Enhancing Senior Engineering Student Projects By Incorporating Needs Assessment, Manufacturing Engineering, And Pilot Testing

How can the senior engineering student project experience be enhanced so students gain a more complete understanding and appreciation of the entire technology development process, develop more skills needed in their first jobs, and become more capable of developing projects that meet their client's expectations? Interview data from managing engineers about the skill needs of newly hired engineers and interview data from students who completed their senior engineering project reveal gaps - such as customer needs assessment, manufacturing engineering, and pilot testing - between the skill needs of new hires and their senior engineering project experience. Workshops were implemented to address these gaps and a second round of student interviews reveals the gaps were bridged.