This paper summarizes the experience of creating a multidisciplinary research group on microelectronics and microsystems at Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica involving professors and undergraduate students with seed capital from industry and government to start the first microrobotics project of our Costa Rica, the Spiderbot Project, with the goal of creating a new field of high technology research at our university and introduce students to these fields in a multidisciplinary, participative and hands-on approach by involving them in the research as a complementary way of learning. Students learn through voluntary participation in research, outreach and training, in contrast with traditional approaches relying only in inclusion of new courses in the engineering curricula. With this approach, students develop both technical and soft skills, learn to research, and gain the ability to communicate technology to technical and non-technical audiences. The results of this approach to enhance the experience of studying engineering are discussed.
