Years of national academy, foundation, and government sponsored studies have concluded a critical need to educate and train students differently in the 21st Century than done in the 20th Century. Now more than ever, graduates enter a professional world where the challenges are more complex and the solutions more sophisticated.  Their careers will be more competitive, more global, and more diverse than those of previous generations, with an increased focus on sustainability and human and social issues. It is a world that demands a spirit of entrepreneurial innovation and life-long learners able to adapt to career paths where multiplicity and change is the norm (Faculty may find a recent 2008 report by former President Jim Duderstadt and the Millennium Project useful background reading).
Michigan Engineering is addressing this challenge in part by implementing the Multidisciplinary Design (MD) program that is (1) dedicated to increasing opportunities for significant, real-world multidisciplinary design-build-test (DBT) experiences for our students and (2) actively promotes collaboration between departments and other schools/colleges. As part of the MD Program, its new Minor provides the opportunity for a student to earn credit, plan it in to their curriculum, and be recognized for such experiences on their transcripts. For faculty, departments, and colleges/schools, the MD Program provides a path to attract a multidisciplinary group of motivated students and to develop unique and exciting educational experiences relevant to over arching educational missions.
Michigan Engineering is addressing this challenge in part by implementing the Multidisciplinary Design (MD) program that is increasing opportunities for significant Design-Build-Test (DBT) experiences for students while actively promoting collaboration between departments as well as with other schools and colleges.
The Minor within the MD Program, will allow a student to earn credit, plan it in to his or her educational program, and be recognized for such experiences on their transcript. For faculty, departments, and other Michigan colleges/schools, the MD Program provides the vehicle to attract a diverse group of motivated students and the ability to develop unique educational experiences relevant to overarching educational missions.
Students, Faculty, industry, government, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), can all initiate student projects organized around DBT activities, such as:
 
o A professor would like to develop a robot for his research;
o A government lab would like to see a new energy-efficient bicycle concept developed, built, and tested/evaluated;
o A NGO wishes to engage students and the university to develop a bio-fuel system for small, rural Central American villages;
o A PhD student, working with his advisor, recruits a multidisciplinary team of students to design, build, test, and fly a microgravity experiment that supplements his PhD research;
o A company would like to engage a multidisciplinary group of students to develop and test/evaluate a new personal transportation concept;
o A medical school researcher needs a customized electronic drug utilization and tracking system for use by emergency medical technicians (EMTs) designed, prototyped, and hundreds of units manufactured for field use;
o A university and city want to have a real-time public transportation bus tracking system for users available on the web and personal communication devices.
 
Student project activities also naturally follow from our many student competition teams and organizations focused on a particular theme (e.g. Bluelab, MHeal, S3FL, Concrete Canoe, Formula SAE Car, and many others). Project opportunities will certainly be generated in collaboration with the Center for Entrepreneurialism, the International Program, and other existing campus activities.
The MD Minor has a flexible structure that we call a “specialization” which allows faculty, departments, other Michigan schools/colleges to organize the minor around a theme with its own requirements, as long as the umbrella requirements of the Minor are met. This is one way to enable the MD Program Minor to harness the enthusiasm of faculty and students to tackle new and exciting design challenges.
A student completing the requirements for a specialization within the MD Program Minor can elect to have this specialization reflected on his or her transcript (e.g., "Minor in Multidisciplinary Design with Specialization in Global Health Design"). While these specializations can be tailored to the passions of specific faculty groups and students, an umbrella Minor also exists so that being a part of a specialization is not required to receive a Minor in Multidisciplinary Design.
Some of the expected advantages associated with allowing for specializations in the program included the following:
1. Students participate in a design focus that is recognized on their transcript while gaining expertise that might aid in gaining future employment or graduate school admission in a related area.
2. Faculty can develop a pool of students around a specific topic related to their research interests while getting this investment in student education institutionally recognized through the transcript designation of the specialization.
3. The existence of specializations creates the potential for the program of minors to grow more sustainably and in larger increments than might be possible with ad hoc projects - since the specializations can be linked directly to faculty interests in their specific areas of expertise.
4. Departments and the College can benefit through the evolution and creation of new programs of high visibility and interest to future students and the general public.
5. Departments and the College have an additional vehicle to create and bring publicity to programs that link engineering to departments across the university.
We will be expanding this section with more detail, but faculty are encouraged to contact the MD Program Director, Brian Gilchrist (brian.gilchrist@umich.edu), with questions and to request assistance in organizing their own MD Program activities.
For more background information on the MD Program, please also read our 2009 ASEE conference paper.