Complex challenges require interdisciplinary solutions

All of the students are required to take a capstone class their senior year. But typically, they've always been within their own department. And a few years ago, we launched an interdisciplinary class where students from different departments in the College of Engineering can all work on a single project together. We are working with a nonprofit called Quality of Life Plus, who connects engineering students with wounded veterans to try to make a device to make their life better. So the students are working to modify this sled so that people with either arm or leg amputations can get involved in this sport of para skeleton. When I come up with an idea and I say, Okay, this is how this weight tray will be designed and maybe we can weld it here and here and cut it this way, Ben, for example, is an industrial and systems engineering major, so he can tell me, Oh, I don't think that design is gonna work. So we're able to provide insight to each other that we wouldn't have if we were on a team of all the same background. The initial benefit is to students. So they learn how to work with people outside of their own field, and companies are more interested in hiring students that have had teamwork experiences outside of their own specialty. I was looking at the different projects that were, like, gonna work with a client directly and with, like, what the client was. I am actually disabled, like, partially disabled. And so, after reading this project, I was really excited about it because it's fun to get to use my skills in a way that kind of gives back to my community.