Improving engineering students professional development skills in the make to innovate program

Abstract

A program at Iowa State University, Make to Innovate (M:2:I), allows students to work on real world engineering problems through a problem-based learning framework. Over the five years this program has been operating, observational data and student feedback have been collected identifying a potential issue with students' success in their projects. In most cases, this was not due to a lack of technical knowledge but rather from deficiencies in professional development skills. However, students are not often exposed to or taught these professional development skills in their undergraduate courses. This creates a deficiency in students' effective leadership of their teams, which can lead to a negative experience for the student in the program. This work-in-progress paper will discuss a supplemental professional development course that will be added to the Make to Innovate program to educate students in several professional development skills. This additional instructional course will continue to follow the problem-based learning framework to engage students in learning these skills. The developed course is expected to have direct positive impact on students' professional development and the success of their projects.