Department-Level Reform of Undergraduate Industrial Engineering Education: Ignite - A New Paradigm for Curriculum Design and Deployment

University Of Tennessee Knoxville, Knoxville TN

Investigators

Abstract

This project is planning department-level curriculum reform in the College of Engineering at the University of Tennessee. The principal outcome expected from this research is the development of a new paradigm for baccalaureate engineering education in the Department of Industrial and Information Engineering, called Ignite. Ignite will build on seven years of experience in developing, operating, monitoring, evaluating, and improving the Engage freshman engineering program - an NSF sponsored innovative teaching approach that incorporates modern teaching methods. Specifically, the plan will achieve the following goals: 1. Make research based learning the standard; 2. Construct an inquiry-based freshman year; 3. Build on the freshman foundation; 4. Remove barriers to interdisciplinary education; 5. Link communications skills and coursework; 6. Use information technology creatively; 7. Culminate with a capstone experience; 8. Educate graduate students as apprentice teachers; 9. Change faculty reward systems; 10. Cultivate a sense of community; 11. Update content and teaching methods to be more consistent with the research on how engineers learn; 12. Engage faculty in the scholarship of learning and teaching. The plan will enable the transition from a curriculum of individual loosely connected courses, taught using demonstrate-then-emulate methods, to a modular approach of highly interconnected courses that will create an integrated learning experience. The focus will be on problem-based, cooperative, and service learning exercises; research; information technologies; and faculty teaming. The outcome will be graduates who can better cope with the unstructured nature of the problems they will encounter on the job, will be better equipped to operate in a team environment, and will be more fully prepared to engage in continual education. Intellectual Merit of the Program. Intellectual merit is in the extension of the approach pioneered in Engage to include a full degree program that is consistent with research on engineering education, and a process that will lead to a position of alignment with the three major emerging areas of college research: information technology, biotechnology and nanotechnology. Broader Impacts of the Program. Since the industrial engineer plays an integrated role in industry, the curriculum model developed as a result of this project is expected have a positive impact on commerce in general. Specifically, the reformulated, streamlined and updated industrial engineering curriculum should lead to more effective and efficient use of educational resources. Graduates of the new program will have a better understanding of production and service delivery system capabilities, and the use of information technology as a tool of systems analysis, design, development, implementation, and operations. This project also broadens the participation of underrepresented faculty and student groups in curriculum reform decisions, and in the education process.