TY - JOUR
T1 - Creating an agile ECE learning environment through engineering clinics
AU - Jansson, Peter M.
AU - Ramachandran, Ravi P.
AU - Schmalzel, John L.
AU - Mandayam, Shreekanth A.
N1 - Funding Information:
Upper-division (junior and senior) clinics are generally product-driven or research-based with external (industry or government) sponsorship as a desired objective. Every engineering professor is the primary supervisor of at least two projects. Six hours per week are assigned for students to work on their project and meet with their professor. Depending on the project, students work in computer labs, undergraduate labs, and/or research labs directed by their professor. Each project team has between two to four students. Examples of sponsored product development projects include the building of a low-cost solar lantern [26], a crash notification system [27], and a robotic arm for transferring compact discs to a device that tests for quality [28]. Students on research-based clinic projects work with graduate students and faculty members. This has led to undergraduate students publishing papers [29], [30] and being motivated to go to graduate school. Over the past eight years, an average of 53% of Rowan undergraduate students have proceeded to graduate school, some at Rowan and others at top schools in the United States. Students have also participated in clinic projects aimed at curriculum development efforts funded through the NSF CCLI program. One example is the development of a Web-based interactive simulation tool to teach engineering economics [31].
PY - 2010/8
Y1 - 2010/8
N2 - To keep up with rapidly advancing technology, numerous innovations to the electrical and computer engineering (ECE) curriculum, learning methods and pedagogy have been envisioned, tested, and implemented. It is safe to say that no single approach will work for all of the diverse ECE technologies and every type of learner. However, a few key innovations appear useful in keeping undergraduate students motivated to learn, resilient to technology evolution, and oriented amid the overload of new information and ECE applications. Engineering clinics, similar to their medical clinic counterparts, provide project-based experiences within the core of an ECE education that enable transformation of the entire curriculum toward an outcomes-oriented, student-centered, total-quality environment. Clinics and project-based learning approaches build skills that give the students confidence and motivation to continuously self-learn and adapt as the technologies around them give way to new, more effective paradigms. Perhaps more importantly, engineering clinic experiences provide numerous opportunities for students to experience the holism of true engineering problem-solving approaches and the ranges of potential technology solutions. This paper reviews the clinic innovations that will enable ECE education to become more effective in the midst of the present plethora of information and technology. Assessment results are provided and are very encouraging. This paper concludes that agile learning environments, created to graduate engineers who can be rapidly productive in the professional and research worlds, are enhanced by clinic and/or project-based learning experiences in the ECE curriculum.
AB - To keep up with rapidly advancing technology, numerous innovations to the electrical and computer engineering (ECE) curriculum, learning methods and pedagogy have been envisioned, tested, and implemented. It is safe to say that no single approach will work for all of the diverse ECE technologies and every type of learner. However, a few key innovations appear useful in keeping undergraduate students motivated to learn, resilient to technology evolution, and oriented amid the overload of new information and ECE applications. Engineering clinics, similar to their medical clinic counterparts, provide project-based experiences within the core of an ECE education that enable transformation of the entire curriculum toward an outcomes-oriented, student-centered, total-quality environment. Clinics and project-based learning approaches build skills that give the students confidence and motivation to continuously self-learn and adapt as the technologies around them give way to new, more effective paradigms. Perhaps more importantly, engineering clinic experiences provide numerous opportunities for students to experience the holism of true engineering problem-solving approaches and the ranges of potential technology solutions. This paper reviews the clinic innovations that will enable ECE education to become more effective in the midst of the present plethora of information and technology. Assessment results are provided and are very encouraging. This paper concludes that agile learning environments, created to graduate engineers who can be rapidly productive in the professional and research worlds, are enhanced by clinic and/or project-based learning experiences in the ECE curriculum.
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U2 - 10.1109/TE.2009.2027431
DO - 10.1109/TE.2009.2027431
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:77955443841
SN - 0018-9359
VL - 53
SP - 455
EP - 462
JO - IEEE Transactions on Education
JF - IEEE Transactions on Education
IS - 3
M1 - 5280254
ER -