Undergraduate Engineering Curricula Revision at the University of Denver

Undergraduate Engineering Curricula Revision at the University of Denver Ronald R. D eLyser, Albert J. Rosa, John Mirth, and Jungho KimUniversity of DenverDenver, ColoradoAbstractThe Department of Engineering in anticipation of the changing needs of future graduates is redesigning its engineering programs. The curricular programs prepare its graduates to be globally competitive. The curricula innovations include interdisciplinary team design projects throughout the four years, increased use of computers, emphasis in communicative skills, forensic analysis of previous projects with a purpose to improve the original design, an increase in electives permitting more tailoring of individual programs, and an overall reduction in program hours to 192 quarter hours. IntroductionThe University of Denver is an independent coeducational institution with an enrollment of approximately 2,700 undergraduates, 2,900 graduates, and 2,700 non-traditional students. The Department of Engineering, a part of the Division of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Engineering which is one of 13 colleges, schools, and divisions, is EAC/ABET accredited in electrical and mechanical engineering. In anticipation of the changing needs of future graduates we are redesigning our engineering programs. Our goal is to provide the finest educational programs available to our students, and thus to permit them the best preparation for the careers they wish to pursue. Specifically we seek accredited, forward-looking curricula; a modern, uncluttered, and capable infrastructure; and a talented, dedicated, supportive, and scholarly faculty. We seek to design and implement curricula that prepare students to be nationally competitive for either industry hiring or admittance to advanced degree programs. The curricular programs conceived will prepare students for the challenges of the next century, such as: globalization, interdisciplinary teaming, rapid design turn-around, customer-centric design, life-long learning, distributed systems and networks, the information superhighway, etc. Such programs will be grounded in fundamentals yet be flexible, attainable, supportive, and accreditable. Program ObjectivesIn developing our new programs we sought to define a set of characteristics that each graduate would possess upon graduation. Each graduate should: (1) be capable of leadership in a global environment; (2) be able to pass the Fundamentals of Engineering exam as a prelude to professional registration; (3) know how to resolve open-ended design problems; (4) be able to enter industry with the needed skills to be able to solve real-world (practical) problems; (5) possess good communication skills; (6) have a strong grounding in the fundamentals and how to apply them;(7) know and uphold ethical and professional standards of the profession; (8) be able to think independently; (9) be able to analyze and synthesize engineering problems, including the design and conduct of experiments; (10) develop and practice interdisciplinary skills; (11) be computer literate and Internet capable; (12) develop and practice interpersonal skills - know how to work effectively as a member of a team; (13) be cognizant of current engineering problems and assess their social and economic implications; and (14) be prepared for a life of continual learning.In formulating our curricula, we constructed four themes that helped us in our characteristics. The first theme underlying the redesign of the curricula was that we felt that the students needed to be provided with an education that was more relevant to the “real world”instead of the dominant theory-based education they have been receiving thus far. Relevancy to the real-world will require more student interaction with faculty research projects, more interdisciplinary design projects, and more interaction with industry. The faculty was concerned that in carrying out this primary theme that theory and the fundamentals might be sacrificed for a more practical or technological approach. Since this is the part of their education that will stay constant and form the basis for their continual learning, our second theme involves assuring that students have gained and retained "the fundamentals". Hence, we have attempted to strike a balance between theory and practice.A third theme was the strong feeling that, as is the case for the current curricula, the first two years of the new curricula should be common for all degrees (Electrical, Mechanical and Computer Engineering.) A common curriculum builds an interdisciplinary view of engineering, a sense of teamwork, and would permit the greatest flexibility for students to delay choosing theirmajor until they are fairly certain of the career path they want to pursue. A final advantage is easier course scheduling and more balanced class sizes.The final and very important theme was how to integrate assessment into our curricula. How do we evaluate how well our students are performing and how well our new program is working? The new ABET criteria are very specific about assessment. The new criteria, when finally adopted, will require a determination of desired “outcomes” and the inclusion of built-in methods to determine if the outcomes are being met. Simply, we want to know if our students are being inculcated with the desired characteristics. We will assess our students and our programs using five complementary methods: (1) The Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam, a nationally normed evaluation, help us assess our graduates’ knowledge of fundamentals. The department obtains a breakdown of the average score of those taking the test in each subject on the exam, in addition to average scores of those from other universities. The FE can provide a guide to the areas in which our graduates need to improve their basic skills. We will require all of our students to take an exam similar to the FE exam at the end of their sophomore year and the FE exam at the end of the student’s final year. The sophomore exam (SE) will be used to show the student his/her progress and can be used by the advisor to suggest a change in program. To insure that these assessments are a required part of the curriculum, they appear as “0” credit courses titled “Engineering Assessment I and II”. (2) A portfolio-type approach to evaluating student success in engineering prowess (design, presentation skills, communication, etc.) is being investigated. (3) Exit questionnaires and student evaluations will assess how the students feel about their education. (4) Long range effectiveness with be assessed by graduate surveys and employer surveys. A faculty assessment committee has been formed to determine guidelines for reviewing and implementing these assessment tools as well as other forms of assessment.(5) Individual course critiques provide feedback to the instructors on course content, delivery and other course specific issues.RequirementsThe curriculum that follows (owing to the length constraint, only the BSEE program is detailed) addresses all the issues noted in the previous discussions. Each program has been reduced to 192 from 202 quarter hours for the BSEE and BSME programs and to 192 from 194 for the BSE program. Additional flexibility over current programs is afforded by a Math/Basic Science elective, and an open elective in all programs. In addition, the BSME program will increase its number of electives to four from the current three. A new accreditable program in computer engineering (BSCompE) will also be 192 quarter hours.The Common CurriculumThe common curriculum is listed in Table 1. The first year sequence, Engineering Concepts, seeks to develop the freshmen in four areas: (1) personal skills (the profession, ethics, teammanship, study skills, etc.),Freshman YearFALL WINTER SPRINGEnglish4English4English4 Chemistry4Physics I4Physics II4 UDCC1Physics I Lab1Physics II Lab1 Calculus I4Calculus II4Calculus III4 Engineering Concepts I*4Engineering Concepts II4Engineering Concepts III4171717Sophomore YearPhysics III4Differential Equations4Multivariable Calculus4 CORE 10004CORE 10004ORCO4 Circuits I3Circuits II3Digital Design3 Mechanics I3Mechanics II3Engineering Thermodynamics I3Engineering Applications I**3Engineering Applications II3Engineering Applications III3Engineering Assessment I0 171717Table 1. Common Curriculum (*Revised courses, **new courses.)(2) computer skills, (3) engineering fundamentals, and (4) lab skills. It incorporates computational tools such as Mathcad, Matlab, Excel and Word; CAD and modeling tools like Silver Screen and Working Model; and use of email and the Internet. Analytical tools in mechanics, electrical circuits and digital combinational logic provide both an introduction to the respective fields as well as a basis for tackling their design projects. Of the utmost importance is a major section on engineering design and methodology which provides organizational, documentation, and teaming skills along with the development of individual student portfolios, and other materials to be used for assessment.In the second year we have removed Material Science I and Mechanics III (they are no longer required for the BSEE degree), Electronics (no longer required for BSME degree) and Linear Algebra (it could be a Math/Basic Science Elective in the upper division for BSE, BSME and BSEE degrees, it is required for the BSCompE degree.) We have also removed the Physics III Lab and Modern Physics requirements. Digital Design and Thermodynamics I have been added to the lower division common curriculum. The Engineering Applications sequence in the sophomore year will cover C/C++ programming during the first two quarters (2 QH each), along with a one hour circuits lab with applications to mechanics; and instrumentation concepts and circuits in the third quarter. The Digital Design course will introduce digital electronics to all students providing them with concepts that they can apply to the last quarter of the Engineering Applications sequence as well as several subsequent courses. It, along with the C/C++ sequence, will also provide an introduction to the BSCompE major.The Engineering MajorsThe upper division programs (an example is shown in Table 2) all have 90 QH. As a key feature, the curricula continue to include courses that bring all engineering disciplines together. Specifically the following are courses common (shown blocked in bold in Table 2) to all upper division engineering curricula: (1) Engineering Analysis, an advanced mathematics course for engineers. (2) Engineering Economics and Ethics prepares students for their senior design and for the FE exam taken in the senior year. (3) A basic science/math requirement to permit students to tailor their programs to suit their needs. (4) The year-long senior design sequence - the capstone of our programs remains intact, but enhanced by the new junior year Engineering Integration sequence. (5) An open elective to afford engineering students an opportunity to take advantage of the wide diversity of courses offered at the university. (6) An Engineering Integration sequence described below.The rationale for creating the junior year Engineering Integration sequence is to provide students with a number of fundamental skills that will enable them to work as part of an interdisciplinary team. Specifically the two-quarter sequence will include fabrication skills, reverse engineering, failure analysis, product redesign, and project design. All of these skills will enhance their performance in the three-quarter long, capstone senior design experience. The more we can make this a “real-world” experience the better prepared our students will be when they graduate. Our current senior design experience is already quite good and has been responsible for the success of many of our graduates earning top jobs. The junior year experience will make the senior experience even better. Our goal in this area is to work with industry in a true partnership to provide the problems and interact with the students in the solution process in their senior year. Although we currently get some projects from industry the students, while academically prepared, have had little exposure to actual construction and project management. This partnership with industry will expand into the new junior sequence and should improve the students’ preparedness.The six-quarter hour junior Engineering Integration course will include one quarter hour of machine shop practice in which the students will be trained in manufacturing processes. In addition, the BSEE’s, BSCompE’s, and some BSE’s have two QH devoted to electronics design laboratory including the design and fabrication of analog and digital printed circuits. The remaining time will involve the forensic analysis, redesign and reconstruction of an interdisciplinary project that has been built by students in previous years with the goal of making the product better. Each project team will be interdisciplinary fostering interaction and dependency. Students will be exposed to project time-lines, critical design paths, Pert charts, and economic considerations. We anticipate that this will be one of the more innovative aspects of our programs. The sequence will meet one hour weekly for the presentation of design and analysis tools and for student presentations to improve their communication skills. The remaining six hours will be lab time.The BSEE - An Example CurriculumTraditional Electrical Engineering courses that have been removed from the requirements list are Mechanics III, Materials Science I, Electromagnetics III (Antennas), Integrated Circuit Design, Signals and Systems II, and Digital Communications. Signals and Systems I and Physical Electronics will increase by 1 QH to provide more exposure to the fundamentals to compensate partly for the loss of depth. The Electromagnetics III and Digital Communications courses will be available as electives. IC Design and Signals and Systems II will no longer be offered but new electives will be added to offer more selectivity.ConclusionThe new curricula as envisioned should meet all of our desired characteristics. The matrix given in Table 3 shows which components of the new curriculum contribute to the desired characteristics of our graduates and the method of assessment for each characteristic. The reduction in total quarter hours mandates more integrated, well-designed curricula, less tolerant of how individual courses and laboratories are developed. The "experience" in the common curriculum gained by the students has to be the foundation upon which the upper division experiences are built.Junior YearFALL WINTER SPRINGEngineering3Electromagnetics I3Electromagnetics II3 Signals and Systems*4CORE 10004CORE 10004 Microprocessors I4Microprocessors II4Eng Econ and Ethics4 Electronics4Advanced Electronics3Principles of Communications3Engineering Integration I**3Engineering Integration II3151717Senior YearEngineering Design I3Engineering Design II3Engineering Design III3 Physical Electronics4CORE 20004CORE 20004 Math/Science Elective4Technical Elective3Technical Elective3 Technical Elective3Technical Elective3Open Elective4Engineering Assessment II0141314 Table 2. BSEE Curriculum (*revised courses,** new courses, ***common courses.)Characteristic CommonCurriculum Upper DivisionCurriculumIntegrated Labs, Senior DesignLeadership P,S*Passing the FE exam FOpen ended design ability P,S P,G,C P,G,CStep into industry with needed skills G G,C G,CCommunication skills P,GStrong grounding in fundamentals F,S,C F,S,CEthical and professional standards S,G S,GAbility to think independently P,G,C P,G,CAbility to analyze and synthesize P,G,C P,G,CInterdisciplinary skills P,G,C P,G,CComputer literacy S,PInterpersonal skills S,P,GAwareness of e ngr probs & social i mplctns S,G S,GContinual Learning & prep for grad school S,G S,G*Assessment tools: FE and SE (F), Portfolio (P), Student evaluations (S), Graduate evaluations (G), Course critiques (C) Table 3. Desired Characteristics Matrix。