An Interdisciplinary Certificate in Product Realization: meeting the challenges of industry and the engineering criteria

A steady stream of technological advances and business needs have significantly altered the landscape of engineering education and training in the US. Although development of fundamental analytical skills is still an essential component of instruction, the industrial marketplace demands that graduating engineers learn a diverse range of new and emerging technologies. A crucial area where the knowledge of emerging technology is essential is the design, development, and creation of new products. Traditional engineering curricula are not designed to increase student proficiency in state-of-the-art product creation techniques. Specifically, engineering education has not adequately addressed the essential areas of collaborative design, entrepreneurship, marketing, and state-of-the-art product creation techniques. The University of Pittsburgh has addressed this critical issue with the introduction of an Interdisciplinary Certificate in Product Realization. This paper describes the Certificate and how it focuses on meeting many of the engineering criteria.