Undergraduate IPD
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Setup for testing a new Mack Truck windshield wiper system |
Pre Course Preparation: In the summer and fall semester each year, the IPD faculty leaders and staff work with industry sponsors to identify appropriate product development or process improvement projects.
The first IPD course is three credits and is offered each spring semester which starts in January and ends in May. IPD #1 is co listed in all three colleges as ENGR 211, BUS 211 and DES 211, and ME 211. In this first course, the student team focuses on understanding the technical issues in a business and social context, developing the customer's needs, creating innovative concepts, identifying the best concept and developing it.
The second IPD course is 2 credits and is offered in the fall semester starting in late August and finishing in December. IPD #2 is co listed in all three colleges under ENGR 212, BUS 212 and DES 212 and ME 212. In this second course the student team continues the development, fabricates a prototype and tests it, develops the plans for future product launch or process implementation.
During the spring semester of the senior year many students continue their IPD project as a Senior Thesis for one to six credits working closely with a faculty supervisor on some basic research aspect of their project. Each year several students are accepted into the graduate IPD Masters program to continue research and development of their ideas.