Open-ended Practical Projects Improve Preparedness of Undergraduate Students for Aerospace Industry

The Aviation Technology Department in the College of Technology at Purdue University has been effective at graduating students who have mastered the technical knowledge and concepts taught in traditional academic settings. Through a well-established combination of courses, the program has also exposed its students to a variety of materials and processes that gives them practical knowledge about aerospace materials, sheet metal fabrication and repair, corrosion, heat treatment, and painting. Over the years, this approach has provided graduates with the knowledge and skills they’ve needed as they entered the job market after graduation. However, in recent years the program has gone through an extensive curriculum change designed to produce graduates who have the skills needed to be immediately productive in entry-level positions, and to move quickly to higher-level positions. This is accomplished by introducing project-based courses in which students are tasked to solve industry-like problems using Six Sigma tools, work in teams, and collaboration with companies and with instructors and students at other universities. Under this new paradigm, students do not just follow their professors’ instructions - they attempt to solve real-world open-ended problems with a range of possible solutions. This paper will provide some details and outcomes of this approach.