Interdisciplinary projects

Higher education teachers: Bešter Janez, Kos Andrej, Likar Boštjan, Miklavčič Damijan

Subject description

Prerequisits:

Course is intended for students of study programs regardless of the level of their parent program.

Content (Syllabus outline):

Interdisciplinary project encourages co-creation of students, companies, institutions and universities (it follows the approach established within Demola framework and similar initiatives). Companies or institutions propose real problems, which are being solved by multidisciplinary teams of 3-5 students, working under supervision of companies or institutions and professors. The aim of the project is to generally solve the project problem and, if feasible, prepare a working prototype. Student teams have 3 months to achieve this goal. A common place is available to student teams, where they can exchange creative ideas with other students, business and institutions representatives and professors.

Project work stages:

• formation of student groups,
• detailed comprehension of the project problem,
• consultations with the supervisor from the company or institution and the faculty,
• creative team work on a solution to the problem,
• presentation of interim basic solutions to the faculty and the company or institution,
• possibility of the actual realization of the solution to the problem (product prototype)
• final presentation of the project problem solution.

Objectives and competences:

Objectives:

to train students to work creatively in multidisciplinary teams to solve complex project problems;

Competences:

practical application and combination of acquired specific professional competencies of students and their appropriate combination in group work.

Intended learning outcomes:

Knowledge and understanding:

• knowledge of work dynamics in multidisciplinary teams;
• understanding of fundamental principles of project work;
• understanding relationships between different skills and procedures for solutions of project problems.

Transferable/Key skills and other attributes:

• competence for solving problems in an multidisciplinary and multicultural team;
• communication in multidisciplinary and multicultural project team;
• ability to present solutions and ideas to the public;
• evaluation of the potential success of a basic solution.

Learning and teaching methods:

• the students are involved in a variety of workshops on entrepreneurship, project management, design, agile development;
• the students consult with supervisors from the company and the faculty;
• the students have to join 3 public events to present their work during the project duration;
• the students have to keep the project record (Playbook) during the project duration, which contains all the information about the project.

Study materials

• project definition,
• study sources,
• various applicable professional literature,
• compulsory professional guidelines of companies or institutions.
• optional: K. Ulrich, S. Eppinger, Product Design and Development, McGraw-Hill, 2011.