The impact of vertical integration of design teams on the chemical engineering program

For the last five years, the Department of Chemical Engineering at The University of Akron has implemented a vertically integrated team design project (VITDP) involving our department´s entire undergraduate student population. Teams, consisting of freshman through seniors, work together with an industrial or faculty mentor to solve an open-ended design problem over a five-seven week period during the fall semester. Each project is designed to require positive interdependency between the team members, thus creating an instructional framework where students learn through teaming rather than group work. All freshmen learn what chemical engineering is about, sophomores enhance their learning in process economics, juniors and seniors improve their proficiency with process simulation, and seniors make major improvements in their ability to lead or guide other people. When the design project introduces a concept or topic that has not been fully integrated into the curriculum, all students, including those who prefer to work alone, effectively increase their knowledge of that topic. The vertically integrated team structure provides a way to learn information in context, which has a particularly strong effect on women in the program. Overall, the VITDP has a positive impact on the chemical engineering program.