Catalyzing Clinically-Driven Undergraduate Design Projects At the Nexus of Engineering, Medicine, and Business.

Design projects, particularly those related to assistive technology, offer unparalleled educational opportunities for undergraduate students to synthesize engineering knowledge with a clinically-driven need to produce a product that can improve quality of life. Such projects are most effective when engineering, clinical, and business perspectives are considered throughout. However, the logistics of successfully implementing such interdisciplinary projects can be challenging. This paper presents outcomes from 12 undergraduate design team projects in assistive technology performed over 5 years. These projects involved engineering, business, and clinical students. The overarching goal of our work was to foster the creation of student-led prototypes to address real-world problems for people with disabilities, while keeping commercialization potential at the forefront throughout. Our teams had a high degree of success with prototype realization, and we observed that many students pursued graduate study in related areas as inspired by these projects. We identified common obstacles and present strategies for mitigating these challenges, as well effective approaches for catalyzing cross-disciplinary collaborations in undergraduate design projects. We conclude that despite these challenges, students benefitted from the interdisciplinary perspectives and holistic approach to project implementation, these projects served as a gateway to research and graduate study for many students, and our interdisciplinary approach produced prototypes with commercialization potential.