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Development of a New Integrated Engineering Program Abstract

A new four-year, integrated engineering program has been developed, from scratch, at Southern Utah University (SUU). This program, which consists of a combination of several disciplines, is in its sixth-year of implementation and has been highly successful. This paper discusses in great depth this unique program. It shares the knowledge and experiences gained and the lessons learned from developing this program, implementing it, and preparing it for and leading it to ABET accreditation. Several aspects of the program are discussed, including the need for it, the composition of the curriculum, preparation for the ABET visit, the competency and success of the first graduates, and how the program is viewed by the students, the local and regional industry, and the community.

I. Introduction

Over the past few years, engineering education has been the focus of numerous studies and discussions1-8. What sparked renewed interest in this issue is the need to enhance the first-year experience of engineering students and to address the growing demand for engineers and scientists capable of thinking and functioning across disciplines and beyond, in a workplace and a society that are rapidly changing due to the emergence of new technologies and several other factors. Numerous studies3,8 have shown that retention of engineering students is greatly affected by the experiences lived by these students in their freshman year and, to a lesser extent, in their sophomore year. This prompted several universities across the nation to devote a great deal of effort and energy into the development of new and meaningful ways of delivering education at the freshman level. In addition, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has recently sponsored a coalition of universities, including Arizona State University, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Texas A&M University, the University of Alabama, the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, and the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Each of these institutions was charged with developing innovative curricula in an effort to enhance the experiences of students at the freshman and sophomore levels in an attempt to increase students’ interest in the science and engineering fields and improve retention beyond the sophomore year. One of the most reported curricular changes involves the careful integration of several courses within the discipline and across several disciplines. This was prompted mainly by the belief that students’ understanding of the subject matters and their interest in engineering are greatly improved once they realize why the courses are important and how they are related to each other. The Integrated Engineering program introduced at Southern Utah University is based upon a different philosophy and was developed for entirely different reasons than what is mentioned above. To understand the rationale behind this program, a review of some of the circumstances that led to its creation follows.

II. Rationale Behind the Integrated Engineering Program

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Azouz, I. (2006, June), Development Of A New Integrated Engineering Program Paper presented at 2006 Annual Conference & Exposition, Chicago, Illinois. 10.18260/1-2--982