Q: What do a company that makes watches, a company that makes handheld devices to steady camcorders and a business that provides after-school educational activities for children have in common?
A: All are beneficiaries of a joint pilot program in entrepreneurship being carried out by CSUN’s College of Engineering and Computer Science and College of Business and Economics.
The program, which was launched in fall 2010, brings engineering and business students together in teams to work as consultants to local small businesses that have been referred by the Wells Fargo Center in the College of Business and Economics. For its inaugural term, 15 undergraduate engineering students who were enrolled in MSE 415, Product Design, and 11 graduate business students who were enrolled in an honors course, Business 691, Small Business Consulting, worked together in cross-disciplinary teams to help the three businesses.
“Engineers need to understand the business of product design and how businesses run, and the business students need to understand the engineering side,” says Mark Rajai, assistant professor of manufacturing and engineering management, who is teaching the engineering component of the program. “In real life, employees work together in product development and other aspects of business. This kind of program has been done in several other universities because it’s a natural marriage of understanding between the two groups.”
The students are very excited because the program gives them a chance to work on real products in a real-world situation, meeting with the owners and various employees of the companies. For the watch company, the engineering students helped to design new watches, and the business students assisted with marketing. The team working with the camcorder accessory company helped to redesign a cheaper version of the product, and those working with the after-school education company helped to streamline operations.
The two colleges initiated the program last spring, with faculty meeting throughout the summer to work on a joint syllabus. Funding from the Wells Fargo Center and the Ernie Schaeffer Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the College of Engineering and Computer Science helped get it off the ground, and the project will continue in the spring with graduate engineering students and another cohort of graduate business students.
“We hope the joint program will be the norm and can continue every year,” Rajai says. “We’re teaching the students how to collaborate. We want to mimic the real world and prepare them for the real job market.”