According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), food manufacturing accounts for 14 percent of all U.S. manufacturing employees and is one of the largest manufacturing sectors. However, there are only a few food-related programs offered at colleges and universities per state, on average—and notably, a majority of these programs are science-oriented. Currently, there are no food-related B.S. programs in Milwaukee, which is the largest city in the state of Wisconsin and known for its brewing traditions. The U.S. food industry is facing a pressing problem due to the shortage of highly qualified graduates to transform this “low-technology” manufacturing industry. To fill these unmet needs, since 2019, MSOE started offering a Food Engineering course for preparing non-food engineering undergraduate students working in and transforming the food industry with an entrepreneurial mindset. Students have been required to design a food product/process but the outcomes are not optimal. To better incorporate EM in this course, a project with two modules have been developed. 

Module I - Ideation of a novel food product/process design

The lecture topics related to this module include an introduction to MSOE mindset, food products/processing processes design, and trends of the food industry. To deliver these topics, besides traditional lectures, professional speakers will be invited. MSOE mindset (introduced at the beginning of the project) is an assimilation of the Servant-Leader Mindset, the Entrepreneurial Mindset, and MSOE’s new strategic plan, mission, vision, values and commitments. Professionals (such as FaB (Food and Beverage) Wisconsin) working in the food industry are invited to give a presentation on the trends of the food industry, especially in Wisconsin. Moreover, professor Gene Wright (MSOE RSOB) delivers lectures on Lean LaunchPad – a customer discovery and value proposition determination (Please see content folder - Instructor Resources). In the end, students will have the necessary tools to identify the opportunity(ies) in the food industry and validate their ideas (Connection and Create Value).

During this module, students work in groups to come up with their ideas and validate their ideas through interviews, literature searches, etc..

Module II- Realization of a novel food product/process design

This module is the continuation of the previous module. The major course topic of this module is food products/processes design. Once students generate their ideas through Module I, they will be assigned to graduate students of Food Science and Engineering at the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology (USST). Graduate students in China will serve as resources for MSOE students to design food products/processes based on their ideas. This is one of the uniqueness of this module as students need to communicate with graduate students in a different country. The USST’s School of Medical Instrument and Food Engineering consists of four food-related second-level doctoral disciplines including 'food science', 'grain, oil and vegetable protein engineering', 'agricultural product processing and storage engineering', and 'aquatic product processing and storage engineering' and a first-level master disciplines in “food science and Engineering'. Such collaboration has been established recently.

The students are required to have at least three online communications between MSOE and USST students via email and video conferencing (communication assistance will be provided if needed) will be required. At the same time, the students work on the design to realize their ideas. Prototyping (making) is highly encouraged, which is another uniqueness of this module. Designed will be presented to a panel composed of business and food industry professionals.

This module addresses both Connections (gathering information from many sources) and Create Value (design based on the identified opportunity(ies)) components. What's more, the module reinforces "Collaboration" and "Inclusion".

Reflection: An anonymous student survey will be conducted to obtain feedback on what lecture information could be added or removed as well as additional support that could be provided from the instructor if any.