Shun Takai
Northern Illinois University, IL·Education Research
Engineering students do much of their work in teams, but a bad team experience can leave lasting negative feelings about teamwork that follow them into the workplace. How instructors form teams strongly affects how members interact, how they work and what they learn.
- Fields
Education Research
Engineering
Social Science
- Topics
engineering education
teamwork
team formation
- Grants
- 1 known grant, last ended Sep 2026
What they work on
- Build a conceptual model that links team inputs, team processes and team outputs for engineering student design teams, and use it to define the traits of an ideal team.
- Collect two years of data from engineering students working in teams in regular classes, measuring inputs, processes and outputs with validated instruments.
- Build a regression model that links team input variables to desired outcomes, and use it to create a data-driven method for forming teams.
- Test whether better collaboration among team members improves both team performance and learning, using statistical analysis of classroom team data.
More about the research
This collaborative project with Rochester Institute of Technology asks how to form student teams that work well together and learn more.
Why it matters
Engineering instructors who assign team-based projects, labs and design courses could use a data-driven method for forming student teams. Better-formed teams may give students more positive and productive teamwork experiences. This could better prepare graduates for collaboration in professional engineering practice.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
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The school
Northern Illinois University: 3 labs on PI Pages, $34M a year on research, 134 research doctorates a year.
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