IBE Courses

Catalog Description

IBE 010 Integrated Business and Engineering Freshman Seminar (1) Fall Semester
Introduction to the various business and engineering professions through a series of presentations and demonstrations offered by faculty and business and industry leaders. Emphasis is on the diversity of business and engineering career opportunities and the associated curricular choices. Other topics include leadership, team building and career planning. Students are required to create their web page and post their four-year curriculum plan and an updated resume. Open only to first-year students in the Integrated Business and Engineering Honors Program.

Objectives

The principle objectives of the course are to introduce the IBE Honors Program and to encourage students to "think big" as they plan both their four or five years at Lehigh and their career path after graduation.

Teaching Approach

The department chair from each of the various engineering and business majors makes a presentation designed to acquaint students with his or her particular area as a potential major within the IBE Program. Since students must select a major from either engineering or business in the spring semester, these presentations are invaluable. In the case of the engineering departments, lab tours are required.

Other Lehigh faculty and staff conduct seminars dealing with topics such as leadership, team building and career planning. IBE students are encouraged to become campus leaders either in their living group, their sports team, a club or some other campus group. The leadership seminar helps students understand the very different ways people can be "leaders" in an organization. Since much of the integrated course work within the IBE Honors Program involves students working in teams, the team buidling seminar is good preparation for understanding how teams need to function if a project is to be completed.  Students are also required to post to their personal web page an updated resume.

Special Opportunities

IBE students have the opportunity to learn from those who not only "talk the talk" but who, more importantly, also "walk the walk". Successful business practitioners are invited to campus to speak with the IBE students. These talks are usually quite informal with pizza and plenty of opportunity for Q & A. Since Fall 2000, our guests have included Mr. Jeffrey Luker (Lehigh '76), Senior Partner, Accenture; Dr. Michael Zisman (Lehigh '70), CEO, Lotus Development Corp.; Mr. Pete Musser (Lehigh '49), CEO, Safeguard Scientifics, Inc.; Mr. Jeffrey L. Kenner (Lehigh '65), President, Kenner & Co.; Dr. Steven K. Kreider (Lehigh '79) Morgan Stanley-Dean Witter and (formerly) Cincinnati Bengals Football Team; and George N. Kledaras (Lehigh '87), President, Javelin Technologies.

Catalog Description

IBE 050 Integrated Business and Engineering Freshman Workshop (3) spring
Introduction to how business and engineering activities create value with a focus on innovation, design and the business value chain. Introduction to analytical tools, modeling and simulation techniques used in business and engineering applications. By taking apart products and the companies that make them, students develop skills in such areas as competitive strategy, marketing mix, financial modeling, organization of the supply chain, virtual (computer) modeling, engineering drawing, development of technical specifications, testing and measurement. Open only to students in the Integrated Business and Engineering Honors Program.

Objectives

The principle objective of the course is to introduce how businesses and engineering activities create value, with a focus on innovation, design and the business value chain. The course also introduces analytic tools and modeling and simulation techniques for business and engineering applications. By taking apart products and the companies that make them, students will develop skills in and basic functional ability to undertake: analysis of customer needs, competitive strategy and marketing mix; financial modeling; organization of the supply chain; as well as virtual (computer) modeling; engineering drawing; development of technical specifications; testing and measurement; brainstorming; new concept generation, screening and selection; and overall business planning. Students will also improve their written, oral and graphical communication skills and become better decision makers when facing unstructured, uncertain and ill-defined problems.Teaching Approach

The pedagogy of the course emphasizes active, participatory and team-based inquiry. The instructor has quite high expectations of students in the course, so to the extent possible he minimizes lecturing and maximizes hands-on or, better yet, brains-on activities. This means that rather than lecturing about and repeating what you can independently read about in the textbook, the instructor simply expects that students will have read it and are prepared during class and their team meetings to participate in thorough, joint, exploration of the topics at hand. The instructor uses an approach similar to the style of senior or graduate seminars with faculty mentoring rather than the usual lecture/homework/exam introductory course for freshmen.

Results

Since its inception, the IBE students have found the workshop challenging in the beginning yet rewarding in the end. Each year the workshop has had a different industry theme: toys, sporting goods, intelligent clothing, USB port devices, and devices to aid the mobility of senior citizens. Several of the student teams thought their product concept had enough merit that they continued on their own (some with outside funding) to try to bring their ideas to market.

Catalog Description

IBE 150 Integrated Business and Engineering Sophomore Laboratory (1) fall
A series of cases that integrate elements of business and engineering. Example topics include, but are not limited to, introduction to cost benefit analysis, introduction to modeling and optimization, team dynamics, and international negotiation and joint ventures. Oral presentations and written reports. Open only to students in the Integrated Business and Engineering Honors Program.

Details

The sophomore lab currently features integrated cases taught by Professors Dick Brandt, Rich Titus and Sam Weaver. Prof. Brandt was formerly an executive with Lucent Technologies and is the Director of Lehigh's Global Village. Prof. Titus was formerly with Ingersoll-Rand and was formerly a lecturer in the Department of Management at Lehigh. He is a PhD candidate at the Pennsylvania State University. Prof. Weaver was formerly with Hershey Foods and is a member of the Perella Department of Finance at Lehigh.

Catalog Description

IBE 250 Integrated Business and Engineering Junior Laboratory (1) fall
A semester-long simulation game in which interdisciplinary teams of IBE students compete against each other. Topics include market analysis, working capital management, capital budgeting, raising long-term capital, plant location, and inventory control. Oral presentations and written reports. Open only to students in the Integrated Business and Engineering Honors Program.

Objective

This a “simulation” course taught using a hands-on approach that attempts to integrate elements of business and engineering. It is a required one-credit course during the junior year that helps students see how decisions traditionally made in engineering have a business component and vice versa. The designers of IBE felt that it was important that each IBE cohort group share a one-credit course in the junior year to maintain group cohesion.

Catalog Descriptions

IBE 380 Integrated Business and Engineering Capstone Project I (3) Spring
IBE students work in cross-disciplinary teams of 5 to 6 business and engineering majors with a faculty mentor on the marketing, financial and economic planning, and technical and economic feasibility of actual new product concepts initiated by the course’s corporate sponsors. These sponsors are incubator start-up firms to ensure that the projects have both business and engineering elements. Written reports and oral presentations to sponsors and invited venture capitalists are required. Open only to students in the Integrated Business and Engineering Honors Program.

IBE 385 Integrated Business and Engineering Capstone Project II (3) Fall
IBE students continue to work with the detailed design including the fabrication and testing of working prototypes of their new products designed in IBE Capstone Project I course. In addition to the technical design of the products, detailed financial and marketing plans are required. Written reports and oral presentations to sponsors and invited venture capitalists are required. Open only to students in the Integrated Business and Engineering Honors Program.

Objective

The principal objective of the two-semester, six-credit capstone design course is to use cross-disciplinary teams of IBE business and engineering majors to provide solutions to actual "real-world" problems raised by our corporate sponsors. The course is to addresses technical issues in a business context from an entrepreneurial perspective.  Students will apply analytic tools and modeling and simulation techniques to business and engineering applications to meet the needs of their individual. Previous corporate sponsors include:

• Cescaphe Event Group, a boutique wedding planning service
• County Seat Spirits, a craft destillery
• Boeing - American Helicopter Muesum, a flight simulator
• Chatham Financial, a global financial expansion
• FinAbility, a crowdfund to fight domestic violence

During the first semester, students work in teams of 5 to 6 students on the marketing, financial and economic planning, and technical and economic feasibility of new product concepts initiated by the corporate sponsors.

During the second semester, the teams continue with the detailed design, fabrication and testing of working prototypes of their new product. In addition to the technical design of the products, detailed financial and marketing plans are required.

The course is run similarly to the way a business would run their product development teams. By abandoning the familiar "lecture/homework/exam" format that many students are familiar with, the course stresses a more participatory and hands-on approach to learning. By designing new products and developing the companies that will make them, students will expand their skills in: analysis of customer needs, competitive strategy and marketing mix; financial modeling; organization of the supply chain; as well as virtual (computer) modeling; engineering drawing; development of technical specifications; prototyping: testing and measurement; brainstorming; new concept generation, screening and selection; and overall business planning. Students will also improve their written, oral and graphical communication skills and become better decision makers when facing unstructured, uncertain and ill-defined problems.