Contribution: The study discusses the relationship between interpersonal trust and team performance in an exploratory way. The empirical data is collected from students in Electrical Engineering Practice Training Course classes to evaluate their team performance.

Background: Interpersonal trust within a team plays a critical role in solving problems and enhancing group performance effectiveness.

Research Question: Does interpersonal trust within a team have an impact on team performance? Can interpersonal trust between teammates be improved?

Design/Approach: This research presents a case study of 132 electrical engineering university students in China. The students worked in teams completing six simulation experiments in a semester.

Findings: The teams always with permanent teammates had the highest level of interpersonal trust and performed the best and the teams always with tentative teammates had the lowest level of trust interpersonal trust and performed worse and worse while the teams whose members were fixed by the instructor increased their interpersonal trust quickly and performed better and better over time.

Conclusions: The higher the interpersonal trust within a team, the better the team performance; low initial interpersonal trust within a team can be promoted through intervention.