Harnessing project management skills from students having industry work experience

Abstract

The objective of this investigation was to harness and efficiently utilize the project management skills possessed by students having industry work experience. An innovative concept was introduced to the course project of the computer-aided engineering course taught at Wichita State University. As per this concept, those enrolled students that had prior project management skills from the industry were assigned as team leaders to different project teams. The idea behind this concept was to introduce industry standard project management skills and techniques to all the students. The project guidelines were laid out clearly and each team knew what was expected of them. The project was driven by the team leader in accordance with the project management techniques followed in the industry. A survey conducted after the completion of the course project points to evidence that 78% of the students benefitted from this innovative concept and 81% of the students reported that they learned something new from this concept. In other words, the students learned Project Management techniques as a result of this innovative concept. Encouraged by the results, it is intended to continue this initiative when teaching courses with term projects. It is also intended to continuously keep improving this process to make it more beneficial for the students both from an academic and industry perspective. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022