Interdisciplinary Collaboration and Engineering: Models for Teaching and Research

Authors: Patrick Little and Tom Maiorana

Excerpt from the paper. Paper is currently under review.

Abstract

Interdisciplinary collaboration is critical as we address the extraordinary challenges we face now and into the future. Given the potential importance of this type of work to processes of discovery, there is surprisingly little training and support for either engineering faculty or students in how to frame these collaborations. This paper presents six attributes of interdisciplinary collaborations including the collaborative foundation, power relationships, language and means of expression, approaches to risk, products of the collaboration, and the potential for transformative outcomes. These criteria are a useful way to distinguish between four proposed models of interdisciplinary collaboration that are relevant for engineering education and practice. The models include two that are relevant to very small working groups or teams such as those found in class or course settings, and two that lay out larger institutional responses to supporting interdisciplinary collaboration. The small group models include what we have called a contractual model and a shared ideals model. The organizational models include the orchestra model and a supported sharing model. It is our hope that these models will serve to frame conversations on how best to educate engineers and their interdisciplinary partners.

Keywords:

Interdisciplinary Collaboration, Engineering Education, Interdisciplinarity, Transformative Research