| Multidisciplinary |
As business practice evolves in the 21st century, employees are valued not only for what they know, but also by how well they can collaborate with individuals from different disciplines. Research by Corporate Design Foundation conducted during 2003 with a group of leading corporations and industry experts confirms that cross-functional teams are universally acknowledged as best practice for innovative product design and development. With some notable exceptions, current university courses in business education have lagged behind with isolated instruction in defined subject areas.As a leader in multidisciplinary education, Corporate Design Foundation seeks to increase the number of multidisciplinary courses that bring together faculty and students from business, design and other disciplines. CDF has conducted research, published results and provided assistance and resources to faculty and universities that offer these courses. In 1991, with funding from IBM, Corporate Design Foundation awarded grants to business school faculty for a number of projects, including support to Carnegie Mellon to offer the multidisciplinary course "Design, Manufacturing and Marketing of New Products." In 1993, with funding from Nike, CDF continued to sponsor multidisciplinary courses at universities, including University of Oregon for the design and business collaboration pilot program to establish multidisciplinary product development teaching. In 1993 with support from NEA, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Thompson Consumer Electronics, and the National Consortium for Technology in Business, the Foundation conducted the Collaborative Product Development & Interdisciplinary Education Conference which lead to the publication of CDF's landmark report, "Teaching Collaborative Product Development" in 1994. Through the generous funding of the DaimlerChrysler Corporation Fund, 1995-2002, CDF has continued to collaborate with faculty in the development and teaching of these courses. This funding also allowed the Foundation to conduct research and surveys in 2003 of course faculty and students to identify essential elements for successful multidisciplinary courses. The Final report on this research will be available 15 May 2004. Today, the Foundation is working to utilize its extensive experience in developing multidisciplinary product development courses to establish courses in two new areas: workplace design and sustainable design . CDF is actively seeking corporate and university partners in these ventures. Interested faculty should contact Corporate Design Foundation directly at 617.350.7097 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . Below is a list of schools that have established multidisciplinary courses, with links to course descriptions and additional information:
Arizona State University
Carnegie Mellon University
Columbia Business School & Parsons School of Design
Massachusetts Institute of Technology & Rhode Island School of Design
North Carolina State University
University of California, Berkeley & California College of the Arts
University of Cincinnati
University of Illinois, Chicago
University of Michigan |