{"339161":{"#nid":"339161","#data":{"type":"news","title":"ECE Reenergizes Engineering Education","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u201cDrownproofing,\u201d Georgia Institute of Technology\u2019s legendary and sometimes reviled tradition that taught swim coach Fred Lanoue\u2019s water survival technique, has been gone from the curriculum since 1988. While Georgia Tech has always had a reputation for providing a world-class education, an interesting thought to ponder is \u201cWhat is today\u2019s version of Drownproofing?\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn recent years, executive leadership in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) has asked the questions \u201cWhat life skills are we providing to current ECE students?\u201d and \u201cWhat is the best way to teach those skills?\u201d One reason ECE\u2019s Innovation in Education Committee was formed was to answer them. The committee, which is co-chaired by Bonnie Ferri, associate chair for undergraduate affairs, and Doug Williams, senior associate chair, has developed and launched innovative teaching methods that move ECE away from the traditional focus on \u003Cem\u003Ewhat we teach\u003C\/em\u003E to the broader framework of \u003Cem\u003Ehow we teach\u003C\/em\u003E. The result is a curriculum emphasizing real-world application, teamwork, and creative problem solving that prepares students for the global workplace and gives them the confidence to impact the world. Following are some examples of leading-edge methods that ECE employs.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EHands-on Education\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EECE is a leader on the Georgia Tech campus and among ECE departments across the country in integrating student-owned devices into lecture-based courses. The School\u2019s curriculum includes eight classes that use either a digital acquisition board or a microcontroller kit, allowing students to work on projects and experiments any time and anywhere\u2014from dorm rooms to classrooms. The result is improved learning of fundamental concepts and retention of information, as well as student confidence in their competency of the material. Almost 2,300 ECE students are involved in hands-on learning each year.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EFlipped Classes\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ELectures are delivered online with the class period dedicated to interactive and hands-on teaching. ECE leads the campus in the number of flipped classes and volume of students. The current ECE curriculum includes eight undergraduate courses and two graduate courses that follow this model and feature topics such as robotics, optics, circuits, and electromagnetics. ECE faculty members who have taught a flipped class are Bonnie Ferri, Vincent Mooney, Alenka Zajic, Morris Cohen, Magnus Egerstedt, Tom Gaylord, and Mary Ann Weitnauer.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMassive Open Online Courses\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe School has successfully experimented with three Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): \u003Cem\u003ELinear Circuits\u003C\/em\u003E, taught by Bonnie Ferri, Bruno Frasier, and Nathan Parrish; \u003Cem\u003EIntroduction to Electronics\u003C\/em\u003E, taught by Bonnie Ferri and Allen Robinson; and \u003Cem\u003EControl of Mobile Robots\u003C\/em\u003E, taught by Magnus Egerstedt. Students from all over the world have signed up for these courses in impressive numbers. For example, the \u003Cem\u003ELinear Circuits\u003C\/em\u003E course has just finished its third offering with a total of 42,000 student registrants, 400,000 completed homework problems, and more than a million lecture views.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EUndergraduate Research\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EECE offers undergraduate students a variety of ways to get involved in leading-edge research projects and gain hands-on experience to complement their studies. Individual or group projects can be short- or long-term and cover a wide range of student interests from NASA-sponsored rocket propelled vehicles to robots that play music alongside humans. Options for undergraduate research include:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003EOpportunity Research Scholars Program (ORS)\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EVertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Program\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EECE\u0027s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP)\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EThe Research Option in ECE\u003C\/li\u003E\u003C\/ul\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EOnline Learning Networks\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) is an online question and answer system for concept practice that was developed by ECE Professor Jim McClellan and a team from the Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Program. It was first used in \u003Cem\u003EIntroduction to Signal Processing\u003C\/em\u003E (ECE-2025\/6) in\u0026nbsp;fall 2009 and quickly became an essential part of the homework\u0026nbsp;assignments, providing more than 273 questions for practice.\u0026nbsp;Since 2010, 1,732 students have used ITS in the course, and they have answered a total of 353,851 questions.\u003Cstrong\u003E \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPiazza is a third party, online Q \u0026amp; A platform where students, TAs, and professors come together to learn and teach. Anyone can ask and answer questions on this community-edited platform. The platform is integrated with T-Square and enables students to do labs remotely, post pictures, and use the discussion forum to help each other.\u003Cstrong\u003E \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EReal-world Experience\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ESenior undergraduate students apply knowledge and skills from earlier coursework to solve real-world challenges in the two-semester Senior Design course sequence. Working in teams, students complete a project requiring specification, design, implementation, and testing. Projects are often multidisciplinary, allowing students to gain cross training in other engineering fields. The student teams\u2019 efforts are showcased at an end-of-semester Capstone Design Expo, which is the largest in the country.\u003Cstrong\u003E \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EEntrepreneurial Confidence\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn addition to preparing students to hit the ground running in industry, ECE also equips them with one of the most important life skills\u2014the ability to create their own jobs. The ECE curriculum fosters entrepreneurial confidence.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003ECenter for Engineering and Technology Entrepreneurship (CREATE):\u0026nbsp; An online map of campus entrepreneurship resources, courses, mentorships, and ECE startups.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EStartup Lab and Startup Summer courses teach students how to create a startup from customer discovery to developing a minimum viable product.\u003Cstrong\u003E \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/li\u003E\u003C\/ul\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFerri, who has been at the forefront of the School\u2019s education innovations, says, \u201cIn today\u2019s university system it\u2019s easy for small departments to experiment with new forms of teaching, but what makes ECE\u2019s work in this area so groundbreaking is our size. We are the largest producer of electrical and computer engineers in the country and we are using incredibly innovative methods at a huge scale. In fact, our faculty has been invited to speak in workshops all over the country to share our methods with peer institutions. I\u2019m proud to be a part of a team that is changing the face of engineering education.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EECE has developed and launched innovative teaching methods that move away from the traditional focus on \u003Cem\u003Ewhat we teach\u003C\/em\u003E to the broader framework of \u003Cem\u003Ehow we teach\u003C\/em\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"ECE has developed and launched innovative teaching methods that move away from the traditional focus on what we teach to the broader framework of how we teach."}],"uid":"27842","created_gmt":"2014-11-03 12:02:51","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:17:23","author":"Ashlee 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