Interdisciplinary projects

Within firms, the hybrid or matrix concept has become increasingly fashionable in pharmaceutical companies. Project teams are created that comprise membership from departments with specific technical, organizational, and management expertise. Such teams form and dissolve as the need arises. In principle, advantages of the matrix structure include cross-disciplinary enrichment of the team s activities and crossfertilization of expertise. Disadvantages of the matrix system include a relative lack of professional development for specific technical expertise for each team member, the potential for cross-departmental rivalry, and competition for each team member s time based on the needs of the interdisciplinary project versus those of his/her technical "home" department (Verona and Ravasi 2003). These multi-functional teams have the potential to increase bureaucracy and delay innovation. At least on a small scale, it may be better to solve a problem with two people rather than with ten. 

In the first place, I would like to dedicate a great thank you to Prof. Dr. Dirk M. Guldi and Prof. Dr. Timothy Clark for giving me the opportunity to accomplish the present PhD thesis as an interdisciplinary project between the two institutes of Physical Chemistry I and the Computer Chemie Centrum. With their continual interest and assistance from both ends—the experimental and theoretical—I was able to gather a very detailed scientific background for the investigated processes and their various characterization methods. By far more important is the fact that, whenever we had the chance to leave the scientific fields, our conversations turned out to be even more motivating and fruitful. 

Juhl, L., K. Yearsley, and A. Silva (1997) Interdisciplinary project-based learning through an environmental water quality study. /. Chem. Educ. 74, 1431-1433. 

The WWC laboratory program, developed under the auspices of an NSF grant (DUE No. 96-53080), was designed to provide explicit examples of how chemistry is used by professionals who are not educated and trained as chemists per se. The program serves as an excellent example of an academic interdisciplinary project that was successful as it was the result of the efforts of a network of faculty in different disciplines and from different institutions. The primary goal of the WWC laboratory program is to develop an understanding of how... 

Barmark, Jan, and Goran Wallen. 1980. The development of an interdisciplinary project. In The Social Process of Scientific Investigation, edited by Karin D. Knorr, Roger Krohn, and Richard Whitley, 221-235. Dordrecht, Boston, and London D. Reidel. 

Juhl, L. Yearsley, K. Silva, A. J. Interdisciplinary Project-Based Learning through an Environmental Water Quality Study, J. Chem. Educ. 1997, 74, 1431-1433. 

In 1942 Calvin married Genevieve Jemtegaard. After their first child Elin s death, related to Rh factor incompatibility, Calvin and his wife were part of an interdisciplinary project that investigated the etiology of the disease. They helped to determine the composition and structure of the Rh factor, named elinin for their daughter. 

The future utility of chemical genetics will depend upon access to libraries. Most current collections of diverse molecules are privately owned and unlikely ever to be widely available. Thus the future of this field probably lies in the hands of the synthetic chemists, hanging on their willingness to participate more deeply in interdisciplinary projects and develop custom libraries at affordable prices. 

In 2008, Andrew Jamison was drawn into the process, as a contributor to the project that became Engineering in Context. But even before that book was published, Jamison, with Christensen and several other contributors to these volumes, asked the Danish Strategic Research Council to fund a four-year Program of Research on Opportunities and Challenges in Engineering Education in Denmark (PROCEED). This ambitious, interdisciplinary project took place between 2010 and 2013. 

Interdisciplinary. Projects often require input from a variety of technical fields, use many forms of communication, and profit from the creative arts. 

One example of business-driven PI investment is that at Degussa, announced in 2005 (Hahn, 2005). The Project House concept has already been applied at Degussa in areas such as nano-materials and catalysis, and in this instance an interdisciplinary project team of 15 with a budget of 15 million euros was established in Germany to operate from the beginning of 2005 until the end of 2007. In collaboration... 

Barrett s (1998) jazz band metaphor offers seven principles that help create contexts that require an improvisatory mindset [for] interdisciplinary project teams formed to address a specific problem (Barrett, 1998, p. 617). We project these principles onto the dynamics of engineering practice and conjecture how they may help to construct a highly effective ba for successful engineering problem-solving. 

The interdisciplinary project week began with the phase of sensitization to various aspects of thinking in models and of the model notion. For example, students were introduced to the characteristics of models with the help of self-made models (Figure 3). Thus, they would also come to know the problems with regard to models (such as for example problems of modelling and the art of model building by constructing models of objects). 

The learning effects suggest that it is necessary to discuss and reflect on the nature of utilized models as well as on the process of aheady modelling during introduction of a particle model in secondary science education. Furthermore, we can assume that during an interdisciplinary project week the majority of students will develop a stable model competency in the area of the micro-world. 

Richter and Paretti (2009) analyzed papers in the International Journal of Engineering Education, the European Journal of Engineering Education since 2000 and the Conference Proceedings from 2003-2006 of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and found an abundance of descriptions of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary projects and courses. However, they identified a lack of scholarly work on student learning and performance, on "measurable learning objectives or... how exactly faculty use these projects, courses, and curricula to teach students the requisite skills. (32)... 

Skates, G. W. (2003) Interdisciplinary project working in engineering educatiim . In European Journal of Engineering Education, 28(2), 187-201. 

Ivins, J.R. (1997) Interdisciplinary project work practice makes perfect IEEE Trans. Educ., 1997, 40(3), 179-183. 

Miranda, E. R. (1993). Cellular automata music an interdisciplinary project. Interface (now called Journal of New Music Research), 22, 3-21. 

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