Revitalizing Undergraduate Engineering - A Holistic Approach

University Of Arkansas, Fayetteville AR

Investigators

Abstract

This planning grant will provide a roadmap for estabilishing a new student pathway through engineering study which is tailored to his/her individual needs. Engineering colleges are facing extreme performance pressure as society depends on them to produce the generations of graduates necessary to accelerate the pace of technology development and to assure our future global competitiveness. Complicating this task is the need for colleges to bring their students to proficiency in the practice of an ever-expanding knowledge base, without continuing to increase the time investment required to earn an undergraduate degree. To solve this puzzle, engineering colleges must engage their entire university, synthesizing new approaches that bring new areas of knowledge into revitalized college-level engineering undergraduate curricula. The University of Arkansas (UA) College of Engineering will use a broad based approach in planning the incorporation of our research in emerging knowledge areas, our partnerships in research commercialization, and our new graduate educational methods into a new undergraduate culture.