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Session 2532

Proposal for Full Integration of Electrical Engineering Undergraduate Programs Erol Inelmen Bogazici University, Bebek-Istanbul, TURKEY

Abstract

Electrical engineering requiring an ability to integrate knowledge from various disciplines - informatics, economics, technology and science- continues to be one of the most popular branches in engineering. Currently several engineering schools are introducing the "project centred learning" method to their educational system in order to “integrate” their curriculum. This approach was suggested by ASEE in a special report prepared in 1962. A survey into the curricula of local universities offering undergraduate programs in electrical engineering will show the difficulties encountered in implementing such an integrated approach, the conventional vision of curriculum development being strongly rooted in the mindset of the administration. One university currently involved in launching an integrated program -similar to the one started in the Drexel University- is hoping to meet the demands of industry in the next century.

I. Introduction

The report on "Characteristics of Excellence in Engineering Technology Education" prepared by the American Society for Engineering Education and published in the year 1962 pinpoints the issues that were considered at the time to be crucial in enhancing the quality of education. Among the issues covered in the report -grouped under the headings: faculty, students, curriculum and courses- the nature of the courses to be offered, is extensively evaluated. In this particular section, a warning is made on how "all too often students view their curriculum as a sequence of compartmentalized courses and fail to see how the material covered in the various courses is interretaled". This statement goes very well with the metaphore of "not been able to see the forest when one is lost amist the trees". Althought the report continues on giving some recommendations to improve this adverse situation, the author as an academician and practicioner of the engineering profession -for more than three decades now- has been always puzzled by the fact that "an integrative approach” for the engineering education is still very low in the agenda of many distinguished institutions 1

In search for a practical solution to the problem of integration in the engineering education, the author reviewed the papers published by the former Dean of Engineering in the Engineering Faculty of Bogazici University (the former American Robert College) in Turkey. These publications suggest -among many other recommendations- the means to integrate education using a "project centred learning" approach in education. Paradoxically these recommendations

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Inelmen, E. (1999, June), Proposal For Full Integration Of Electric Engineering Undergraduate Programs Paper presented at 1999 Annual Conference, Charlotte, North Carolina. 10.18260/1-2--7899