How useful is working with students from business or design as part of an engineering project?
Working with business or design students can be very useful. Business students may add perspectives on marketability and business considerations, while design students may contribute user-centered thinking and usability. This can help an engineering team identify requirements it might otherwise overlook. However, members must reconcile different terminology and priorities, and the benefits and workload depend on the course design, division of roles, and each student’s involvement.
Key points
- It develops awareness of market, business, and user needs beyond technical performance.
- It provides practice in explaining technical ideas and coordinating with people from other fields.
- It gives students experience combining different priorities into a realistic proposal.
Things to check
- The content and workload of such collaboration vary by university, faculty, course, and academic year, so the specific curriculum should be checked in official information.