Abstract
Abstract In an effort to raise students’ awareness of the engineering opportunities and responsibilities associated with the aging of the U.S. population, the University of St. Thomas hosted a 3-day intensive, multi-disciplinary retreat for undergraduate and graduate students on “Design for an Aging Population.” The retreat, organized by professors in Psychology and Engineering, provided crash courses in aging and the design process, and incorporated a team design project. This paper will discuss the retreat schedule, as well as results from pre- and post-retreat interest surveys. Of particular note, the surveys showed a significant increase in non-engineering majors expressing an interest in taking an engineering course. Additionally, there was a pronounced increase post-retreat in engineering students reporting a desire to work on projects with students from other majors.