June 1, 1995

SUCCEED involves faculty, students in unique educational reform

As the Southeastern University and College Coalition for Engineering Education (SUCCEED) completes its third year of operation as one of eight projects under the NSF Engineering Education Coalitions Program, faculty of the College of Engineering with colleagues across the campus are making valuable contributions to the educational research accomplishments of the Coalition. Their contributions will have a major impact on SUCCEED's achieving its goal of creating a new undergraduate engineering educational model to meet the needs of the engineering profession and society in the 21st century. In addition to providing administrative coordination for the entire project involving 7 other southeastern engineering colleges, 30 COE and NCSU faculty are engaged in funded projects directed toward creating sustainable engineering education reform.

Projects on the NCSU campus cover a variety of topics, from experiments in collaborative learning and its impact on teaching and learning effectiveness to the integration of fundamental course content at the freshman level and the development of multimedia instructional modules to complement normal course instruction.

Dr. Richard Felder in the chemical engineering department coordinates an integrated freshman course in mathematics, physics, and introductory engineering with two colleagues in the physics and mathematics departments. Fifty-two students enrolled last fall in the year-long IMPEC (Integrated Math, Physics, and Engineering Course) team taught by the three faculty in a specially equipped computer classroom. Students develop a better understanding of how these subjects are related and relevant to engineering with the material taught in an integrated "just-in-time" fashion rather than as three isolated, separate courses. Initial student feedback is very positive, and a second offering is planned for next year.

Developing entrepreneurial skills in students is the objective of a second experimental course offered by Dr. Tom Miller in the electrical and computer engineering department. Students form small companies that undertake design and development of real products and services drawn from actual industry needs. The course involves students from sophomore through senior standing and emphasizes the business aspects and requirements of product development as well as technical feasibility. The course also provides managerial experience for the upper classmen in the supervision of sophomores enrolled for the first time.

Dr. David Ollis in chemical engineering has developed a Freshman Engineering Laboratory that provides freshman engineering students an introduction to real "hands-on" involvement with everyday engineering products and processes. In this "take apart" and "experiment" laboratory, students work in teams to learn about technical operation and engineering design of products and process by operating and disassembling everyday items like photocopiers, CD players and video cameras and experimenting with water purification processes and optical fiber data transmission. Students also learn applied communication skills through required report preparation and oral presentations. The course has been approved by the University as a regular listing in the college catalog.

A course that integrates humanities with engineering is now being taught by Dr. Ben O'Neal, professor of electrical and computer engineering, together with Dr. John Riddle, professor of history. The course looks at how the events of history have impacted the development of technology and engineering and how, in turn, technical advances, products, and processes have influenced the development of our society and culture.

Using multimedia technology, Dr. John Russ of the materials science and engineering department has developed a CD-ROM for supplementing introductory course instruction in material science. The disk includes pictorial crystal growth representations related directly to alloy system phase diagram characteristics, animated three-dimensional atomic structure modeling, video clips of mechanical testing that allow observation of material failure phenomena at slow speeds, and a variety of other modules that bring material science to life in ways unachievable in ordinary textbook illustrations. The CD is now under wide use nationally and even overseas.

Additional projects deal with early design experiences that include model/prototype construction in civil engineering that helps students "bridge the gap" between theory and application; a Quality Improvement Partnership with industry that involves teams of junior and senior students from the colleges of Engineering, Textiles, and Management in a summer process improvement internship with Milliken and Company; and a planning effort to study the content, feasibility, and structure of a Technology Management Engineering curriculum component coupling engineering with business and management.

All these examples demonstrate the unique and creative educational research and experimentation carried out in the College of Engineering and on the NCSU campus as a direct result of the support of SUCCEED. These faculty truly contribute to engineering educational reform that will define a new curriculum model for the 21st century.

» Contributed by
Carl F. Zorowski,
Director of SUCCEED

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