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An Interdisciplinary Strategy for Improving Enrollments in ET Programs

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Conference

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Atlanta, Georgia

Publication Date

June 23, 2013

Start Date

June 23, 2013

End Date

June 26, 2013

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

Student Enrollment, Attendance, Retention, and Graduation in Engineering Technology Programs

Tagged Division

Engineering Technology

Page Count

12

Page Numbers

23.180.1 - 23.180.12

DOI

10.18260/1-2--19194

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/19194

Download Count

406

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Paper Authors

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Austin B. Asgill Southern Polytechnic State University

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Dr Austin B. Asgill received his B.Eng.(hons) (E.E.) degree from Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, his M.Sc. (E.E.) degree from the University of Aston in Birmingham and his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of South Florida. He is currently a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology at Southern Polytechnic State University (SPSU). Prior to joining the faculty at SPSU, he was an Associate Professor of Electronic Engineering Technology at Florida A&M University (FAMU), where he served as Program Area Coordinator and Interim Division Director. With over 23 years of teaching experience in Electrical/Electronic Engineering and Engineering Technology, he currently teaches in the areas of networking, communication systems, biomedical instrumentation, digital signal processing, and analog and digital electronics. He has worked in industry in the areas of telephony, networking, switching and transmission systems, and RF and MMIC circuits and system design. Dr. Asgill also has an MBA in Entrepreneurial Management from Florida State University. He is a member of the IEEE, the ASEE and is a licensed professional engineer (P.E.) in the state of Florida.

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Craig A Chin Southern Polytechnic State University

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Craig A. Chin received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Florida International University in 2006. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the electrical and computer engineering technology at Southern Polytechnic State University. His research interests include biomedical signal processing, pattern recognition, and active learning techniques applied to engineering education.

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Florian Misoc P.E. Southern Polytechnic State University

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Dr. Florian Misoc is an associate professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology. He joined Southern Polytechnic State University in August, 2011.
Dr. Misoc earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Kansas State University. He also holds a Master's of Science Degree in Engineering Technology from Pittsburg State University, and a Bachelor's Degree in Physics from the University of Bucharest, Romania.
Dr. Florian Misoc is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Arkansas. His research focus is in the areas of renewable energy (generation, transmission and distribution), power electronics, and vehicular systems.

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Simin Nasseri Southern Polytechnic State University

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Dr. Simin Nasseri is an associate professor in the department of Mechanical Engineering Technology at Southern Polytechnic State University. She obtained her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Sydney University, Australia, where she worked as a senior research associate. She has published eighteen papers, mainly in peer-reviewed journals (such as J. of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics), and her research areas include Rheology & viscoelasticity, polymer processing (experimental analysis and constitutive modeling), biomechanical engineering, CFD, and micromachinery. She has work experience related to manufacturing and design and currently teaches a variety of undergraduate courses in her field such as engineering mechanics and manufacturing courses.

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Adimathara P. Preethy Southern Polytechnic State University

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Scott J. Tippens Southern Polytechnic State University

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Randall A. Emert Southern Polytechnic State University

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Eight plus years industry experience with engineering design, sheet metal fabrication, machining, and project management. Ten years of academic experience teaching engineering graphics, machining, and welding. Current interest in medical applications of rapid prototyping and speeding the product development cycle with 3D scanning and additive manufacturing.

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Ali Khazaei MET Department at SPSU

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Dr. Ali Khazaei is an Assisstant Professor in Mechanical Engineering Technology Department at Southern Polytechnic State University. He has more than seventeen years teaching experience as a full time faculty and long industrial experience as a design engineer. His teaching includes different courses in three fields (“Solids”, “Fluid” and “Heat”) at the undergraduate and graduate levels. He published 12 articles which were presented in ASME conferences.
His areas of research interests are: Renewable Energy Methods and Green Technology, Heat /Energy systems with focus on nonlinearities, MEMS systems with focus on MEMS thermal behavior, and Kinematics and mathematical
modeling with applications such as autonomous vehicles.

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Abstract

An Interdisciplinary Strategy for Improving Enrollments in ET ProgramsAbstractThe recent trend of declining enrollments in many Engineering Technology (ET) programsacross the US has prompted universities offering BS degree programs in ET disciplines to seekstrategies to maintain their identity, viability, and continued relevance in the face of competitionfrom Engineering programs, and the prevailing poor economic conditions. Strategies adopted bysome institutions have included the "if you can't beat them, join them" option of switching theirprograms entirely from ET to Engineering, renaming their programs to differentiate them fromsimilarly named Engineering programs, seeking innovative ways to develop pipelines forstudents to enter their programs via articulation agreements with two-year institutions, ordeveloping highly innovative and specialized new curricula that seek to differentiate the ETprograms from Engineering programs. This latter strategy was considered to be the better optionby the faculty of the ECET department at ____ ____ ____ University. In 2006, the ECETdepartment at _____ sought to take advantage of the rapid growth in the biomedical Engineeringarea to develop an innovative option in Biomedical Engineering Technology under its existingEET program [1]. While there has been a lot of interest in this BMET option, the anticipatedgrowth in enrollment has been slow to materialize due to the fact that the option was not aseparate degree program. Students have had difficulty in accepting the fact that the actualdegree obtained will be the BSEET degree with an option in BMET. As a result the ECET facultyhave revisited the option and is working in conjunction with their MET colleagues to develop anovel full-blown BMET degree program that incorporates aspects of device design andmanufacturing into the curriculum. This program is being developed in conjunction with anotherprogram in Renewable Energy Engineering Technology (REET) that is also a joint effortbetween ECET and MET faculty. These two new highly innovative "boutique" ET degreeprograms are expected to capture the growing interest in Biomedical Engineering andRenewable Energy Systems. This paper discusses the development of these two new curriculaand the anticipated challenges in offering these programs and recruiting students into these newinterdisciplinary majors.

Asgill, A. B., & Chin, C. A., & Misoc, F., & Nasseri, S., & Preethy, A. P., & Tippens, S. J., & Emert, R. A., & Khazaei, A. (2013, June), An Interdisciplinary Strategy for Improving Enrollments in ET Programs Paper presented at 2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Atlanta, Georgia. 10.18260/1-2--19194

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