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Report Issued:

10.4.2013

Prepared for:

The Makers Club

Georgia Tech Innovation Studio

Manufacturing Related Disciplines Complex

801 Ferst Drive, Atlanta, GA 30332

uMux

Georgia Institute of Technology

Atlanta, GA 30309

uMux Report

Interdisciplinary Research, Student PerceptionsFaculty Feedback

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10 April 2013

The Makers Club

Georgia Tech Innovation Studio

Manufacturing Related Disciplines Complex

801 Ferst Drive, Atlanta, GA 30332

Dear Makers Club:

We are pleased to share this report with you which outlines our proposal for

uMux, a new platform to facilitate interdisciplinary projects for students and

faculty among all academic majors at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Please

consider this proposal as an exciting opportunity for your club to further engage

in interdisciplinary activities in the Georgia Tech community and beyond.

Included is a compilation of relevant research, explicative graphics, and an in-depth explanation of our idea. This report is designed to address a range of

audiences; it may contain elements that are not of immediate interest to your

specic organization. We would like to follow up with you to see if youd be

interested in helping us design a platform which would suit your needs as end-

users.

Sincerely,

Francesca Malenky, Alex Oxford, Alex Goldsmith, Jordan Lockwood

UMuX: The University Multidisciplinary Exchange Network

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CONTENTS {Executive Summary 4

Introduction 4Interdisciplinary Programs 4

Our Idea 7

Faculty Interviews 8

Student Perceptions 9

Our Plan 10

Conclusion 10

Appendix 11

Works Cited 12

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Georgia Tech could greatly benet from an online

platform which connects diverse academic talent

on campus. uMux, the University Multidisciplinary

Exchange Network, would allow students of dierent

backgrounds to nd others with similar interests who

are interested in working on projects to further their

personal or professional goals. Numerous research

supports the use of interdisciplinary teams for

problem solving; nearly every one of Georgia Techs

competitor schools have a program in place that allowfor a cohesive education, utilizing talent across all

academic facets. We have received strong feedback

from nearly two-hundred students across campus

in an online survey we performed. Further, we have

reached out to numerous faculty across Georgia Tech

to gauge their interest and support. We have found

faculty to be nearly unanimously supportive of the

uMux mission of bringing students together who want

to apply their individual talents in a project-based

form. We are condent in uMuxs future, and are

eager to begin networking with end-users, softwaredevelopers, and corporate recruiters to design our

digital platform.

Executive Summary

What is an Interdisciplinary Program?

Integration of knowledge is a product of both teaching

and learning. The concept of an interdisciplinary

program refers to a philosophy and process of

education that integrates the specialized knowledge of

multiple disciplines. The objective of such a program

would encompass a core curriculum with a focus

on the specialty of the students choice. This couldpotentially lead students in dierent disciplines

to meet at the borders of those disciplines and to

even move across dierent borders to form new

disciplines. In turn, this will have a positive inuence

on knowledge production and innovation.

An interdisciplinary program does not need to

only focus on the student. Such a program could

encompass a complex project or goal that requires

many dierent participants with varied skills and

specialties. This would be a curriculum that wouldteach an individual student how to work on a

professional team with others who think dierently.

Overall an interdisciplinary program rounds

and guides a student to be better suited for the

professional world.

Introduction

Georgia Tech has grown and developed over the

years as a disciplinary university primarily motivating

students to embrace their specied interests and skills

to prepare them for the professional world. uMux

will bring a cultural shift in which Georgia Tech, and

other major universities, will adopt an interdisciplinaryprogram and system. In order to implement such a

dramatic change, students need to be encouraged

to work in an interdisciplinary environment. This can

be executed by the creation of an interdisciplinary

platform that will allow students, faculty, and alumni

to post personal projects that students can work

together and complete in a team oriented process.

As the platform grows in popularity, it can then be

implemented within Georgia Tech itself. The capstoneproject (Senior Design) is currently designed for like-

minded individuals to work together, which might not

provide the necessary cross-functional experience

for a student to ourish in the professional world.

Students who work with dierent people and create

the best possible product that could potentially

benet the world would only serve to jump-start an

individual on their best path. This will in turn help

Georgia Tech excel to become the leader of twenty-

rst century universities. Adopting an interdisciplinary

program is necessary for universities to grow andmature into the future.

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Benets of an Interdisciplinary Program

There is a great deal of discussion about whether

or not universities should stay focused on a

disciplinary program or if the professional world

now requires students to attain knowledge through

an interdisciplinary program. A disciplinary system

focuses primarily on the individual student and

his interests during school. It permits the student

to delve into their eld of interest to a point of an

absolute understanding of the subject. However,

current trends in business indicate that more andmore employers are choosing to use cross-functional

teams to solve problems. As such, researchers argue

that the integration of majors with a formation of

an interdisciplinary system is more relevant to give

students the best potential in the professional world.

An interdisciplinary program helps a student become

well rounded. The use of an interdisciplinary system

requires each student to learn about other elds of

interests and work with other individuals that have

specied skills that are dierent from their own. With

a basic understanding of other skills, a student willbe able to understand how to tackle an obstacle with

others.

Cross-Functional Teams

Cross-functional teams have become increasingly

popular amongst top business rms, especially as

the benets of such teams are being realized. The

projects facilitated by our platform would equip

students to operate within cross-functional teams

upon graduation with experience and acumen. The

eectiveness of a cross-functional team is most heavily

dependent upon the type of product produced or

customer serviced. Design-driven projects can be

set up and implemented so as to capitalize on the

benets of cross-functional teams (Ainamo). Since

most product and service systems are adaptable to

design-led production, cross-functional teams could

indeed be benecial in terms of innovative quality,

design eectiveness, or throughput time minimization

to almost all business projects of the future. Businessleaders of tomorrow must understand how to

navigate these teams in order to take part in a shift

towards their use, as our platform would allow them

to do. Factors such as intra-team dynamics are

important in shaping the success of cross-functional

teams. Social cohesion within the team is important;

cross-functional teams must be cooperative in order

to achieve (Nakata). Working within the context of an

interdisciplinary student-faculty project would give

students the opportunity to learn how to cooperate

eectively once they enter the workforce.

Interdisciplinary Programs At Tech

The Scheller College of Business hosts the

Technological Innovation: Generating Economic

Results (TI:GER) program, which connects two MBA

students, two law students, and a PhD student whose

research is commercialized and brought to market.

The program seeks to innovate interdisciplinary

solutions to legal, economic, and regulatory issues that

often become obstacles in commercializing valuableresearch. Students in the program are given business

and legal mentors, benet from meeting with industry

leaders at biannual advisory board meetings, and are

able to engage in consulting projects at Georgia Techs

business incubator (ATDC).

Also within the College of Business, jointly with the

College of Engineering and the College of Computing,

is the Denning Technology and Management Program

(T&M). This program brings together undergraduate

students in the various elds of engineering and

business to learn the basics of each others academics

and ultimately work with corporate aliates on a real-

world problem they are facing. Students graduate the

program, which is structured around 22 credit hours,

with a minor in Engineering & Management.

Georgia Tech also supports interdisciplinary research

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Competitors Programs

Interdisciplinary programs already exist at a majorityof Georgia Techs peer institutions. However, these

programs are primarily ventures of colleges oering

an array of majors across the arts and sciences. The

colleges combine curricula to create a distinct major,

most commonly titled Interdisciplinary Studies.

Institutions oering this major, or an equivalent

one, include: Cornell, Johns Hopkins, MIT, NC State,

Northwestern, Penn State, Perdue, Stanford, Cal

Berkeley, UF, Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Michigan,

Minnesota, Texas at Austin, and Virginia Tech.

Carnegie Mellon also oers a similar program, butacross multiple colleges.

Other institutions oer programs that combine

numerous majors to collaborate with outside

organizations. A prime example is the Ponce Group

at CalTech, a partnership with NASAs Jet Propulsion

Laboratory. The group pools the expertise of

CalTechs various research departments to seek

evidence of extraterrestrial life.

Research programs are another focus ofinterdisciplinary eorts among Georgia Techs peer

institutions. MIT, Penn State, and Texas A&M oer

specic resources for interdisciplinary research,

drawing on talent across all colleges and majors.

UCLA employs a Vice Provost Interdisciplinary and

Cross-campus Aairs, who is tasked with working

with faculty and campus leadership to promote

interdisciplinary and cross-campus research.

for both undergraduate and graduate students. This

is facilitated through the Georgia Tech ResearchInstitute (GTRI), as well as through the departmental

research institutes, and the Undergraduate Research

Opportunities oce. Students can nd projects that

require expertise in a number of areas listed through

these organizations; however, no outlet currently

exists to support interdisciplinary projects outside of

research.

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Our Idea

We will start with a platform that students and faculty can form various projects that need people with

dierent experiences to come on board. For example, a Biomedical Engineering student may be working on

the development of a new device but needs to write a business plan in order to get a grant. They would turn to

this platform to seek the help of a Business student/faculty member. This is a great way to begin developing a

community of collaboration amongst the colleges that is currently lacking. It also provides a setting for people

to discuss ongoing research and projects that are looking to solve various problems. The next step would

be to integrate these projects into some form of credit towards a degree. We propose changing the Senior

Design projects to be required for all majors and to include multiple majors on every team. We believe these

experiences are extremely valuable not only for personal development but also for professional development.

Being able to work with people with dierent educational backgrounds and knowledge sets is extremelyimportant in the modern workforce. Finally, we would like to see a cultural shift in regards to how a student

views their major. We would like to move beyond being simply dened by a eld of study. We want Georgia Tech

students to go beyond the borders of their colleges and be dened by their passions.

Ultimately, we want to focus not just on bringing people together, but also to make the Georgia Tech degree

valuable in the sense that the graduates who leave here have the skills and the ability to make a profound

impact. And thats why we are proposing to create the University Multidisciplinary Exchange Network.

Phase 1:

Create a platorm that

would promote inter-

disciplinary projects

that the Georgia Tech

Community would use

Phase 2:Incorporate interdis-

ciplinary projects into

a capstone project

students need to com-

plete in order to obtain

their GATECH degree

Phase 3:Some kind o shit

in the college major

system

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What Georgia Tech Faculty Think

Upon presenting this idea to the Georgia Tech faculty, almost all of the faculty members that we spoke to were

very excited about our 3 phases. The goal was to interview two faculty members from each college as well as

directors from dierent programs such as the T&M program and the Scheller College of Business career services.

Unfortunately, some interviews were not conducted due to time constraints but the interviews that were

conducted gave a lot of insight into our projects.

We were able to conduct 8 interviews: 2 from the College of Computing, 1 from a librarian at the Georgia Tech

library, 1 from the College of Architecture, 1 from the Denning T&M Program, 1 from the Scheller College ofBusiness career services center, 1 from the College of Engineering and 1 from a professor at the Ivan Allen

College of Liberal Arts who also teaches in the Scheller College of Business.

Summary of the Interviews

1.) Would you use the platorm aspect and would you encourage your students to use it?

a. All proessors responded that they would use our platorm to do projects and encourage their stu

dents to use it. Several had skepticism about about whether students would participate without an

incentive. Weve spoken to many students who responded that they would work on projects i the

only thing they got out o it was experience to put on their resume.

2.) Do you know o any other similar platorms/programs like our idea?

a. A proessor rom the CoC told us that they use a similar platorm or research projects

b. The T&M program introduced us to a man who has created a similar idea or working proessionals.

c. The librarian alerted us to a similar system that is being used or the aculty at Georgia Tech.

d. Other proessors said that our idea sounded like a more ocial version o their networks- all the pro

essors know o dierent people within their own networks that they would approach in order to ask

their opinion on a certain subject. Our platorm would make that easier.

3.) What do you think o the capstone project idea?

a. All proessors were ascinated with the idea o an interdisciplinary capstone projectb. Several aculty members alerted us to the potential politics involved with creating this. All the col

leges have some sort o capstone course and believe that their capstone is the most benefcial or

their college. One proessor suggested creating an experimental class frst that would be interdisci

plinary.

4.) What do you think about our overall idea and do you have any suggestions or concerns about our project?

a. Many were excited overall about Georgia Tech becoming more interdisciplinary.

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b. All the proessors gave nitty-gritty advice on many aspects o our projects such as eatures to add to

the platorm and how to go about getting students and aculty involved.

5.) What do you think o the college major system in general?

a. All proessors acknowledged that the major system is currently necessary or how our workorce is

set up but several shared our concerns about the changing workorce and i set majors are the best

paths or all students.

What Georgia Tech Students Think

We conducted a survey with Georgia Tech students, asking them to rate our idea on a scale rom one to ten ( With one be-

ing the lowest rating). We received 183 responses rom student with balanced proportions rom each college major. 72% ostudents responded that they would participate in a project they could use on their resume. 86% o students surveyed sup-

ported the uMux project. Most o the students preerred short-term projects. These projects are great ways o testing out skills

and knowledge obtained in classes and are sae environments or students to make mistakes. These projects teach students to

interact with those outside o their school and how to communicate dierent knowledge sets to those with a dierent point o

view.

We ound the College o Architecture to be the most supportive o the uMux project. The College o Engineering students were

more likely to be interested in Long-term Projects, while the College o Computing had a tendency to be more interested in

Shorter-term Projects.

Exhibit 1: uMux Support Poll Results

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How we will Accomplish This

We believe that it is very important to establish an interdisciplinary mindset in the Georgia Tech community, which is why the

platorm is a vital step. We are currently speaking with a proessor at Southern Polytechnic State University who already has

the coding done or a platorm similar to the one we are looking to create- his was designed or people who are unemployed

and are looking or reelance IT projects to fll the gap in their resumes and to keep their skills up to date so that they remain

employable. We hope to be able to implement this at Georgia Tech or students. With the use o a comprehensive marketing

program aimed at the entrepreneurial groups on campus, we would like to see these projects take o and get

noticed by employers.

Once the employers are buzzing about these projects, we would like to be able to present our idea o earning credit or inter-

disciplinary projects. There seems to be several steps in this process. The frst would be to oer an experimental MGT 4803 classthat would be open to seniors rom all majors. We would have to recruit a aculty member to teach the class and students to

take it. Then, data about the experiences o the students would have to be gathered and analyzed and i the data is positive we

could then make it a ree elective. Should this class become popular, we could then begin discussions o creating a capstone

course that partners with employers who provide projects or interdisciplinary teams to tackle.

Conclusion

As employers continue to use the cross-unctional team model, it would be extremely benefcial or universities to prepare

their graduates to work with people in other disciplines. Our peer institutions are catching on but Georgia Tech has the chance

to be a leader amongst them by creating a program that is benefcial or graduates and businesses. Our platorm takes the

start-up spirit to heart and we hope it inspires Georgia Tech to take its successul and world-renowned programs and use them

to create solutions that will change the world.

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Appendix

To see survey data results, please visit:

http://bit.ly/ZDV4At

Student Survey Data

Faculty Interview Questions

1.) Would you use the platorm aspect and would you encourage your students to use it? (or non-ocial research)

2.) Do you know o any other similar platorms/programs like our idea?

3.) What do you think o the capstone project idea?

4.) What do you think about our overall idea and do you have any suggestions or concerns about our project?

5.) What do you think o the college major system in general?

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Work Cited

Conrad, C., Haworth, J., Millar, S.A Silent Success: Masters Education in the United

States. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993.

Hartigan, R., Smart New Degrees, U.S. News and World Report, April 9, 2001.

Hessels, L., Rijnsoever, F.Factors Associated with Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary

Research Collaboration. December 8, 2010.

Ainamo, Antti. Coordination Mechanisms In Cross-Functional Teams: A Product

Design Perspective. Journal Of Marketing Management 23.9/10 (2007): 841-860.

Ghobadi, S, and J DAmbra. Coopetitive Relationships In Cross-Functional Software

Development Teams: How To Model And Measure?. Journal Of Systems And

Software 85.5 (n.d.): 1096-1104.

Majchrzak, Ann, Philip H. B. More, and Samer Faraj. Transcending Knowledge

Differences In Cross-Functional Teams. Organization Science 23.4 (2012): 951- 970.

Nakata, Cheryl, and Subin Im. Spurring Cross-Functional Integration For Higher New

Product Performance: A Group Effectiveness Perspective. Journal Of Product Innovation

Management 27.4 (2010): 554-571.

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