Interdisciplinary Student Competition for California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo

Cal Poly has a reputation for producing some of the best qualified graduates in their respective fields of study. While this is very important, curricular activities involving collaboration between students within the same college are limited (excluding same major). Beyond that, collaboration opportunities across colleges are even more rare. When graduates enter the workforce, many are thrust into highly collaborative environments across various disciplines. Industry professionals have shown a strong desire for young people who have had exposure to realistic problems and experience working with other professions outside of their own field of expertise. The question needing answering is, would an interdisciplinary competition benefit students & industry? Beyond that, are students interested in such a competition? Three separate surveys were sent out to Cal Poly students. One survey going to each of the targeted colleges. The findings show that students recognize the benefit a competition like this would provide to themselves and the industry. The results also show that the majority of students are interested in such a competition