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Systems Engineering and Information Technology Education Through the ALIVE System

Paul Stanfield, Jerry Davis North Carolina A&T State University

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The environment and expectations facing graduating engineers have changed dramatically in the past decade. Graduate engineers are expected to contribute immediately in competitive environments with system engineering, information technology, and soft skills in addition to traditional engineering fundamentals. The ability of engineering education to produce graduates meeting these market demands will dictate its prominence and viability in the increasingly competitive technical education market. As a result, engineering education needs to develop innovative, portable delivery systems to produce these skills for a diverse and changing student population. This paper describes the prototype development and educational integration of such a delivery system, the NC A&T State Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering “Virtual Enterprise.” The Virtual Enterprise (VE) is a full scale manufacturing supply chain, integrated using information technology, and producing an actual product (desk clocks). Departmental laboratories are organized as business departments within the enterprise. The structure and development process for the VE is described. The curriculum integration of the VE is achieved through the ALIVE (Active Learning In the Virtual Enterprise) System. ALIVE is a set of twenty web-based learning modules based on the VE. It provides a practical and consistent means of developing systems engineering and information technology skills in engineering students reaching a variety of learning styles. Three learning module prototypes are described and demonstrated.

1. Background

The nature of engineering practice has changed significantly over the last three decades. The pace of change, driven by increased competitive pressures, has been particularly intense over the last decade. However, engineering education has not changed appreciably over that period. The growing gap between traditional engineering education and the result of many years of change in engineering practice has caused engineering school constituents to question the effectiveness of the programs 1.

1.1 Constituent Needs

Recent literature intended to survey industry needs for engineers produces strikingly similar results. The skills often found lacking in engineering graduates may be divided into three

Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright Ó 2002, American Society for Engineering Education

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Davis, J., & Stanfield, P. (2002, June), Systems Engineering And Information Technology Education Through The Alive System Paper presented at 2002 Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada. 10.18260/1-2--10642