Integrating graduate and undergraduate education with real world projects

Abstract

This paper discusses three case studies where graduate students worked alongside undergraduate students on projects suggested by local companies. In the first case, graduate students were assigned to work in teams with undergraduate students, and later continued the project to fulfill both company expectations and publication of a conference paper. In the second case, a graduate student who had previously completed a course continued working with the instructor on a thesis with an industry case study. The masterpsilas student proposed the involvement of a new student team the next time the course was offered, and the team worked in a separate, but related area of the company. In the third case, a senior graduate student became the teaching assistant instructor for an undergraduate level course. A company project was used to fulfill graduate student independent study credits, as well as a team project for the undergraduate course. The educational advantages and benefits of these models for undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty advisors will be discussed in this paper.