Lucrezia Cuen Paxson, Clinical Assistant Professor at the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication, is part of the interdisciplinary team awarded the Samuel H. and Patricia W. Smith Teaching and Learning Grant from the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education. The grant of $7,000 was awarded to the team today to support their proposal entitled “STEM-Oriented Alliance for Research (SOAR): An Educational Model for Interdisciplinary Project-Based Learning”.
Engineering, communication and business students are working together at WSU Everett under a merged coursework project launched this spring by Lucrezia Cuen Paxson, clinical assistant professor at the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication, Dr.Jacob Murray, program coordinator for electrical engineering, and Dr. Soobin Seo, assistant professor in the Carson College of Business.
Cuen Paxson believes that opportunities for interdisciplinary studies provides students with valuable exposure to real-world issues and promotes a growth mindset. “As we continue into the fourth industrial revolution in the midst of a digital explosion, we’re discovering that in the workplace, more people who were not in subfields related to science and technology are being forced into them,” she said. “Those relationships and interactions are no longer optional, they are mandatory.”
The SOAR team is currently working with multiple corporate partners to build, market and promote various projects. Projects completed through SOAR are sponsored by, overseen and delivered to local industry.