Teaching Integrated Product Development: Educational Innovation at Carnegie Mellon University

IN AN ACADEMIC WORLD that thrives on departmentalization, Craig Vogel, Jonathan Cagan, and John H. Mather buck the trend with an interdisciplinary course on product development that brings together industrial design, engineering, and marketing. Student teams put theory to the test as they respond to consumer research by designing and prototyping new products. The creativity-focused lessons in this exercise include developing effective communication skills, interpreting customer needs, and integrating issues of materials and production.