Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Ken Vickers; Greg Salamo

graduates with a broader perspective. Beyonddiscipline-specific needs, our engineers need communication skills, the ability to work in teamsand to understand design and manufacturing processes, and a basic understanding of the contextin which engineering is practiced” [8].A key experimental educational method in the microEP graduate program is putting the programdirector in the roll of manager of a technology/engineering group in industry. The technologistsreporting to him are the microEP students, and the industry they are supporting is the“educational factory” that is producing technically trained graduates (themselves). Each studentmust meet the program director’s requirements for developing industrial soft skills as well astheir major

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Cecil Beeson; William Gay

an active, diverse community/business Advisory Committee.4. Keep relevant parties, e.g., administration, faculty, staff, public, students, informed.5. Develop and publish a 3-5 year operational plan and get appropriate approval signatures.6. Be prepared to keep program in sync with never ending technology changes.7. Secure high quality, dynamic faculty and invest in faculty development programs.8. Maintain statistics on everything, e.g., student satisfaction, student learning, program expenses, enrollments, drop out rates, job placement figures.9. Keep in touch with program graduates (they form an excellent advertising agency and can provide valuable feedback about your program).10. Build a

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Riffe J. William; Joel K. Berry; Raghu Echempati

course sequence follow the mission and goals of KetteringUniversity in general, and the goals of the respective departments in particular. The overalluniversity goal is to enhance the undergraduate and graduate education through hands-on educationand to promote inter-disciplinary applied research activities.The question is therefore raised: “Does concurrent coursework in real and virtual forming ofsheet metal enhance the understanding of the technology of both fields?” This paper describesthe beginning of an attempt to answer that question.BackgroundThe ME department consists of 38 full-time faculty and the IMEB Department has 29 facultymembers, out of which 7 serve the Manufacturing Systems Engineering students. During the lasttwo years