the director to ensure that there is an appropriate balance between the team

members’ theses/dissertations and the amount of time spent on projects that are not directly

impacting their graduate work within the ISE-CPI program. The laboratory coordinator is in charge of

working with the director to develop the laboratory capabilities required by ISE-CPI program.

The educational program coordinator works with the ISE-CPI director to develop educational programs

as a means of disseminating the ISE-CPI developments. The project team lead works with the director

to complete the project and utilize the project as a basis of a thesis or dissertation.

Each graduate student selects a research subgroup from the following subgroups: organizational

productivity and operational excellence, energy and sustainability, reliability and maintenance, and

Figure 2. ISE-CPI Management structure (Source Sawhney et al.15)

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Table

1.ISE-CPIindustry-projectsassignments.

ISE-CPIGroups

ISE-CPIIndustry-ProjectsAssignments

Organizational

Productivityand

Operational

Excellence

Project

Name

Home

Automation

HumanResource

PlanningForY12

Train

Simulator

CarSimulator

Number

ofStudents

53

33

TypeofProject

New

Body

ofKnowledge

New

Applications

New

Models

New

Models

Project

Name

DLA

Tent-net

TennesseeSolar

SupplyChain

AGC

DLA:MRE

Number

of

Students

24

34

TypeofProject

Consulting

New

Applications

Consulting

New

Body

ofKnowledge

Energyand

Sustainability

Project

Name

EnergyEfficiency

ORNLChiller

Project

Short-Haul

Railw

ay

Number

of

Students

23

2

TypeofProject

New

Applications

New

Applications

Consulting

Reliability

and

Maintenance

Project

Name

Sea

Ray

LeanAssessm

ent

LeanSummer

Program

Y-12

Lean

Reliability

Work

Safety

Equipment

Reliability

Number

of

Students

415

22

TypeofProject

Consulting

New

Body

ofKnowledge

New

Models

New

Models

LeanHealthcare

Inform

atics

Project

Name

Children’s

Hospital

MSDPatients

Disability

Prediction

Hospital

Admissions

Number

of

Students

32

2

TypeofProject

New

Models

New

Body

ofKnowledge

New

Models

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Sawhney et al. QScience Proceedings 2014.wcee2013:22

Table

2.ISE-CPIstudentperceptionofindustry-projectsvalue.

ISE-CPIStudentPerceptionofIndustry-ProjectsValue

Project

Exp

erience

GroupDyn

amics

Communication

ISE-CPIRoles

Resp

onsibilities

andLeadership

Real,Complex

Projects

Project

Management

Teamwork

Multi-

Cultural

Multi-

Disciplinary

Corresp

ondence

Oral

[Presentations]

Written

[Reports]

EducationProgram

Coordinator

UU

UU

UU

UU

Laboratory

Lead

UU

UU

UU

Project

Coordinator

UU

UU

UU

U

PublicationCoordinator

UU

UU

U

Project

Team

Leader

UU

UU

UU

UU

U

Domain

SubgroupLead

UU

UU

UU

Domain

SubgroupTeam

Lead

UU

UU

UU

UU

U

Team

Mem

ber

UU

UU

U

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Sawhney et al. QScience Proceedings 2014.wcee2013:22

lean healthcare informatics. The intent is to have members of each subgroup work and share

information/ideas with other students with similar ideas. Each subgroup has a subgroup leader who

may be a faculty member, a post-doc, or a Ph.D. student who is close to finishing his or her studies. The

next section presents the assignment of projects and responsibilities to students and the development

of leadership attributes through this process.

3. PROJECT ASSIGNMENT AND RELATIONSHIP TO LEADERSHIP ATTRIBUTES

Table 1 presents a sample of the diverse industry-projects in ISE-CPI educational groups that are

assigned to students. As mentioned in previous section, each project can be categorized as Consulting,

New Applications, New Models, or New Body of Knowledge. Variable numbers of students are assigned

to each project based on the intensity and requirements of a specific project.

Figure 3. Survey results.

Table 3. Contribution to leadership attributes from student perception.

Leadership Attributes

ISE-CPI Student Perception of Industry-Projects Value

ValuesLeadershipAttributes Motivation

PersonalValues

Developmentof Abilities/

Skills

Developmentof

ReputationRelationship/Networks

Organizational/Industry

Knowledge

Project ExperienceResponsibilities

and LeadershipU U U U U

Real-ComplexProjects

U U U U U

ProjectManagement

U U U U U

Group DynamicsTeamwork U U U U U

Multi-Cultural U U U U

Multi-Disciplinary U U U U U

CommunicationCorrespondence U U U U

Oral[Presentation]

U U U U

Written [Reports] U U U

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Sawhney et al. QScience Proceedings 2014.wcee2013:22

The graduate students entering the ISE-CPI program are assigned to projects based on their

research interest and the potential of the project’s application toward their thesis/dissertation.

Students entering the program start as team members and they can assume different roles across the

structure, such as project team leader, domain subgroup lead, domain subgroup team lead, project or

publication coordinator, or laboratory lead. This gives the students an opportunity to embrace and

develop different management roles during their educational experience in the ISE-CPI program.

To evaluate the program and the value of industry-projects, and to investigate how these values may

contribute to developing leadership attributes, a survey was conducted within ISE-CPI program entities.

A total of 38 graduate students pursuing master’s and doctoral degrees, post-doctoral research fellows,

and adjunct research faculty responded. The response rate was 78 percent (30 of the participants

answered all the questions in the survey). The survey was composed of eight questions using a 5-point

Likert scale to rank the question in terms of the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with the

statement.17 The expected responses to the questions were based on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 was

“strongly disagree,” 3 was “neither agree or disagree,” and 5 was “strongly agree.”

Table 2 illustrates the relationship between management roles and capabilities gained during the

ISE-CPI program’s industry-project assignment according to student perception. The capabilities can be

broadly divided into three main categories of experience that are specific to students participating in

this program. First, the project experience itself allows a student to take an actual role and to be

responsible in managing and accomplishing a real project in a timely manner. Secondly, because the

ISE-CPI program is composed of students from various scientific and cultural backgrounds, the cultural

climate that is created allows individual students to practice teamwork in a simulated career

experience. The last category is communication. Providing periodic reports, progress presentations,

and conducting general correspondence with project sponsors helps students to develop their ability

to communicate effectively. As presented in Table 2, a team member will benefit from group dynamics

and project experience. The skills and values gained will increase as a student takes on more

responsibility and performs as a project team leader or domain subgroup team leader.

The rating chart presented in Figure 3 shows the progressive development of leadership attributes as

the educational mechanisms change from early childhood to formal education, and finally to

educational-work experiences such as the ISE-CPI program. Table 3 complements the survey results

and presents the relationship between acquired abilities, values of industry projects, and leadership

attributes. The survey results presented here validate the success of ISE-CPI program model to combine

formal education and career experience to train effective leaders through industry projects.

4. CONCLUSION

This paper presents the ISE-CPI structure as an effective educational model. The ISE-CPI program

provides students with a simulated career experience that enhances their critical-thinking capabilities

as well as their technical, organizational, and social skills through project experience, group dynamics,

and communication. A survey was developed to assess the contribution of the ISE-CPI program in

comparison with other mechanisms of acquiring education. The survey evaluates the program based

on project experience, group dynamics, and communication contributing towards leadership

attributes. The survey results support the ISE-CPI program model and structure and demonstrate the

significance of the ISE-CPI program’s structure in developing and enhancing students’ leadership

attributes.

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