Interdisciplinary Classes and Anthropology
(CSU, Fresno)
As students progress through their chosen path of higher learning they experience a strong focus on the major of their choice. This is very important for a student who is trying to become an expert in their field of study, but while doing this they work mainly with others in that field. Here at Fresno State University Professor Henry Delcore of the Anthropology Department, along with members of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Entrepreneurship Program, has developed a program that integrates multiple disciplines into one class. This program is very important for education as a whole because in reality most successful businesses and non profit organizations incorporate varieties of disciplines to achieve their goals.
This program focuses on developing a business from the ground up, utilizing the skills of anthropology, engineering and entrepreneurship. The business that I was involved in was called Alert Laundry Services. Our product was basically a device added to timed machines, in particular laundry machines, that alerts the user when the timer goes off. I, as the anthropologist, observed people doing laundry and recorded through written notes every detail I could observe of this redundant task. I reported my findings in to my teammates and significantly impacted the design of the product.