Infusing the Curriculum with Cutting-edge Technologies through Partnerships with Industry

To ensure that curricula and course content reflect both academic and industry standards the School of Engineering and Computing Sciences (SoECS) at NYIT believes that course content must include elements of contextual teaching and learning (CTL) which emphasizes the relationship of course content to real-life situations 1,2 . It is expected that CTL which incorporates 1. hands-on activities 2. work-based learning experiences and 3. project-based learning will engage today’s students more thoroughly than the traditional lecture/textbook/dialogue models of education do. This is in line with the overall mission of NYIT which is to provide its students with a career-oriented education and a commitment to practical application-oriented research that will benefit both local and global communities. As such, the SoECS embarked on pilot projects which seek to infuse our engineering, technology and computer science programs with cutting-edge technologies through partnerships with industry. This paper will discuss in detail, one particular partnership with Quanser, to develop pedagogy that incorporated contextual teaching and learning that led to effective “Collaborative Undergraduate Lab” materials. These materials have now been incorporated into the curricula and are expected to provide our undergraduate engineering students with the professional skills demanded of a “Global Engineer”. Both Quanser’s and NYIT’s commitments to the pilot project will be described and an assessment of their effectiveness, as well as, an assessment of the curriculum developed and the pedagogy will be given so that the project can be duplicated at our other campuses and for other institutions as well. As both our engineering and technology programs are ABET accredited, course and program outcomes will be consistent with ABET outcomes a to k and will be assessed using Faculty Course Assessment Reports (FCARs). Introduction The engineering and technology programs are prominent among the undergraduate disciplines that benefit most from experiential learning. Despite a comprehensive classroom and laboratory curriculum, program outcomes are best achieved when course content includes elements of contextual teaching and learning (CTL) as even the most complex academic engineering exercises fail to capture the project and work –based learning experiences that are found in industry. To address both the outcomes of the program and the expectations of industry, the SoECS embarked on a pilot project with Quanser which led to collaborative and project-based learning in senior and master level capstone projects. This industry partnership provided our students with career-oriented education as well as a commitment to practical application-oriented research for the benefit of both local and global communities. The senior capstone projects are taken by students in the fall and spring semesters of their fourth year. At this point in the curriculum, students have completed nearly all of their required technical coursework. They are expected to complete a design project under the guidance of a faculty advisor that draws significantly on the knowledge and skills acquired in previous lecture and laboratory course work. The work requires a written and oral proposal, followed by periodic progress reports and culminates in a completed product and presentation. The students are expected to look beyond the design analysis and deliver a project design that reflects and incorporates engineering standards, realistic constraints and technologies found in industry. From the SoECS’ perspective these senior projects provide, through assessment, an invaluable quantitative measure of the program’s ABET outcomes that is not easily drawn solely from graded course material. This paper will discuss in detail the SoECS’ partnership with Quanser and the commitments that both we and they made to ensure successful pedagogical outcomes as well as an assessment of their effectiveness. Our experience/agreement with Quanser will serve as a model for our developing partnership with Balfour Technologies. Quanser Quanser is a Canadian company that provides hi-performance control solutions for complex industrial problems. It is also a world leader in education and research-based systems for real-time control design and implementation, providing control challenges for all levels of university education and research As a partner institution we are using Quanser’s Turnkey Labs (QTLs) which provide the cutting edge hardware and software for the development of mechatronics and controls experiments and “challenges”. The QTLs provide the SoECS with the CTL tools to teach successful and exciting control laboratories in both the engineering and technology programs as well as our senior design projects. By working in such an innovative manner – for example developing a controller for a simulation and digitally sending it to another site for implementation – students are also gaining valuable experience related to the important professional skills of: • project management (task and schedule planning and integration), • teamwork and a willingness to respect the opinions of others, • communication (written, oral, graphic, listening, and digital and Internet collaboration tools), • working as a “Global Engineer” (interacting at first with teams of students, via the web, at dfferent locations i.e. our two campuses in Manhattan and Old Westbury, and later across the world at our campus in Nanjing, China) Consideration has also been given to deliberately embedding erroneous data in the model and/or changing the specifications of the motor and/or encoder midexperiment so students understand the need for flexibility and the ability to adapt to rapid, continuous or major changes. These materials are now being incorporated into the curricula and are providing our undergraduate engineering and technology students with the professional skills demanded of today’s “Global Engineer” Quanser Commitments • Quanser has provided NYIT with the specific pre-requisite skills needed by students participating in the pilot study. • Quanser has lent NYIT Quanser Turnkey Laboratories (QTLs) including hardware, software and curriculum for the duration of the pilot study. • Quanser’s engineers have worked with NYIT instructors to integrate the QTLs with NYIT’s existing equipment and licenses to ensure a superior mechatronics teaching environment. • Additionally, Quanser’s engineers are training NYIT faculty to implement the QTLs in the Senior Design Project (EENG491.) as well as other control courses deemed to be appropriate. • Also, Quanser engineers have worked with NYIT faculty to design the pilot study’s specific mechatronics and controls experiments and challenges and to incorporate experience in the professional skills required of a Global Engineer. SoECS Commitments • The SoECS’ lab managers have worked with Quanser’s engineers to integrate the QTLs with SoECS’ existing equipment and licenses to ensure a superior controls teaching environment. • The SoECS’ faculty has integrated the QTLs into appropriate controls courses and the Senior Design Project (EENG 491.) • Also, the SoECS’ faculty has worked with Quanser’s engineers to design the pilot study’s specific control experiments and challenges and to incorporate that experience in the professional skills required of a Global Engineer. • The SoECS is providing Quanser with periodic pilot study student progress reports and will provide a final pilot study report addressing the questions posed below and including recommended pedagogy for establishing truly effective Collaborative Undergraduate Labs. The flow chart that follows (see Figure 1) is meant to provide a structure so that Quanser, working in tandem with faculty can: • best understand firsthand what difficulties students encounter • determine at which point guidance is required • determine strengths and weaknesses of the skill set students bring to the capstone courses.