ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY COLLABORATION WITH INDUSTRY

How can we effectively meet the needs of student and industry?We can provide the engineering technology student with a comprehensive design experience that closely matches that encountered by professional design engineers.And we can seek to develop those communication skills that are an inherent and vital part of engineering activity. Let us begin by examining the professional functions of an engineering technologist uponbeing given an open-ended design project.The ET will invariably work in a design group; will initially research the project fully; will create and consider several possible design paths; will prepare a Design Proposal and Cost Estimate that is subject to (client) approval; will carefully schedule the project work which may include prototyping; will prepare formal Progress Reports; may develop a prototype; will stress-analyze and help prepare the design drawings; will prepare a comprehensive Final Design Report; and will present the project results to his/her peers, the engineering organization and/or the client.Those noted comprehensive design experiences have been practiced by the writer at several universities and, more currently, at Eastern Michigan University.They have enabled us to partner with industry in many major design projects.And they have allowed us to develop our cooperative educational program as well, because the sponsoring organization finds that our students have an excellently-prepared background in providing the necessary functions expected in an engineering technology student.Finally, the writer has recently researched and published articles on the future practices in Engineering Technology.Some of the research included contacts with industrial sources to learn what they recommend -and expect -from our ET programs in the near future.Their recommendations help us to plan and develop our ET programs more effectively for more successful partnerships.