In 2013 before the ASEE annual conference, ASEE came out with Phase I of the ASEE TUEE Report as a five-year, four phase report sponsored by the NSF foundation. Phase I was input from a significant number of major companies on the Skill Sets (KSAs) that are needed in industry. Phase 2 was input from students, the final recommendations were issued in 2018.
The need is to shift from passive learning to student centered learning, when the SIG was formed, expected a flexible framework that could be developed for widespread adoption of the recommendations.
Members of the Corporate member council at the release of phase 1, knowing that it would take several more years to put the framework for widespread adoption of the results, so a special interest group was formed, called preparing students for professional practice. This SIG was set up to expedite that process and to get a pilot to develop that. Mr. Jones agreed to be the Chair for this special interest group.
The consensus of this group was to use best practice Sr. Design projects across the country for initial implementation, including University of Florida and Harvey Mudd College.
In 2015, Olin and Cal State LA with panels on the presentations. After this, the session evolved into a mini-workshop; and the notion was to setup an industry education consortium connection in the following February with a major pre-conference workshop with executives, companies, deans, as a start for developing the framework advocated in the TUEE study.
About 6 or 7 universities, including U Fla, Michigan Tech, Ohio State. Several companies including Medtronic, Boeing. It was decided to hold this preconference workshop at CIEC (February); and to have an initial discussion session and a full day workshop and present the results at the major discussion during the conference.
A follow up conference call, and the capstone directors were concerned they could not get the Deans to be available for the workshop; particularly at large universities where each university does their own thins with respect to capstones (full year, semester project, corporate sponsored project, etc. – even within the same university.) The large universities were maxed out at about 20 sponsored project per year covering about 100 students out of graduating classes of over 1000.
A Dean representing the university – were not going to be able to do this. The company representatives, CTOs and VPs of engineering were also to get in attendance due to a lack of a corporate strategy at the Universities. The summer-time acquisition of projects by faculty for the following term’s Sr. projects was just proving to be insufficient. This has been the model for decades and remains the primary model today.
From 2008-2013, Mr. Jones’ CURG (founded in 2006) following his term at Harvey Mudd College, was founded with the intent of bringing student centered learning more into the mainstream of undergraduate engineering education; the project learning such as at Harvey Mudd College, and was beginning at Olin College, a new Engineering School at the time, The HMC Clinic program and Olin Scope program run with this this student project teams. Other than the Olin experience, nothing similar had been developed, and no large University has come close to implementing this type of program.
By the time of the 2015 Industry Education Consortium, still noting had really changed.
2008-2013, CURG had contracts with 9 Universities; and the best outcomes were 3 best practice Sr. Design Programs; all of which when meeting with companies, CURG helped to facilitate, and in all cases, promoting to companies, in a addition to Sr. Design projects, but developing a design spine eventually, similar to HMC and Olin. Better coordinate internships and projects so that students were more engaged with companies, using their co-curricular and experiential education to tie into their project learning. However, there is noting similar a large universities, or even coordinated between different university departments. The end results were limited to stand-alone Sr. design projects, despite interest from the companies.
Cal State LA received corporate member council industry-education collaboration award for their professional practice program.