Conference Session

Recruitment, Retention, and First-year Programs in ECE

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David Wilczynski, University of Southern California; Gisele Ragusa, University of Southern California; Michael Crowley, University of Southern California

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

agentprogramming. We teach pedagogic material for the first half of the semester; then in the secondhalf, students form inter-class teams for their main project. The PM class trains students inproject management and other soft skills and then puts them on the line managing the C3/C4teams. Many of the PM students have already taken the C3/C4 sequence, but we have graduatestudents who have not. The projects are sophisticated, requiring significant design, scheduling,and teamwork over an eight week period. In addition, because students in C4 have already takenC3, they are in a position to mentor the younger students even though the projects are differentfrom semester to semester.We have received validation that this approach is working. In class surveys

Conference Session

ABET Accreditation, Assessment, and Program Improvement in ECE

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Diana G. de la Rosa-Pohl, University of Houston

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

currentoccupation. A survey of science and engineering graduates found that only about 40 percent ofbachelor's degree holders felt that their job required skills that were "closely related" to their Page 25.468.2college major [6]. Many feel that the skills that they have learned in their technical programs arenot being utilized on the job [7]. Traits that are in demand in industry (such as the non-technicalskills, or ―soft skills‖) often come into conflict with the actual training that engineers acquireduring their degree programs, while the math and design skills that are emphasized in schoolremain underutilized. However, when practicing engineers