2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Navigating Institutional Opportunities and Challenges: Interdisciplinary Program Development for Product Design and Entrepreneurship

Presented at ENT-2: Bridging Faculty and Student Perspectives in Entrepreneurial Education

This paper presents a case study of the development of an interdisciplinary program in design, innovation, and entrepreneurship – a Bachelor of Science in Product Design and Entrepreneurship (PDEN) - at University of the Pacific. University of the Pacific is a medium-size, private, student-centered university with three campuses in California. The goal of this new program is for students to cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset by integrating diverse ideas and concepts across disciplines to generate innovative solutions to complex problems. Students will engage in user-centered design thinking, storytelling to communicate the value of their ideas, and collaborative teamwork to develop high-quality prototypes through iterative processes. They will also gain essential skills in market research, financial forecasting, and innovation, ensuring they can connect theory to practice in ways that benefit both society and the economy.

The development of this program required collaboration across a variety of disciplines in three academic units: (i) engineering and computer science; (ii) arts, humanities, and sciences, and (iii) business. It was led by a Faculty Advisory Board and coordinated with the Strategy and Enrollment Office, as well as the Curriculum Committees and Deans of each of the three academic units. In this paper, we reflect on the institutional opportunities and challenges of creating such an interdisciplinary curriculum.

The development required gaining faculty buy-in while navigating institutional structures and priorities, budget management, faculty compensation disparities, workload allocation across departments, as well as modifying existing courses to fit the new program based on content and prerequisites. For instance, a unique and challenging aspect of this effort was garnering endorsements from a diverse range of more than 15 academic programs in order to include their courses in the program. Some of the concerns departmental leaders raised included the potential increases in class sizes, frequency of courses offerings, faculty resources, and whether some courses needed significant realignment or had overlapping content with the PDEN program (which could be a concern for programs that may view PDEN as internal competition).

Despite these challenges this effort also presented significant opportunities. For instance, it led to the creation of new collaborative courses, the addition of new electives to existing programs, and the reinvigoration of the entrepreneurship area in the business school, which evoked enthusiasm for the new program. It also has the potential to foster more collaboration among faculty across disciplines in the future. In this paper, we will share lessons learned and recommendations for similarly structured institutions seeking to develop interdisciplinary innovation and entrepreneurship program models that bridge academic units.

Authors

Dr. Shelly Gulati http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3284-442X University of the Pacific [biography]

Dr. Shelly Gulati is Professor of Bioengineering and Assistant Dean for Interdisciplinary Programs, Teaching Excellence and Inclusion at University of the Pacific. She has been at Pacific since 2010. She received a BS in Chemical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University and a PhD in Bioengineering from University of California, Berkeley. She also spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow in London at Imperial College. Her research interests are in biomicrofluidics as well as engineering education. Her recent projects have emphasized mentorship of women and underrepresented students and creating engaging learning environments that promote students' sense of belonging, persistence, and success in engineering.
Dr. Sebastian Dziallas University of the Pacific [biography]

Sebastian Dziallas is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of the Pacific. He previously served as a founding faculty member at Fulbright University in Vietnam. He received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Kent and a B.S. in Engineering from Olin College of Engineering. His research interests in computing education research include using narrative methodologies to understand student experiences and exploring novel work-based learning approaches.
Dr. Mehdi Khazaeli University of the Pacific [biography]

Mehdi Khazaeli is an Associate Professor in School of Engineering and Computer Science at University of the Pacific. He also serves as Director of Pacificâ€™s Technological Innovation and Entrepreneurship (TIE) Program. He teaches courses in Building Info
Dr. Bidisha Burman http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4938-3658 University of the Pacific [biography]

Dr. Bidisha Burman (Ph.D. Louisiana State University) is a Visiting Professor of Marketing in the Eberhardt School of Business at the University of the Pacific. Prior to ESB, she has served as Associate Professor of Marketing at University of Mary Washington and Appalachian State University. Her research interests are pricing, advertising, consumer judgment and decision-making, services marketing, and sustainability marketing. Her work has been published in Journal of Business Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Product and Brand Management, Journal of Hospitality Marketing and Management, among others. She has recently served as co-program chair for Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) and currently serves on the editorial review board of the Journal of Consumer Marketing.
Dr. Maryam Heidaripour University of the Pacific [biography]

Maryam Heidaripour is an Assistant Professor of Design, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship at the University
of the Pacific. She holds a Ph.D. in Design from the Illinois Institute of Technology and an MBA in
General Management from the University of Tehran. She also spent two years as a Visiting Assistant
Professor at Indiana University Bloomington’s Department of Informatics. Her research interests include
design strategy, new venture development, and exploring future interactions with advanced energy technologies
to foster sustainable, equitable, and thriving communities.
Leili Javadpour University of the Pacific [biography]

Leili Javadpour is an Associate Professor in Business Analytics and Associate Dean at Eberhardt School of Business at University of the Pacific. She earned her PhD in Engineering Science from Louisiana State University in 2013. She holds a M.S. in Product Design and Management from University of Liverpool and a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Isfahan University of Technology. Her research focuses on data analytics and natural language processing in different areas of Business such as Marketing, Finance and Sports.

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 22, 2025, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 25, 2025

« View session