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| November 2010 | Subscribe |
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In This Issue:
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I. Databytes |
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The Ebbs and Flows of Electrical and Computer EngineeringUndergraduate enrollment in electrical and computer engineering declined precipitously in the beginning of the decade, while tenured/tenure-track faculty appointments gradually increased. We've seen some recovery in the undergraduate numbers over the past two years. Graduate enrollment was less turbulent during this time. Although enrolled graduate students decreased by 15 percent from 2003 to 2005, enrollment returned to its historical high by 2009.
Other data trends can be viewed at www.asee.org/colleges.
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III. TEACHING TOOLBOX |
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JUDGEMENT CALLSHistory's ethical dilemmas and dark chapters hold lessons for tomorrow's engineers A couple of years ago, Marilyn Dyrud started checking television listings for programs covering the 1945 dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan. She was stunned to find none. "Television is a kind of barometer of public knowledge," she says, "and I was horrified, because we forget a lot of things, but we really can't forget that one." Her discovery led to the development of a new undergraduate seminar, "Rhetoric of Disaster," and more surprises: The students could not identify J. Robert Oppenheimer or the Manhattan Project, and only one knew when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.
Dyrud, a communications professor at the Oregon Institute of Technology, is known for her teaching of ethics and compelling use of historical case studies. Her courses fulfill an ethics requirement for OIT civil and mechanical engineering majors but also draw students from the departments of engineering technology, computer, and electrical engineering, as well as business, nursing, and medical technology. Those who joined the spring 2010 "Rhetoric of Disaster" soon made up for their initial ignorance. They went to work researching the development and deployment of the bomb, its environmental and human costs, and, most notably, the question of scientific responsibility. Dyrud's courses typically grapple with tough issues. In "Engineering, Business & the Holocaust," for example, students gain a view of Henry Ford that challenges the industrial legend. They learn how he shared Hitler's anti-Semitic ideology, how Ford's German subsidiary used slave labor, and how the Third Reich adapted assembly-line technology to speed the slaughter of Jews. They learn, as well, of other American businesses that aided the Nazis – notably IBM, which provided Germany with punch card technology to support the processing and extermination of internees in Dachau and other concentration camps. "It makes a huge impression on the students," says Dyrud, when they realize that, had they been living during that time, they might have gotten swept up in "drawing up the design of death camps, building the infrastructure, or playing around with IBM punch cards.'" The intent is not to shock but rather to push students to confront the kinds of ethical dilemmas they could one day encounter in their work. Important historical cases help expand students' understanding of professional conduct, so that business and engineering majors don't think narrowly about finance and regulations but also in terms of larger societal responsibility. Dyrud's courses always emphasize applied ethics: "So it's cases, cases, cases. Big cases, little cases, all sorts of cases; things in the newspaper, even." She adds, "I think, for the engineering crew, it's the application that makes the impression." The sinking of the Titanic, the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster, and the 2001 Enron scandal are all covered in another course, "Ethics in the Professions." The ramifications of such high-profile events can be overwhelming, so Dyrud also includes less well known events – a 1973 right-to-die case, factory fires, and the collapse of a molasses storage tank – that allow students to focus closely on critical thinking and decision making. While the Titanic makes the perfect introductory case study, a companion study of the 1915 Eastland disaster pushes students to ponder the unexpected consequences of even the best intended engineering decisions. The sinking of this Great Lakes excursion ship – which resulted in the deaths of 844 people – occurred as a direct outcome of safety legislation passed in the wake of the Titanic disaster. Some 16 tons of extra lifeboats and life belts contributed to the instability and overloading of the Eastland. The complex nature of ethics studies requires ongoing student interaction, Dyrud finds. She keeps lecturing to a minimum, focusing instead on small-group discussion, projects, presentations, videos, and even games. Early on, students are assigned to locate, examine, and respond to the professional codes for their field. The exercise helps them develop an understanding of the uses and limitations of professional standards. It also encourages them to think of themselves as professionals and to see the commonalities among different fields. Students respond to regular written prompts. "Where does a professional's loyalty lie?" is one query. The mix of different majors means they learn from one another, because "when you study an academic field, you don't just learn content," Dyrud points out. "You're learning a mode of thinking." Business students are often thinking about costs and benefits, whereas engineering students invariably respond to the loyalty prompt by intoning, "Safety, safety, safety." For the other students, "it's refreshing to hear that [engineers] put the public first – because that's us they're talking about." Beyond assigning frequent written work, presentations, and discussion, Dyrud presses students to think about how they express themselves as professionals. One exercise that challenges their view of technical writing as neutral and formulaic involves a study of memos by Nazi engineers. Students may be slow to realize what is being obscured by such euphemisms as "merchandise" – human prisoners – or "special treatment" – castration and sterilization. Once they make the connection, however, they're eager to discuss the ethical implications. Dyrud notes that the top 10 hiring criteria in industry involve so-called soft skills, such as communications, writing, and group collaboration – not technical ones. "The same goes for ethics," she says. "Employers prefer students who have already developed their own compass of ethics." Dyrud decided to teach professional ethics after hearing former Morton Thiokol engineer Roger Boisjoly, at the 1988 ASEE annual conference, describe his frustrated attempts to raise concerns about the solid rocket booster and delay the Space Shuttle Challenger launch. "I was so impressed with his presentation, with him personally, and what he went through," she says. Today, she seeks out guest speakers who can provide similar inspiration – professionals, whistleblowers, and victims. A local woman who spent her teenage years interned in Auschwitz and Dachau comes to relate her experience. "And that, out of anything we do, that makes the biggest impression on them," says Dyrud. Boisjoly, who spent 23 years speaking to university groups, concurs with her about the power of personal testimony. After every talk, he says, numbers of students would seek him out for further guidance. His key advice: "Always tell your [superiors] about what they need to know, instead of what you think they want to hear." Ideally, Dyrud feels, students should be introduced to ethics early on and then, over time, gain guidance in grappling with the complexities. Like Michael Davis of the Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, she advocates inserting ethical issues into standard engineering courses, in addition to offering separate ethics courses. What works less well is "farming it out to the philosophy department," where the highly theoretical language can leave engineering students cold. An ASEE Fellow who received the James H. McGraw Award this year for her contributions to engineering technology education, Dyrud says one of her "hidden agenda items" is for students to understand that "you don't do engineering in a vacuum; that whatever you design, whatever you decide, always has repercussions on someone else – a community or whatever – it's not just you."
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IV. JEE Selects |
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UNCOVERING STEM TALENTA math model shows students' potential is evident by the eighth grade. Five years ago, a blue-ribbon panel warned in "Rising Above the Gathering Storm" that the scientific and technical building blocks of U.S. economic leadership were eroding compared with other nations. One recommendation was to "enlarge the [STEM] pipeline by increasing the number of students who take AP/IB science and mathematics courses by creating opportunities and incentives for middle and high school students to pursue advanced work in science and mathematics." How bad is the situation? Of the 4 million first university degrees in science and engineering awarded worldwide in 2006, 21 percent were earned by students in China, compared with 11 percent by students in the United States. Science and engineering account for approximately one third of bachelor's degrees awarded in the United States, versus 63 percent of those in Japan, 53 percent in China, and 51 percent in Singapore. While these statistics seem bleak, our mathematical modeling shows there is potential to increase significantly the proportion of U.S. students studying science, technology, engineering, and mathematics – the STEM fields. In fact, educators can gain valuable insight into students' interest in and capability of ultimately completing a STEM degree as early as the eighth grade. Using a battery of sophisticated statistical techniques, we examined data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 containing over 11,000 student records from eighth grade through final educational outcomes. This data set includes a rich array of variables from school records, parents, educators, and students themselves. The variables examined included grades, mathematical skill assessments, standardized test scores, race and ethnicity, and gender. Additional variables reflected demographic characteristics; how students viewed their education; how their parents or guardians viewed the importance of education; the investment of personal time in school, work, and social activities; and student academic performance across multiple subjects. Students' final educational outcomes were classified as earning a four-year college degree in STEM, non-STEM, or in a STEM-related subjects, the latter being a category we created to examine students completing quantitative coursework for majors not traditionally considered STEM. Other outcomes included earning a two-year degree, completing high school, or dropping out of high school. We created a model to predict which students would earn a STEM degree as opposed to another outcome, and compared predicted and actual outcomes to measure model accuracy. We found that approximately half of students who earned a STEM-related or non-STEM degree would have been candidates to pursue a STEM degree, thereby increasing the pool of potential STEM students by as much as a factor of four. We believe the model has strong potential to select students for a pro-STEM intervention program. Our findings suggest three strategies to increase STEM enrollment: First, explore options to improve students' educational preparation before junior high school. By eighth grade, students struggling in mathematics are less prepared to keep up with the requisite math courses leading eventually to a STEM degree. Second, engage the interest of students in scientific and quantitative subjects so that they consider pursuing a STEM degree. Third, work to reduce the number of capable college students who, because of academic difficulties or waning interest, switch from STEM to other majors. Gillian M. Nicholls is an assistant professor of industrial and systems engineering and engineering management at the University of Alabama in Huntsville; at the University of Pittsburgh in the Department of Industrial Engineering, Harvey Wolfe is professor emeritus, Mary Besterfield-Sacre is an associate professor and faculty fellow and a center associate for the Learning Research and Development Center, and Larry J. Shuman is senior associate dean for academics and professor of industrial engineering. This article is based on "Predicting STEM Degree Outcomes Based on Eighth Grade Data and Standard Test Scores" in the July 2010 Journal of Engineering Education.
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V. NEW BOOK RELEASES (Sponsored Section) |
Distance Education Offered by Leading U.S. Schools of Engineering.
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VI. JOBS, JOBS, JOBS |
Mechanical Engineering Technology Tenure Track Faculty Position, Metropolitan State College of DenverMetropolitan State College of Denver invites applicants for a Mechanical Engineering Technology Tenure Track Faculty position, #F269, for a Fall 2011 start date. Required Qualifications: Master's degree with four years of relevant work experience; or Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering or a closely related field. MSCD is one of the largest public, baccalaureate colleges in the nation and offers all of the richness and diversity of a truly urban institution with over 24,000 students. Go to https://www.mscdjobs.com for full position announcement and to apply for this position. Deadline 1/17/2011. MSCD is an EO Employer. Job-hunting? Here are a few current openings:1. Biomedical Engineering -- 1 opportunity 2. Associate Dean -- 2 opportunities 3. Engineering Technology -- 1 opportunity 4. Structural Engineering -- 3 opportunities Visit here for details:
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VII. COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS |
ENABLING ENGINEERING STUDENT SUCCESS: THE FINAL REPORT FOR THE CENTER FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF ENGINEERING EDUCATION
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VIII. COMING ATTRACTIONS |
Upcoming in December’s Prism magazine:COVER STORY: With more and more information being stored and shared on the Internet, institutions from major corporations to the Pentagon are increasingly worried about cyber security. Our cover story explores what computer scientists at universities across the country are doing to outsmart cyber enemies. It's a tough challenge. As one researcher explains: "There’s no good science in terms of understanding overall systems these days.” FEATURE ONE: Last Spring's explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig killed 11 workers, injured 17 more and fouled the gulf with 170 million gallons of oil. It was America's worst environmental disaster, but, as our second feature shows, it also holds valuable lessons for today's engineering students. Gary Halada of Stony Brook University in New York calls such events "the Aesop's fables of our day." FEATURE TWO: Attracting women and underrepresented minorities to engineering has never been easy, but now the need is urgent, with demand for highly skilled engineers expected to rise in coming decades. Purdue University's College of Engineering may have hit on a solution, as our feature reports. It has launched an initiative called EPICS High, which engages high school students in engineering and technology projects focused on service learning.
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IX. SOUND OFF! |
Do you have a comment or suggestion for Connections? Please let us know. Email us at: connections@asee.org. Thanks!
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