Initial Look at Life-Long Learning Assessment in Engineering Education

Teaching students to become life-long learners is generally taken to be one of the major outcomes of any university-level education. This is usually reflected in university-level mission or similarly labeled statements. In engineering education in the US this is formalized in the latest ABET update of their student outcomes. Life-long learning is specifically listed as outcome “7. an ability to acquire and apply new knowledge as needed, using appropriate learning strategies.” This has meant that any electrical, computer, or other engineering programs under ABET accreditation now must demonstrate that students are attaining this outcome. However, assessment tools and techniques for this outcome are not well developed. We present several examples for both direct and indirect assessments as well as our experiences in their implementation. Presented methods and instruments can be applied in different curricular settings and courses

Formal verification of ad-hoc routing protocols using SPIN model checker

Tests and simulations are the only verification techniques used for ad-hoc network routing protocols. Although these techniques give us an excellent overview of the protocol behavior, some undesirable aspects of the protocol could still be undiscovered. Therefore formal verification is needed. This paper presents a new technique to formally verify such protocols by the use of a well-known model-checker: SPIN. As an example, a formal verification of the Wireless Adaptive Routing Protocol(W.A.R.P) has been performed

Board 63: Work in Progress: Adapting Scrum Project Management to ECE Courses

Scrum is a popular form of Agile project management. Its applications now include diverse areas such as software development, engineering, urban planning, and law. Scrum has also been used in software engineering educational programs, but its use in other engineering education is lagging. Within our electrical and computer engineering program, we introduced Scrum to help students improve their teamwork efficacy in projects and courses. Earlier, we have presented some initial experiences and observations when implementing Scrum in ECE courses. In this paper we will elaborate on how Scrum is applied across different years and how we scaffold student learning. Scrum methodology consists of (see www.scrumguides.org): Members: product owner, Scrum master, and development team Events: sprint planning, daily stand-up, sprint review, and sprint retrospective Artifacts: product and sprint backlog Definitions and rules governing Scrum implementation We cannot expect freshman or sophomore engineering students to have the sophistication necessary for full implementation of Scrum. Furthermore, Scrum in educational environments is a teaching and learning tool, and it needs to be modified from its original design. Scrum involves teams, so we have to support other educational goals, such as teaching students how to engage in effective teamwork. Our learning goals related to Scrum are grouped into four areas: A) developing projects and their components, B) applying Scrum, C) utilizing project management tools, D) running effective teams. Freshman students should A) Show basic skills in breaking down given assignments into team tasks B) Be able to show concrete evidence of planning their projects C) Learn the basics of project planning tools D) Learn how to run team-based projects with minimal team conflict. Sophomore/junior students should A) Develop projects from a starting idea and be able to decompose it functionally B) Begin to apply Scrum methodology more fully C) Effectively use project planning tools D) Develop deeper understanding of team dynamics. Senior (capstone) students should A) Fully develop projects with clear functionality, specifications and deliverables; adjust project goals to changing customer requirements B) Implement full Scrum methodology C) Be fluent in using project planning tools D) Have very clear expectations and rules that lead to effective teamwork. Scrum for freshman students is stripped down to frequent meetings similar to daily Scrums, basic task planning, and maintaining a record of their plans using Trello. Faculty serve as product owners and there is no assigned scrum master. Sophomore and junior students are explained the basics of Scrum, decide on their own project, and are assigned an outside Scrum master. They are expected to develop product backlogs and run proper sprints. Senior students work on capstone projects with real customers, product owners, and scrum masters. In other words, they implement full Scrum methodology. In the full paper we will provide examples of assignments and scaffolding used in different years, along with assessment methodology and initial results. We hope that our experience and information provided will enable others to implement Scrum in their courses and programs

Assessing Scrum Project Management and Teamwork in Electrical and Computer Engineering Courses

Teamwork and project management are essential skills for engineering students, as recognized in the proposed new ABET topic area 7. Our team of instructors exposes students to project management techniques at multiple levels within our undergraduate ECE program. By learning project management early and practicing it often, students improve their teamwork efficacy in projects, courses, and in their future careers. Scrum is a cyclical project management technique commonly used in high-tech industries. Scrum provides a framework that facilitates teamwork through an adaptable and incremental process. Our variant of scrum is tailored to students working on engineering projects in a higher-education environment. We intend to better understand student learning of project management and teamwork so that we can improve our curriculum. We use scrum “artifacts” (schedules, user stories, kanban boards) as mechanisms for assessing team project management and use a rubric for evaluating the boards. Our initial observations of first-year students show that they need close guidance and supervision, such as through the use of templates and weekly kanban reviews. These interventions have resulted in marked improvement of student project management performance. One significant obstacle to implementation is the lack of assistants familiar with scrum. We intend to start a program that prepares upper-level undergraduate and graduate students to serve as team supervisors or scrum masters. We will report student self-assessment of the usefulness of scrum in their projects. To assess the effectiveness of student teamwork, we use a CATME Peer Evaluation survey, which garners information about team member contributions and experiences through self and peer evaluation. The tool measures team member contributions within five areas using a behaviorally-anchored rating scale: contributing to the team’s work; interacting with teammates; keeping the team on track; expecting quality; and, having related knowledge, skills and abilities. These areas align with our objectives for teaching project management within undergraduate ECE courses. Not surprisingly, initial results from CATME assessment indicate that first-year teams demonstrate less cohesion and do not perform as well as senior teams. By administering a CATME assessment mid-way through the term, malfunctioning teams are identified so that the instructor can intervene. We will present data and our evaluation in the full paper. We will also report on the scrum-related curricula that we use in our classes. In our experience, modern tools paired with careful planning of student activities help develop effective student teams and successful implementation of scrum-based project management