pre-university engineering education in the ieee april 2008 los angeles, california litsa micheli...
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Pre-university Engineering Education in the IEEE
April 2008Los Angeles, California
Litsa Micheli Tzanakou, Moshe Kam, Douglas Gorham
IEEE Educational Activities
A Few Words about IEEE
IEEE is the largest professional engineering association in the world
Over 370,000 members in more than 150 countries A 501(c)3 organization incorporated in New York
Originally concentrating on power engineering and communications IEEE at present spans technical interests across the spectrum of technology
From nanotechnology to oceanic engineering
In many respects IEEE has become “the steward of Engineering”
It all starts in Philadelphia… AIEE
In 1884 the Franklin Institute organized the International Electrical Exhibition in Philadelphia
The Operator, 15 April 1884 “The…exhibition would be attended by foreign electrical savants, engineers, and manufacturers...it would be a lasting disgrace to American electricians if no American electrical national society was in existence to receive them with the honors due them from their co-laborers in the United States." Thomas Edison, Elihu Thomson, Edwin Houston, and Edward Weston
AIEE’s First Technical Meeting 7-8 October 1884, the Franklin Institute
AIEE IRE
Established 1884
An American Organization
Representing the establishment
Rooted in Power Engineering
First computers working group Now the Computer Society
Established 1908
An international Organization
Open to students, young professionals
Quick to adopt advances in radar, radio, TV, electronics, computers
Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers (January 1913)
1963: Merger of AIEE and IRE to create IEEE
What is IEEE?
A membership organization
A major creator and guardian of technical IP
A mechanism to bring people of common technical interests together
both geographically and disciplinarily
A guardian of the future of Engineering
An implementer of technology-related Public Imperatives
What does IEEE do?
Publishes literature in engineering, technology and computing
Organizes conferences
Develops standards
Gets engineers and technologists from different locales together
Organizes professional activities among engineering students
Educates the public about Engineering
Why is IEEE interested in pre-university engineering education?
Because it is in our stated and un-stated mission
Because in many IEEE Sections there is marked decline in the interest of young people in Engineering
The future of these communities is jeopardized and would have a negative impact on their standard of living
Because we do not believe the problem is going to be tackled effectively without us
Industry does not appear to be able to address the problem directly
Governments do not appear sufficiently concerned (yet) Other engineering associations look up to us
What is the Problem?
Flat or declining engineering enrollments in most developed nations
Insufficient number of engineers and engineering educational programs in most developing countries
Asia is far behind Europe and the US in number of engineers per capita
New baccalaureate engineering degrees per year per million citizens (2004)
Country Number of degrees per million citizens
USA 468.3
China 271.1
India 103.7
South Africa
36.5
What is the Problem?
Women & minority students conspicuously under-represented
Public perception of engineers/ engineering/ technology is largely misinformed Resulting in early decisions that block
the path of children to Engineering
Engineering degrees US: 2005-2006
http://www.asee.org/publications/profiles/upload/2006ProfileEng.pdf
Percentage of Science Degrees Awarded
Science degrees include life sciences, physical sciences, mathematics, statistics, computer sciences, engineering, manufacturing, and building
Source: Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development
41
.83
63
2.4
18
.41
5.6
38
.43
2.5
28
.21
5.8
13
39
.53
1.5
24
.21
5.9 15
38
.43
12
5.9
15
.71
4.9
38
.93
1.1
25
16
.4 17
.4
38
.53
0.8
24
.61
4.8
16
.2
39
.73
3.3
27
.91
6.7
17
.1
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
South Korea
Germany
Czech Rep.
USA
Norway
B.Sc Degrees in Engineering by Gender, US: 2005-2006
http://www.asee.org/publications/profiles/upload/2006ProfileEng.pdf
OECD Program for International Student Assessment
Mathematics, 15 year old students
The United States
Finland, Korea, the Netherlands, Japan
IEEE’s Pre-University Initiative 2005-2006 New Initiative
“Launching Our Children’s Path to Engineering”
Objectives
Increase the propensity of young people worldwide to select Engineering as a career path
Build a sustained public awareness program, led by IEEE,
with broad support of corporations and professional associations
Current status: activities are institutionalized in the routine work plan of IEEE
Objective 1: Engineering in the pre-university classroom
Institutionalization of IEEE Teacher In Service Program
IEEE Section engineers develop and present technology-oriented subject matter to local pre-university educators
Emphasis on volunteer-teacher interaction as opposed to volunteer-student interaction
Ideally: a sustained program involving several thousand schools every year
Objective 2: Engineering Associations, Unite!
Center for Pre-University Engineering Education
Ideally, the resource of choice for pre-university cooperation with Engineering Associations
Ideally, a multi-association organization With partners such as ASCE, ASME, IET, VDE, SEE
It is about ENGINEERING, not Electrical Engineering
Objective 3: Strong On-line presence
New on-line portals for students, teachers, school counselors, and parents
Educational and entertaining Focused on the audience
From lesson plans for teachers to games for students
Ideally, the premier on-line resource on engineering for pre-university counselors, teachers and students
The Web provides us with high potential for reachability
A successful portal can become a major resource for students, parents, school counselors, and teachers But success is difficult in an ever-
crowded medium
Effort needs to be coupled with more modern tools
What information is needed on line?
We met with school counselors and Engineering Associations
Need on line tools for identifying formal and informal engineering education opportunities
Engineering associations that participated in our discussions
ACM, AIChE, AIAA, ASME, ASCE, IET, JETS, SAE, SEE, Sloan Career Cornerstone Center
What information is available on line?
We conducted a comprehensive review of engineering education resources
By EAB and consultants
Conclusions: Many “Engineering Resources” are actually
focusing on Science and Mathematics Resources for teachers are largely inadequate Wrong message is sent about the nature of
engineering and the life of engineers
From Collegeboard.com: Law
It helps to be… Are you ready to…
fascinated by the relationship between law and society
engage in intense discussion of thorny legal problems ?
From Collegeboard.com: Broadcast Journalism
It helps to be… Are you ready to…
sharp of mind and quick of tongue
learn how to find and interview sources?
From Collegeboard.com: Civil Engineering
It helps to be… Are you ready to…
A problem-solver who’s creative, curious, logical, and a fan of math.
Spend hours and hours working on problem sets and design projects?
From Collegeboard.com: Civil Engineering
It helps to be… Are you ready to…
A problem-solver who’s creative, curious, logical, and a fan of math.
Spend hours and hours working on problem sets and design projects?
From Collegeboard.com: Civil Engineering
It helps to be… Are you ready to…
A problem-solver who’s creative, curious, logical, and a fan of math.
Spend hours and hours working on problem sets and design projects?
From Collegeboard.com: Mechanical Engineering
It helps to be… Are you ready to…
A fan of science and math, a creative problem solver, and someone who likes to take things apart to find out how they work.
Rely on your math skills? Master difficult scientific concepts? Take on a heavy course load? Spend five years as an undergrad…
From Collegeboard.com: Electrical Engineering
It helps to be… Are you ready to…
A fan of science and math who’s curious about the way things work
Spend hours building detailed, complicated systems
Try, try, and try again when at first a project doesn’t succeed
Good existing model
Tryscience.org “Your gateway to experience the excitement of
contemporary science and technology through on and offline interactivity with science and technology centers worldwide.”
Science is exciting, and it's for everyone!
Partnership between IBM the New York Hall of Science the Association of Science-Technology
Centers
Next step – TryEngineering.org Companion site to tryscience.org Comprehensive Ultimate Audience: young people ages 8-
18 Designed to convey excitement about
engineering and design Can-do attitude Hands-on experience Positive image of the engineering process and
engineering Launched on 5 June 2006 “Discover the creative engineer in you”
TryEngineering.orgA portal for students, parents, school counselors and teachers
School searchBy location, program, environment
Explore Engineering – Discipline Descriptions, Day in the Life of an Engineer, Preparation Tips
Virtual Games Lesson plans for teaching engineering design
Ask an Expert – Ask an Engineer, Ask a Student
Undergraduate Student Advice
E-Newsletter Student opportunities – summer camps, fellowships, etc.
Unique features School search in 23 countries
University Student Opportunities Research opportunities, summer and co-op
jobs Graduate study opportunities, academic jobs
Currently in seven languages
Coming up: Translation into Portuguese A new game Additional lesson plans
On-line Presence: TryEngineering TryEngineering.org is becoming an
increasingly popular resource for the pre-university and university communities
34,000 visitors per month
Visitors per Month
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Countries of Users: English Version
US India China Canada United Kingdom Austria Australia
Malaysia Germany Japan Thailand South Africa Korea Brazil
Most Requested Files: Lesson Plans
An average of 11,100 lesson plans are downloaded per month
Build a robot arm Close to 36,000 downloads
Cracking the Code (bar codes)
Critical Load (Civil Engineering)
New University Searches: 23 Countries
Argentina Australia Austria Belgium Brazil Canada France Germany India Japan Korea
Malaysia Mexico New Zealand Pakistan Portugal Russia Singapore South Africa Switzerland Turkey United Kingdom United States
What’s new
New Languages
中文 Chinese
Deutsch German
Español Spanish
Français French
邦人 Japanese
русский Russian
What’s new
1 June 2007
A New Original Game: Questioneering
What’s new
Question: The following are examples of word processing applications:
(A)LaTex and Microsoft Word(B)MIDI and RS-232 (C)Pdf and PCM(D)QWERTY and AZERTY
Questions created by 26 graduate students, engineers, and engineering professors
A New Original Game: Questioneering
What’s new
Question: Artificial neural networks are...
(A)Brain implants designed by biomedical engineers(B)Models of interconnected processors used for
signal processing and computation (C)Neuron architectures present in people who were in
bad brain accidents(D) Internet discussion groups devoted to Cognitive
Science
We are looking for an Intern to provide players with more feedback
Future services – focus on the University/College Student
Looking for graduate school and finding a graduate advisor
Graduate school homepage already available through University Search
Effective oral and written presentations
Job search and preparation for interview
Writing a resume
What’s new
Future Services – interviews with students and practitioners
Interviews with students from California State University, Northridge, the University of Pretoria, South Africa and Drexel University
Interviews with ECE and Biomedical Engineering practitioners engaged in Biometrics work
Interviews with Non-US students and practitioners
www.Accreditation.org
This website was purchased by EAB in an auction in March 2007
Features: Introduction to Accreditation List of recognized accrediting bodies
worldwide And the programs they accredit
List of mutual recognition agreements Including original texts and commentary
Policy papers on accreditation Links and scholarly papers
The Teacher In Service Program (TISP)
A program that trains IEEE volunteers to work with pre-university teachers
Using Lesson Plans found on TryEngineering.org
Prepared by IEEE volunteers Tested in classrooms Aligned with Education Standards Designed to highlight engineering design
principles The cost is less than $100 for a class of 30
How does it work?
Volunteers gather for a day and a half of training With teachers and school administrators EAB provides logistical support and instructors
Volunteers spread the program in their schools and school districts
Section volunteers run a TISP professional development event for pre-university teachers
EAB provides support for the materials and supplies needed to conduct a TISP session
for teachers for up to 12 months following the training workshop thanks to support from IEEE USA, MGAB and EAB
TISP Training Workshops Conducted2006 2007
Boston (R1)
Indianapolis (R4)
Memphis (R3)
Kuala Lumpur (R10)
Cape Town (R8)
Piura, Peru*
Rio de Janeiro (R9)
Baltimore (R2)
Dallas (R5)
*student branch model
Participation in 2007
Venue Attendees
Piura (student branch model)
105 from 3 countries
Rio de Janeiro (Region 9)
100 from 13 countries
Dallas (Region 5) 70 from 15 Sections
Baltimore (Region 2)
45 from 11 Sections
What are we doing in 2008?
Region 6 (LA)
Argentina (September)
Trinidad and Tobago (September)
Region 6 (San Francisco, October-November)
Plans for 2008 “From the Field” A presentation in Little Rock Arkansas occurred
on 4 January 2008 Three presentations in South Africa Four presentations in the Florida West Coast
Section One presentation in Houston Two presentations in Ecuador One presentation in Columbia Three presentations in the Central North Carolina
Section Two presentations in Piura and Lima, Peru by
Student Branch members We think that much more activity is occurring that
is not being communicated
Rotational Equilibrium: A Question of Balance
Demonstrate the concept of rotational equilibrium, by building and testing a Mobile
Design and Build a Better Candy Bag
Lesson Focus
Demonstrate how product design differences can affect the success of a final product
in this case a bag for holding candy.
Students work in pairs to evaluate, design, and build a better candy bag
New Lesson Plans
Give Binary A Try Computer arithmetic and ALU design
Hand Biometrics Technology Biometrics
Sail Away Watercraft design
Simple Kitchen Machines Simple Machines
Dispenser Designs Design: user satisfaction, costs, materials
Engineering Ups and Downs Elevators
Build a Big Wheel Ferris Wheels
What’s new
Additional New Lesson Plans
Sort it Out Sticky Engineering
Challenge Ship the Chip Move That
Lighthouse! A Question of Balance Program Your Own
Game
Engineering Air Traffic Pipeline Challenge Infrared Investigations Hull Engineering Engineered Sports Engineered Memory Wind Tunnel Testing
What’s new