Engineering Reimagined: (Re)designing Next-Generation Engineering Curricula for Industry 5.0
- Conference
- Location
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Wentworth Institute of Technology, Massachusetts
- Publication Date
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April 22, 2022
- Start Date
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April 22, 2022
- End Date
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April 23, 2022
- Page Count
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13
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--42171
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/42171
- Download Count
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511
Paper Authors
Filip Cuckov
Wentworth Institute of Technology
orcid.org/0000-0002-7504-0547
Dr. Filip Čučkov is an Assistant Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Program at Wentworth Institute of Technology (WIT). His expertise is in designing embedded computing architectures for Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) and developing technologies and engineering solutions for robotics, automated systems, and human-in-the-loop CPS. He is passionate about engineering education and integrating students into his research program. Dr. Čučkov is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a member of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), and the Project Management Institute (PMI).
Marisha Rawlins Wentworth Institute of Technology
Dr. Marisha Rawlins is an Assistant Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Program at Wentworth Institute of Technology (WIT). Her research interests include computer architecture optimizations, embedded systems and devices used in teaching and healthcare, and methods and systems for improving teaching and learning. Dr. Rawlins received her PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from The University of Florida. Prior to working at WIT, she was an Assistant Professor in Computer Engineering, and the Discipline Coordinator for the BASc in Computer Engineering and the MSc in Information and Communication Technology Programmes, at The University of Trinidad and Tobago.
Pilin Junsangsri Wentworth Institute of Technology
Wayne Bynoe Wentworth Institute of Technology
I am a professor in the School of Engineering at Wentworth Institute of Technology. My area of specialization is Computer Networks. I worked for over 2 decades as a Technical Staff member at MIT Lincoln Laboratory in the areas of computer network modeling and simulation and high performance processor design for signal processing applications.
James R McCusker PhD Wentworth Institute of Technology
James R. McCusker is an Associate Professor at Wentworth Institute of Technology in the Department of Electrical Engineering. Since joining Wentworth in 2010, he has been heavily involved with an array of interdisciplinary design courses that range from introductory to capstone courses.
José R. Sánchez Wentworth Institute of Technology
Dr. José R. Sánchez, as of July 2020, is the Dean of the School of Engineering at Wentworth Institute of Technology. He has devoted his career to providing students with transformative experiences in the classroom to ensure that they are lifelong learners. Before Wentworth, Dr. Sánchez was at the University of Indianapolis (UIndy). At UIndy, he launched seven innovative engineering programs and served as the Founding Director of the R.B. Annis School of Engineering and Associate Dean in the Shaheen College of Arts & Sciences. Before his time at UIndy, he spent from 2002-2016 at Bradley University, where he served as a teacher-scholar in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. In 2011, he was the recipient of the university-wide Caterpillar, Inc. Faculty Achievement Award for Teaching. His research interests lie in embedded systems and signal processing, emphasizing medical diagnostics and musical instrument modeling, and engineering education research. Dr. Sánchez is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Additionally, he is a member of the American Society for Engineering Education, the Project Management Institute, and Tau Beta Pi. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering from Bradley University and his doctoral degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Abstract
At our institution, like many others worldwide, it has been over a decade since we have imagined and designed our engineering curricula. Since then, we have ensured and confirmed compliance with accreditation agencies, perfected the delivery of courses, and assessed learning outcomes to ensure that our graduates can be successful in all the different stages of their careers. The problem is that in the last ten years the careers that await our graduates have changed fundamentally such that our curricula of today effectively do not prepare our students for the careers of tomorrow. More importantly, the way students learn has also fundamentally changed, swiftly rendering our instructional methodologies obsolete. Our motivation is the redesign our engineering curricula such that they can transcend the competency gap between the graduates of today and the careers of tomorrow.
In this paper, we focus on the redesign of our Computer Engineering (CE) curriculum and describe the reimagining process, which phase one started with the program faculty examining our latest curriculum via a set of guided questions to identify if and how it meets the future needs of industry and the learning approaches of our students, present and future. The faculty identified that the program was lacking in some areas and could be reimagined such that it can: provide skills that can be adjusted and adapted to new areas, allow for more flexibility and humanity in the treatment of students and faculty, focus on future fields (e.g., artificial intelligence, machine learning, internet of things) while meeting core learning outcomes, strongly push students towards independent learning, and provide the big picture of the learning outcomes and trajectory early and often. In phase two of the process, the faculty reached out to: industry partners to obtain insight into the desired skills of the CE graduates of tomorrow, our learning and teaching support staff to reveal modern teaching practices and tools that could be leveraged by our next generation curricula, and other CE programs to identify how they are adapting to the same challenges. The findings from the research, detailed in the remainder of this paper, were used to fuel the third phase of the Engineering Reimagined project, where the program faculty holistically considered all the feedback, including that of other university-wide committees, focused on inclusive excellence and student retention, to define the learning outcomes of the entire program and map them in knowledge areas, which are then encapsulated in classes (new and existing) that are finally scaffolded in our next-generation CE curriculum.
Cuckov, F., & Rawlins, M., & Junsangsri, P., & Bynoe, W., & McCusker, J. R., & Sánchez, J. R. (2022, April), Engineering Reimagined: (Re)designing Next-Generation Engineering Curricula for Industry 5.0 Paper presented at ASEE-NE 2022, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Massachusetts. 10.18260/1-2--42171
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