640 likes | 745 Views
Pre-university Engineering Education in the IEEE. April 2008 Los 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
E N D
Pre-university Engineering Education in the IEEE April 2008 Los 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”
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 It all starts in Philadelphia… AIEE
Early Presidents Alexander G. Bell Elihu Thomson Charles Steinmetz Frank Sprague
A few more recent Presidents Lewis Terman Leah Jamieson Joseph Bordogna Michael Lightner
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) AIEE IRE 1963: Merger of AIEE and IRE to create IEEE
1963 1973 1983 1993 2007 Total IEEE Membership1963 - 2007
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)
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
B.Sc Degrees in Engineering by Gender, US: 2005-2006 http://www.asee.org/publications/profiles/upload/2006ProfileEng.pdf
OECD Program for International Student AssessmentMathematics, 15 year old students Finland, Korea, the Netherlands, Japan The United States
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
On Line Portal Tryengineering.org “Strong On-line presence”
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
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.org A portal for students, parents, school counselors and teachers
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
US India China Canada United Kingdom Austria Australia Malaysia Germany Japan Thailand South Africa Korea Brazil Countries of Users: English Version
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)
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 University Searches: 23 Countries
What’s new New Languages 1 June 2007
What’s new A New Original Game: Questioneering Question: The following are examples of word processing applications: Questions created by 26 graduate students, engineers, and engineering professors • LaTex and Microsoft Word • MIDI and RS-232 • Pdf and PCM • QWERTY and AZERTY
What’s new A New Original Game: Questioneering Question: Artificial neural networks are... • Brain implants designed by biomedical engineers • Models of interconnected processors used for signal processing and computation • Neuron architectures present in people who were in bad brain accidents • Internet discussion groups devoted to Cognitive Science We are looking for an Intern to provide players with more feedback
What’s new 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
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