Competitive Placement of Engineering Students on Multiyear Project Teams

Multiyear, multidisciplinary service -oriented projects have become prevalent in engineering curricula, providing students opportunities to meet real world needs, apply what they learn in the classroom, and often go beyond the level of course material. Project teams are usually composed of students from more than one academic year, requiring an annual selection process to assign new students to existing teams. One challenge for such an approach is to balance student candidate interest with the skill -set needs of ongoing project teams by an effective means of team formation. Project team formation methods addressed in the literature have included automated assignment, random selection, an algorithmic approach and others including one that utilizes a mix of student and instructor inputs. The engineering department at Messiah College has explored a competitive placement approach that mimics the job search process students experience after graduation. During the first week of the semester, student team leaders post online job descriptions and make presentations to prospective students to market their teams. Prospective students write resumes and cover letters, submitting them to the teams of their choice. Student team members sort through these resumes, looking to add new team members with the skills and interests that will benefit their teams. At the end of the second week, a Job Fair is held with one-on-one interactions, interviews, and simulated "plant trips." The next few days bring a flurry of job offers, acceptances and rejections, with many of the same dilemmas found in a real job search, e.g., team leaders trying to decide how many offers to extend, or a prospective student wondering how long to wait before accepting a second choice offer, while hoping the first choice will materialize. Not only do student candidates and project team leaders get exposed to the dynamics of a real job search, but the competitive approach effectively matches student interest with project needs, where the selection process rests more fully in the hands of those who must live with the choices. This paper will describe details of the competitive placement approach, results of our experience, lessons learned and recommendations for others who wish to implement it.