Effects of Interdisciplinary Education on Technology-Driven Application Design

• Published in: IEEE transactions on education Vol. 54; no. 3; pp. 462 - 470
• Main Authors: Tafa, Z., Rakocevic, G., Mihailovic, D., Milutinovic, V.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01-08-2011; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Biomedicine; Capability maturity model integration (CMMI); Computers; Design engineering; Education; Engineering; Foreign Countries; Hardware; Health Services; healthcare; informatics; Information Science; interdisciplinary; Interdisciplinary Approach; Knowledge engineering; Learning; Mathematical models; Medical services; Multidisciplinary; Praxis; Serbia; Software; Students; Technical Education; Technology Uses in Education; Trains; transdisciplinary; Wireless sensor networks; wireless sensor networks (WSNs); Workshops; Serbia
• DOI: 10.1109/TE.2010.2080359
• EISSN: 1557-9638
• ISSN: 0018-9359

This paper describes the structure and the underlying rationale of a new course dedicated to capability maturity model integration (CMMI)-directed design of wireless sensor networks (WSNs)-based biomedical applications that stresses: 1) engineering-, medico-engineering-, and informatics-related issues; 2) design for general- and special-purpose systems; and 3) the creation of synergistic effects that enable formation of entrepreneurial multidisciplinary teams able to organize and implement the development of these health-related pervasive computing applications. Formal education so far still focuses on treating only strictly separated and specialized topic areas. However, as the need for cooperation and mutual learning between students oriented toward different fields grows, the need for a multidisciplinary educational approach becomes more and more important. For a technical education to be complete, it is no longer enough to train scientists and engineers solely in technical areas. In development and implementation of technology-driven applications, multidisciplinary issues should be properly addressed in the academic sense. The interdisciplinary understanding and synergy achieved are tested through examinations and workshops. The transdisciplinary knowledge improvement is also statistically evaluated, using a system of metrics developed experimentally.