Learning Factory: Industry-Partnered Active Learning, The

Journal of Engineering Education, Jan 2008 by Lamancusa, John S, Zayas, Jose L, Soyster, Allen L, Morell, Lueny, Jorgensen, Jens

UPRM's Learning Factory evolution demonstrates the role of the university in workforce and economic development. Enabled by significant industrial support, UPRM's Learning Factory evolved to a full-fledged electronics manufacturing facility. In 2002 Hewlett-Packard and other industrial partners made a significant upgrade to the facilities with the establishment of real-life state-of-the-art surface mount technology production line to provide services to local companies in the electronics sector. The facility is now known as the UPRM Model Factory, since it aims at providing students with an exemplary manufacturing experience in terms of quality, delivery, continuous improvement, and productivity (Resto et al., 2006). Students begin their experience by attending a Printed Circuit Assembly course and then are recruited to work in the factory for pay and academic credit. After the experience, students are expected to participate in internship opportunities at companies in the electronics sector. The UPRM Model Factory initiative is part of the Puerto Rico TechnoEconomic Corridor effort.

From its inception, the UPRM's Learning Factory team emphasized cross-disciplinary activities. The team included faculty from the Colleges of Engineering and Business Administration. Later, the team expanded to include faculty from the Colleges of Arts and Sciences and Agriculture. Interdisciplinary student teams worked on hands-on projects; moreover, it was possible to achieve vertical integration in the more advanced and specialized projects with undergraduate students collaborating with graduate students. An interdisciplinary faculty team mentored the students. At its peak in the mid-1990s, UPRM's team had more than twenty faculty members-spanning three colleges, Engineering, Business Administration, and Arts and Sciences-working in the various aspects of the implementation of the Learning Factory. The success and energy of the endeavor spread quickly across campus. As a result the Learning Factory curriculum served as model and benchmark to design and implement other multidisciplinary programs at UPRM. These include the NASA Remote Sensing/GIS (Buxeda et al., 2002) and Industrial Biotechnology programs. Both of these programs integrated critical elements in the Learning Factory model, namely, strategic planning, outcomes assessment, and faculty team development, ensuring stakeholders' ownership of process through a common vision and mission.

A successful and unforeseen legacy of the Learning Factory has been the development and implementation of an assessment strategy at UPRM's College of Engineering. UPRM's College of Engineering developed its ABET EC2000 strategy based on the Learning Factory experience. UPRM's ABET accreditation visit team commented: "The institution's systematic and innovative effort to introduce the culture of outcomes-based assessment to the College of Engineering community is especially noteworthy" (Sharma et al., 2003). As a result of these experiences, UPRM has expanded this quality assurance and outcomes assessment effort to the university level and has begun the process of qualifying for the Malcolm-Baldrige quality criteria.