Enhancing Technical Communication Skills of Engineering Students: an Experiment in Multidisciplinary Design

1 Robert J. Fornaro, North Carolina State University, Computer Science Department, 232 Withers Hall, Raleigh, NC 27695, [email protected] 2 Margaret R. Heil, North Carolina State University, Computer Science Department, 231 Withers Hall, Raleigh, NC 27695, [email protected] 3 Steven W. Peretti, North Carolina State University, Chemical Engineering Department, 221 Riddick Engineering Labs, Raleigh, NC 27695, [email protected] Abstract -A multidisciplinary team of chemical engineering and computer science students collaborated to design a plant capable of producing commercial quantities of citric acid. This project required the students to produce a benchscale chemical engineering facility and a computer system to monitor production in accordance with Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations. A previous attempt at student collaboration on a similar project produced less than stellar results. An evaluation of that experience revealed the most significant challenge to project success was establishing effective teamwork and appropriate technical communication across the two disciplines. This paper will describe the results of the most recent multidisciplinary team experiment, in which emphasis was placed on developing communication between student teams. A description of the synchronization of project development methodologies between the participating disciplines will be discussed as well as how this contributed to enhancing technical communication between the teams and enabled the latest project to progress to a successful conclusion.