University Nanosatellite Program – 20 Years of Education

In 1999, the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Space Vehicles Directorate (AFRL/RV) and Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) began a unique program with the goal of educating future small satellite systems engineers – the University Nanosatellite Program (UNP). In the ensuing 20 years, 38 universities, and over 5,000 students, have participated in UNP, developing nearly 100 unique mission concepts and resulting in 11 flights to-date. Through UNP, full-time systems engineers are dedicated to guiding student teams through the development process, utilizing a small satellite specific user’s guide, systems engineering classes and presentations, formal reviews, access to government and industry subject matter expertise, environmental testing, and launch. Each UNP cycle lasts 2-3 years and funds 10 proposals for development and possible flight selection. The UNP curriculum is updated each cycle in pursuit of continuous process improvement, striving to develop experienced and effective engineers for our nation’s small satellite enterprise. This paper will discuss the history of UNP, its unique approach to educating small satellite systems engineers, and the impact the program has had on the small satellite enterprise over the last two decades

America's Overlooked Engineers: Community Colleges and Diversity in Engineering Education

16-page report on the community college as a potential pathway to engineeringIn 2004, the National Academy of Engineering published Educating the Engineer of 2020: Visions of Engineering in the New Century. The report foresees a world of dynamic technological change requiring future engineers to have, in addition to strong analytical skills, an understanding of complex societal, global, and professional contexts; creativity and practical ingenuity; communications, management, and leadership skills; high ethical standards and professionalism; and agility, resilience, and interdisciplinary thinking and teamwork. The Academy’s report inspired “The Engineer of 2020” project, a National Science Foundation-supported set of interrelated studies of engineering education. Prototype to Production: Conditions and Processes for Educating the Engineer of 2020 (NSF-EEC-0550608), or “P2P,” sought to benchmark undergraduate engineering education in the U.S. against the attributes the National Academy report believes future engineers will need in order to be effective. NAE’s report also called attention to the rapid population growth both globally and among minorities in the U.S. Such changes, the report stressed, have “major implications for the future of engineering, a profession where minorities and women remain underrepresented” (p. 4). Because of the urgency of increasing the representation of historically nderrepresented groups in engineering schools and in the workforce expressed by the Academy and numerous others, and given growing calls to capitalize on the nation’s community colleges as potentially fruitful grounds for recruiting diverse students to engineering, the Engineer of 2020 project included a survey of community college students planning to transfer into a four-year engineering program.1 This summary of findings from the Engineer of 2020 project surveys is intended to assist engineering deans, department heads, faculty members, associations and professional societies, industry, and public policy makers in their efforts to diversifying engineering education and better prepare engineers to function effectively in the near- and long-term future.National Science Foundation (NSF-EEC-0550608)http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/107460/4/E2020 Study Methods 6.26.14.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/107460/1/America's Overlooked Engineers - Community Colleges and Diversity in Engineering Education.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/107460/8/Americas Overlooked Engineers FINAL.pdfDescription of Americas Overlooked Engineers FINAL.pdf : America's Overlooked EngineersDescription of E2020 Study Methods 6.26.14.pdf : Summary of E2020 Study MethodsDescription of America's Overlooked Engineers - Community Colleges and Diversity in Engineering Education.pdf : Report on the Community College as a pathway to engineering career

Attracting Diverse Talent to the Engineering Professions of 2030 : EU Research Project

This conference examines education in Irish engineering in an international context, including skills to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals and to succeed in a digital world. International and national speakers will address global challenges, future engineering skills, academic standards, and graduate mobility. Attendees will also have the opportunity to share ideas on educating students in this field and to shape Engineers Ireland’s accreditation process. Part of an EU Research project

Engineering enterprise through intellectual property education - pedagogic approaches

Engineering faculties, despite shrinking resources, are delivering to new enterprise agendas that must take account of the fuzzying of disciplinary boundaries. Learning and teaching, curriculum design and research strategies reflect these changes. Driven by changing expectations of how future graduates will contribute to the economy, academics in engineering and other innovative disciplines are finding it necessary to re-think undergraduate curricula to enhance students’ entrepreneurial skills, which includes their awareness and competence in respect of intellectual property rights [IPRs]. There is no well established pedagogy for educating engineers, scientists and innovators about intellectual property. This paper reviews some different approaches to facilitating non-law students’ learning about IP. Motivated by well designed ‘intended learning outcomes’ and assessment tasks, students can be encouraged to manage their learning... The skills involved in learning about intellectual property rights in this way can be applied to learning other key, but not core, subjects. At the same time, students develop the ability to acquire knowledge, rather than rely on receiving it, which is an essential competence for a ‘knowledge’ based worker

The State-of-the-Art and Prospects of Learning Factories

AbstractChangeability of manufacturing systems is an important enabler for offering large variety of competitive products to satisfy customers’ requirements. Learning factories, as teaching and research environments, can play a key role in developing new solutions for changeability, transferring them to the industry and using them in educating engineers. The results of a survey of existing learning factories and their characteristics are presented. Their use in research, teaching and industrial projects is analyzed. A novel scheme to classify those systems with regard to their design, products and their changeability characteristics is outlined. Conclusions about the future of learning factories are drawn

The Challenge of Educating Engineers for a Close, Crowded and Creative World

The world that is emerging based on the development and everyday use of new technologies is a world that can be described as close, crowded and creative. Studies have highlighted that traditional curricula and pedagogical methods for engineering education are deficient in terms of developing and nurturing key skills required by engineers to succeed in this world. The challenge for the engineering academic leaders of today is to begin with the end in mind: to begin with a description of the competences that the engineer of the future should have in order to succeed in their aspirations as an engineer, and then to reverse engineer both the curriculum and pedagogical approaches to enable the desired outcome. This chapter describes what is meant by a close, crowded and creative world: the world in which engineering graduates must learn to practice. It then proposes three different possible scenarios for the world of 2030 and discusses the key skills that engineers in 2030 should possess in order to succeed as engineers. The chapter concludes with recommendations on how to address the challenges of educating engineers for a close, crowded and creative world

Engineering a Better Future

This open access book examines how the social sciences can be integrated into the praxis of engineering and science, presenting unique perspectives on the interplay between engineering and social science. Motivated by the report by the Commission on Humanities and Social Sciences of the American Association of Arts and Sciences, which emphasizes the importance of social sciences and Humanities in technical fields, the essays and papers collected in this book were presented at the NSF-funded workshop ‘Engineering a Better Future: Interplay between Engineering, Social Sciences and Innovation’, which brought together a singular collection of people, topics and disciplines. The book is split into three parts: A. Meeting at the Middle: Challenges to educating at the boundaries covers experiments in combining engineering education and the social sciences; B. Engineers Shaping Human Affairs: Investigating the interaction between social sciences and engineering, including the cult of innovation, politics of engineering, engineering design and future of societies; and C. Engineering the Engineers: Investigates thinking about design with papers on the art and science of science and engineering practice

2020 Vision: Progress in Preparing the Engineer of the Future

In 2004, the National Academy of Engineering published Educating the Engineer of 2020: Visions of Engineering in the New Century to encourage reform of undergraduate engineering education. That report inspired “The Engineer of 2020” project, two interrelated studies supported by the National Science Foundation. Prototype to Production: Conditions and Processes for Educating the Engineer of 2020 (NSF-EEC-0550608) sought to benchmark undergraduate engineering education in the U.S. against the attributes the National Academy report believes future engineers will need in order to be effective. Prototyping the Engineer of 2020: A 360-degree Study of Effective Education (NSF-DUE-061871) used in-depth case studies to identify curricular, instructional, organizational features that support undergraduate engineering education that is well-aligned with the goals of the Engineer of 2020. This summary of findings from the Engineer of 2020 projects is intended to assist engineering deans, department heads, faculty, associations and professional societies, industry, and public policy makers in their efforts to improve undergraduate engineering education so that graduates are well prepared for careers in engineering. The study findings may also aid in the process of diversifying the engineering student population, and ultimately, the engineering workforce.National Science Foundation Grants: Prototype to Production: Conditions and Processes for Educating the Engineer of 2020 ((NSF-EEC-0550608) and Prototyping the Engineer of 2020: A 360-degree Study of Effective Education (NSF-DUE-061871)http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/107462/1/E2020 Study Methods 6.26.14.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/107462/5/2020 Vision FINAL.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/107462/7/P2P Sample Characteristics 2.21.14.docxDescription of E2020 Study Methods 6.26.14.pdf : E2020 Study Methods SummaryDescription of 2020 Vision FINAL.pdf : 2020 Vision: Progress in Preparing the Engineer of the Future - Full ReportDescription of P2P Sample Characteristics 2.21.14.docx : Information on Study Sample

Vector Summer 2013

Vector is the student engineering magazine on campus. Published by the Student Engineering Council, Vector is completely written, managed, and designed by students for students. With issues dating back to 1971, the magazine has a long-standing tradition of serving as the voice for engineering students at The University of Texas at Austin. The Vector staff publishes two issues per semester. For more information regarding the Vector magazine, please contact us at vector@ sec.engr.utexas.edu.Cockrell School of EngineeringCockrell School of Engineerin

Learning requirements engineering within an engineering ethos

An interest in educating software developers within an engineering ethos may not align well with the characteristics of the discipline, nor address the underlying concerns of software practitioners. Education for software development needs to focus on creativity, adaptability and the ability to transfer knowledge. A change in the way learning is undertaken in a core Software Engineering unit within a university's engineering program demonstrates one attempt to provide students with a solid foundation in subject matter while at the same time exposing them to these real-world characteristics. It provides students with a process to deal with problems within a metacognitive-rich framework that makes complexity apparent and lets students deal with it adaptively. The results indicate that, while the approach is appropriate, student-learning characteristics need to be investigated further, so that the two aspects of learning may be aligned more closely