ECE Academy Update – Apr 2015 D. Beetner 1

ECE Department Update

Daryl BeetnerApril, 2015

ECE Academy Update – Apr 2015 D. Beetner 2

Overview

• The new leadership– Vision of the chair

• State of the department• New and ongoing Initiatives• Emphasis areas• 2014 ABET visit

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A change in leadership

• A new provost: Dr. Robert Marley• A new Dean: Dr. Ian Ferguson• A new ECE Chair: Dr. Daryl Beetner

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The new chair• Grew up in Edwardsville, IL• Graduate degree at Washington University• 16 years at Missouri S&T

– 2 NSF CCLI awards– 16 educational publications– Several teaching commendations and awards– $16M funding, primarily from industry– 2 Faculty Excellence Awards– Associate Chair for Computer Engineering

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Vision

• Student success is priority one– Unrivaled education– Great prospects

• World-class research and discovery• A great place to learn, work, and grow

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STATE OF THE DEPARTMENT

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Total Enrollment

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2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

ECE EnrollmentGradCpEGradEEBSCpEBSEE

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2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

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Off-campus students

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2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

ECE Off Campus Fall EnrollmentGradCpEGradEEBSEE

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2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

ECE Off Campus Fall EnrollmentBSEEGradEEGradCpE

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Faculty• 30 T/TT faculty• 6 Teaching faculty

– 2 in Springfield• 3 Research faculty

• Five new faculty– Dr. Egeman Cetinkaya– Dr. Jhi-Young Joo– Dr. Victor Khilkevich– Dr. Misha Cutitaru– Dr. Amardeep Kaur

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Undergraduate awards• Matt Horst: ASNT Engineering

Undergraduate Award• HKN Outstanding Chapter

Award• Keenan Johnson, guest editor

and feature author of HKN Bridge

• Mason Marshal and Benjamin Miller, Outstanding Undergraduate Poster, ASEE Midwest conference

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Undergraduate Awards• Justin Hoyt, 1st place, IEEE St.

Louis Section paper competition• 2nd Place, IEEE St. Louis Section

Black Box competition• Trevor McCasland, IEEE St. Louis

Section Outstanding Student Member

• Kaitlyn Schikore, finalist for the 2014 national IEEE-HKN Outstanding Student Award

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Undergraduate Awards• Ben Toby, EMC Society James

Kouda Memorial Scholarship• Thomas Roth: Microwave

Theory and Techniques Undergraduate Scholarship

• Devin Cornell, 2015 WISE program

• Emily Hernandez, selected for NSF/ASEE workshop on Transforming Undergraduate Education in Engineering

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Faculty awards• Dr. Pommerenke and Dr. Zheng

elevated to IEEE Fellow– 9 ECE Fellows at S&T

• Dr. Xiao: Humboldt Research Award

• Dr. Fan: S&T Faculty Research Award

• Dr. Donnell: S&T Faculty Teaching Award

• Dr. Kimball and Dr. Shi: S&T Faculty Excellence Awards

• Dr. Shi: IEEE St Louis Chapter Outstanding Educator Award

C. Xiao is congratulated by German Federal President Joachim Gauck for receiving the Humboldt Research Award.

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Faculty Awards• Dr. Kimball: MACADA outstanding advisor• Dr. Ghasr: IEEE-I&M Outstanding Young

Engineer, and J. Barry Oakes Advancement Awards

• EMC Group: IEEE EMC Symposium Best EMC student paper, Best SI paper, Best SI student paper, Best student design, President’s memorial award

• Dr. Zoughi: President of IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society

• Four outstanding teaching awards and seven teaching commendations

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Research Expenditures

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NEW AND ONGOING INITIATIVES

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Planned initiatives

• Hire an Advising and Recruiting Specialist• Increased focus on distance education• Increased use of blended learning • Improved feedback and focus on

outstanding teaching• Improved senior design experience

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Initiative: Advising and Recruiting Specialist

• Some great faculty advisors, but room for improvement– Inconsistency– Specialty– Chemistry– Time– Tracking underperforming students– Non-thesis MS advising

• Significant opportunities for recruiting

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Advising specialist in ME

• Handles all but top ME students to graduation

• Picking classes a small part of her job– Develops class recommendations long before

advising week– Meets students throughout semester for

“other issues”• Technical issues handled by faculty

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Advising specialist• Specializes in advising

– Substantially more training• Always available• More students take advantage of advising than

with faculty• Many students prefer her to a faculty advisor

– Supported by literature• Has time to be a really excellent advisor

– Spends much more time/student than a typical faculty– Number deficiency students has dropped

substantially– Gives seminars on advising issues

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Potential issues

• Technical advising for questions like:– Which specialty? – Which classes for specialty?– Where to work?– Graduate school?

• Connecting with students– Research– Other opportunities

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Tentative plan• Create an “Advising and Student Welcome

Center”• Advising specialist:

– Advises majority of ECE undergraduates – Top students assigned to faculty. – All students given faculty technical advisor.– Conducts or coordinates majority of ECE

recruiting activity• MS non-thesis advisees split among faculty

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Advantages• Consistency

– Minimal bouncing between advisors;• Staff advisor known and available to all

students; • All students can meet with faculty;• Students with greatest need for attention will

have it; • Faculty remain connected to advising

process and to students

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Does the ECE Academy support the hiring of a staff advising and recruiting

specialist?

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Initiative: Distance education

• Opportunity to better serve students and industry – and stay relevant

• Tuition: 20% to department and 20% to faculty– $35k in FY12 for 14 courses– Few “on-line” offerings– 1 course/year/faculty with 5 students = $93k

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Requirements

• Better infrastructure• Focused attention• High-quality, consistent, targeted course

offerings• Better advertising• Improved advising

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Associate Chair for Distance Education

• Will receive some summer salary and will be released 1 course/year

• Focus on– Customer needs and recruitment– New course/certificate development

• Leveraging strengths to meet needs– Which classes offered and when– Advising– Marketing and promotion

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Does the ECE Academy support the increased focus on distance education?

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Initiatives: Blended Learning

• Students spend time with video or computer-based lectures before class

• Class time spent in team-based active learning

Frequency Response Video LessonThe basic material is constructed in advance, annotations and explanations added during recording just as during traditional lecture

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Impact in Circuits II

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Does the ECE Academy support the use of blended learning in sophomore level

courses?

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Initiatives: Teaching committee• Student-teacher ratings are imperfect• Some faculty are struggling• Teaching Committee

– 3-4 faculty well known for teaching– Review faculty 2-3 years before promotion/tenure

• Lecture, syllabus, problems, exams• Interview students

– Recommend improvements– Write a review as a committee– Assist other faculty as time permits

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Initiatives: Improve Senior Design

• Many good projects, good experiences but inconsistency in difficulty, expectations, commitment, success.

• Direction– Strengthening expectations and rubrics – Growing a “Senior Design Czar”– Developing a “Senior Design Showcase”– Hoping for more industry sponsorship/

involvement

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Ongoing initiative: Enhancement of Undergraduate Controls Lab

• $70k campus match, $90k donations– ECE Academy, Anheuser-Busch,

Automation and Control Concepts, ArcelorMittal, Burns and McDonnell, CPM Beta Raven, Intelligrated, McEneryAutomation, Nucor-Yamato Steel, Siemens, Dr. Keith Stanek

• Supports new required controls lab and new motion controls lab

• Enhancement complete in Fall.Three-axis gantry finishing drawing an “R”

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Ongoing initiative: Enhancement of Undergraduate Controls Lab

Rotary knife labSiemens servo motor (left) and variable speed induction motor (right)

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Completed initiative: Historical Displays

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EMPHASIS AREAS

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EE BS Emphasis Areas• Circuits and Electronics: El Eng 3120, 41XX, and 51XX

Courses• Optics and Devices: El Eng 3250, 42XX, and 52XX Courses• Controls and Systems: El Eng 3340, 43XX, and 53XX

Courses• Communications and Signal Processing: El Eng 3410,

3440, 44XX, and 54XX Courses• Power and Energy: El Eng 3500 or 3540, 5150, 45XX, and

55XX Courses• Electromagnetics: El Eng 46XX and 56XX Courses• Computer Engineering: El Eng 3410, Cp Eng 3XXX-level or

above Courses (Excluding Cp Eng 3000, 4000, 5000, 3002, 4096, 4097, and 5070 Course)

Does the ECE Academy support continued review of emphasis areas?

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Current CpE Emphasis Areas

• Computational Intelligence • Computer and Architecture• Embedded Computer Systems• Integrated Circuits and Logic Design• Networking and Software Engineering • Security and Reliability

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Proposed CpE Emphasis Areas

• Computational Intelligence • Computer and Architecture• Embedded Computer Systems• Integrated Circuits and Logic Design• Networking and Software Engineering • Security and Reliability

Does the ECE Academy support this change?

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ABET VISIT

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ABET visit

• ABET is main accreditation agency for engineering BS programs

• S&T’s ABET visit was in Sept. 14

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Visit outcome

• Visit generally positive, but some issues to address– Allow students to take either Writing and

Research or Technical Writing– Integrate applications of statistics throughout

curriculum, in circuits, communications, electronics, and control

– Revise Educational Objectives– Improve assessment measures

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Revised Educational Objectives• The Electrical and Computer Engineering degree

programs will provide students the foundation to:– Succeed in professional career placement and

practice as engineers, scholars, and entrepreneurs; – Grow their career through technical and professional

activities and leadership roles;– Contribute to society and the economy through

technical products, services, and knowledge; and– Adapt to an ever-changing world through continued

education, through graduate study, professional development activities, independent learning, or pursuit of follow-on degrees.

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Assessment• Outcome: the broad education necessary to

understand the impact of engineering solutions in a global and societal context

• Rubric (portion)– Identify aspects of engineering solutions that

impact society – Apply knowledge to identify impacts of

engineering solutions – Perform failure analysis of an engineering

solution – Evaluate perspectives different from their own

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Assessment• At least three measures in more than one

class• Example:

– Homework: Evaluate societal issues in a design failure

– Senior design proposal: Evaluate societal/business/government issues related to design

– Student survey