Engineering, Science, and Mathematics Education at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Phil CornwellVice President for Academic Affairs

November 10, 2014

In this talk will provide an overview of education at Rose-Hulman

PHIL

The philosophy and culture

A brief introduction to Rose-Hulman

Curriculum and pedagogy

Here is a little bit about myself

From New MexicoBS from TTU, Ph.D. from PrincetonI’ve been at Rose 26 yearsLos Alamos National Laboratory

I’m married with two children

Rose-Hulman is a small residential institution founded in 1874 and located in Terre Haute, Indiana

We are in the top 20-25% of schools in the United States for our number of engineering graduates

Students • ~2200 undergraduates• ~100 MS students

Academics • 16 B.S. and 8 M.S. programs• Faculty teach all classes and labs• Small classes• Academic rigor• Lots of labs and projects

We are well regarded by our peers and receive a lot of accolades

Ranked #1 for schools without a PhD program for the 16th year in a row

Named one of the top 10 schools in the country with the best professors

Named one of the top 10 schools for median starting salaries and ROI

98% placement rate for last year’s graduates

A JEE study: “Which colleges or universities are considered leaders or innovators in engineering education?”

Mechanical Engineering is our largest department

Fall 20140 100 200 300 400 500 600 700

Chemistry and Biochemistry

Math

Physics and Optical Engineering

Civil Engineering

Applied Biology and Biomedical Engineering

Chemical Engineering

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Mechanical Engineering

Students

We are on a quarter system, so we have three 10 week quarters.

Fall Winter Spring

We have several core beliefs, the first of which is our mission

The mission of Rose-Hulman is to provide our students with the world's best undergraduate science, engineering, and mathematics education in an environment of individual attention and support.

I encourage faculty members to always ask themselves two questions

Are we teaching the right things?

Are we teaching the right way?

Labs

Maple

Problem based

Cooperative learning

Student life/extracurricular activities are recognized as being an important part of the educational experience

AthleticsCompetition teams

Professional societies

Performing arts

Social organizations

The Humanities and Social Science Department helps our students be well-rounded

All students take at least 9 HSS courses (approximate total number of courses is 48)

We have a very strong office of Institutional Planning, Research, and Assessment

Assessment of student learning

Assessment for institutional improvement

Assessment of faculty development and teaching

We also have a great Center for the Practice and Scholarship of Education

Facilitates the sharing of ideas and practices (teaching workshops/seminars)

Supports faculty members working to improve student learning

Assists in educational scholarship

There are three themes in Academic Affairs

EducationInnovation

Practice

RHIT

Research

Practice

Technical skills

Professional skills

Teamw

ork???

Leadership skills

RHIT

I’ve thought a lot about curriculum change and have come up with this classification

Pote

ntia

l ∆Im

pact

on

achi

evin

g le

arni

ng o

bjec

tives

Difficulty of implementation

“Tweaking” Major course revision

Major curriculum revision

Blank slate

HardEasyLow

High

No change

Level 0: Little or no changes made

This doesn’t mean there is a problem. The course may already be great.

Level 1: “Tweaking” (primarily under the control of one faculty member and may take a lot of time and effort)

Add a Demo

Create new homework

Add a daily quiz

Use concept maps

Add videos

Modify a labAdd some active learning

Add a project

Use a Tablet to replace overheads

Level 2: Major course revision or minor changes threaded through several courses

Adding a lab to a course

Transforming a course to a studio format

Using PBL or formal cooperative learning in a course

Developing a new course

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4

EthicsCommunications

Level 3: Major revisions that affect multiple courses (often in different majors)

Integrated First-Year Curriculum in Science, Engineering and Mathematics (IFYCSEM)

Level 3: Major revisions that affect multiple courses (often in different majors)

Traditional Curriculum

Differential Equations I

Differential Equations II Statistics

Dynamics

Circuits Fluid Mechanics

Thermodynamics

Applied Math I

Conservation and Accounting

Principles

Analysis and Design of

Engineering Systems

Applied Math II Applied Math III

Mechanical Systems

ElectricalSystems

Sophomore Engineering Curriculum

Fall Winter Spring

Fluid and Thermal Systems

Sophomore Engineering Curriculum (as originally conceived)

Level 4: A blank state (very rare)

I’d like to share a few of our initiatives

We have a number of international collaborations

Computer Science students in Uppsala, Sweden

Civil Engineering students in Ghana

We have living and learning communities such as the Home for Environmentally Responsible Engineering (HERE)

The students live together in a residence hall

Approximate 40 students

Rhetoric and Composition

College and Life Skills

Sustainability and its Global Contexts

Introduction to Design

The student cohort takes four courses with an emphasis on sustainability

We have a living and learning community called “ESCALATE” focused on entrepreneurship

Freshman cohort

Curricular activities

Extracurricular activities

Entrepreneurial Graduates• Skills• Entrepreneurial mindset• Connections• Potential for job creation

Partnerships and collaborations

“Engineering Student Community Actively Learning Advanced Technical Entrepreneurship (ESCALATE)”

Living community

Internships

50 students per cohort

The students take four courses together as a cohort

We created four courses this summer

“Introduction to Entrepreneurship”“Rhetoric and Composition (the culture

of entrepreneurship)”“Economic Thinking for Entrepreneurs”“Introduction to Design”

“Introduction to Entrepreneurship” has guest speakers

28

We had an exciting summer course on one of the engineering grand challenges

10 week class/research project3 professors12 credit hours

• Technical Communications• Science elective• Technical elective

We believe flipped and hybrid classes hold promise

Passive lectures

Active engagement

Content delivery online

Mechatronics has been flipped for many years and other classes are also using flipped and hybrid classrooms

Mechatronics

Chemistry

Our professors have made a lot of videos for numerous classes and laboratories

Examples

One way we support projects at Rose-Hulman is the BranamInnovation Center

15,000 ft2 for student competition teams

Used by hundreds of students

We have developed several new courses infused with “entrepreneurial minded learning” (EML)

Home for Environmentally Responsible Engineering (2 courses)

Rosebotics(2 courses)

Art of Engineering

34

Rose-Hulman Ventures

Later this week I’ll be talking in more detail about two other unique aspects of Rose-Hulman

Sophomore Engineering Curriculum

I’m happy to answer any questions

36