“relevant employability skills… before graduation.” In this case, employabilityskills are skills employers look for in potential hires that can serve as a metric for evaluatingperformance [2]. Due to the broadness of the term “employability skills” there is no definitive list ofwhich employability skills students are to gain, or what skills are to be transferred. Thismakes skill development difficult to track. There is, however, an expectation for co-opstudents to perform according to a standard. Competency lists exist for engineering bodiesand curriculums (such as CEAB and ABET) that schools adhere to. This gives programdirectors a focal point to develop curriculums around and a list of skills can then emerge.Even with these lists and the
, the students’performance is impacted by this intrinsic motivation [5].Integrating industry into engineering classes as well as getting students out intoindustrial/professional environments help to prepare students for their future careers [6].However, finding ways to also integrate professional skills into engineering core curriculum canbe a challenge [7]. This paper will present one way in which the Grand Valley State University(GVSU) School of Engineering has sought to incorporate professional skills into their co-opwork experience in order to provide students with an opportunity to identify and propose aproject that can be completed as they progress through the engineering program.BackgroundThe GVSU School of Engineering has an industry
Paper ID #28792A Design Thinking Approach to Increasing Student Efficacy in theInternship Search ProcessDr. Katherine McConnell, University of Colorado Boulder Katherine McConnell is a Senior Professional Development Advisor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her work focuses on the integration of experiential learning, industry connections, and career-oriented education across the curriculum. c American Society for Engineering Education, 2020 A Design Thinking Approach to Increasing Student Efficacy in the
. Heer joined the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Oregon State University as a member of the professional faculty. In this role, he coordinates the TekBots R program development and implementation. In addition to his research interests in creating innovative engineering education experiences, he is also performing his Ph.D. research in the area of integrated sensor systems using nanotechnology.Donald Heer, Oregon State University Heer works on the development of the TekBotsTM and Platforms for LearningTM program in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Oregon State University. As the Educational Research and Development Coordinator, he has coordinated the curriculum
education curriculum with a focus on laboratory courses for the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. His courses leverage project-based learning, experiential learning, and self-paced activities. David has over ten years of industry experience specializing in mixed-signal RF integrated circuit design, power systems, and power electronics.Mr. Ben Guengerich, University of Minnesota - Anderson Student Innovation Labs Ben Guengerich is the Manager of the Anderson Student Innovation Labs at the University of Minnesota. The labs provide engineering students open access to prototyping equipment and give them the freedom to work on projects aligned with their personal and
GovernmentCreating the Foundation for Exploration—Engineering 110Establishing a strong mechanism to support students in the intentional exploration of learningexperiences is integral to the success of the experiential learning framework. In order toaccomplish this, we will leverage Engineering 110, an existing elective course that currentlyserves around 300 students per year (approximately 20% of first-year engineeringstudents). Engineering 110 provides students the opportunity to explore the breadth ofeducational and career opportunities available to engineers.Engineering 110 is engaged in a multiyear redesign process through a University-wide effort totransform high-impact, large-enrollment introductory courses at U-M. Prior to this effort, thecourse was
theworkplace. However, engineering students struggle in transitioning into full-time work [10]–[13]. When asked why they were struggling, students expressed that they did not expect thevariety or complexity of the problems they were facing as engineers [10]. They felt unprepared[10] and that previous work experience was the only way to build the skills necessary to solvethese problems [13]. This struggle to transition into full-time work could be related to thedifferences in what knowledge, skills, or abilities are valued in an engineering curriculum overindustry [10], [12], [13]. To combat this struggle, academia can provide students opportunitiesfor work or work-like experiences throughout the curriculum.One such way to provide work experiences to
determining the frequency of communication types, it was foundthat students learned more about these forms of communication during their internship than theydid from their college curriculum. While this result highlighted a key benefit of completing anindustrial internship, it also indicated a gap between the communication skills taught in theclassroom and those required of a career in industry.To begin to address this gap, a workshop was developed to teach students key communicationskills that are required for success in industry. All students completing an internship during theSpring 2020 semester were invited to participate, but attendance was voluntary. Skillshighlighted through the workshop include: audience analysis (how to correctly
Paper ID #30688The Influence of Experiential Learning on Student ProfessionalDevelopment: A Literature ReviewBeata Johnson, Purdue University-Main Campus, West Lafayette (College of Engineering) Beata Johnson is an Engineering Education Ph.D. student at Purdue University and recipient of an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. She received her BS in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University. Her research interests include extracurricular and experiential learning in engineering education, students’ pathways through engineering education, and transition to the workforce.Dr. Joyce B. Main, Purdue University at West Lafayette
-op program as students need some engineeringknowledge and skills before entering the workforce. As a result, the engineering curriculum wasdesigned so that engineering-specific courses were pushed earlier into the students’ academiccareers and general education courses were spread out more evenly over the course of theprogram. Recognizing that engineering professionals need to be able to write [16], [17] projectproposals, proposal development and technical writing was integrated into the secondcooperative education semester and well in advance of the senior design project.As enrollment in engineering programs grew, managing the volume of co-op placements andindustry projects became more challenging. Additional faculty were hired to manage
Paper ID #28305Research Experience for Undergraduates Social Programs: A Key Ingredientfor SuccessDr. Jeremy Straub, North Dakota State University Jeremy Straub is the Associate Director of the NDSU Institute for Cyber Security Education and Research and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the North Dakota State University. He holds a Ph.D. in Scientific Computing, an M.S. and an M.B.A. and has published over 40 journal articles and over 120 full conference papers, in addition to making numerous other conference presenta- tions. Straub’s research spans the gauntlet between technology