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Pre-University Engineering Education in the IEEE. August 2007 Rio de Janeiro, Brasil Moshe Kam, Douglas Gorham Educational Activities. A Few Words about IEEE. IEEE is the largest professional engineering association in the world 367,000 members in 150 countries
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Pre-University Engineering Education in the IEEE August 2007 Rio de Janeiro, Brasil Moshe Kam, Douglas Gorham Educational Activities
A Few Words about IEEE • IEEE is the largest professional engineering association in the world • 367,000 members in 150 countries • A 501(c)3 organization in incorporated in New York • Originally concentrating on power engineering and communications IEEE at present spans technical interests across the spectrum of technology • From nanotechnology to oceanic engineering • In many respects IEEE has become “the steward of Engineering”
Early Presidents Alexander G. Bell Elihu Thomson Charles Steinmetz Frank Sprague
A few more recent Presidents Leah Jamieson Joseph Bordogna Michael Lightner Wallace Read
Established 1884 in Philadelphia An American Organization Representing the establishment Rooted in Power Engineering First computers working group Now the Computer Society Established 1908 An international Organization Open to students, young professionals Quick to adopt advances in radar, radio, TV, electronics, computers Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers (January 1913) AIEE IRE 1963: Merger of AIEE and IRE to create IEEE
What is IEEE? • A membership organization • A major creator and guardian of technical IP • A mechanism to bring people of common technical interests together • both geographically and disciplinarily • A guardian of the future of Engineering • An implementer of technology-related public Imperatives
What is IEEE? • A membership organization • A major creator and guardian of technical IP • A mechanism to bring people of common technical interests together • both geographically and disciplinarily • A guardian of the future of Engineering • An implementer of technology-related public Imperatives
What does IEEE do? • Publishes literature in engineering, technology and computing • Organizes conferences • Develops standards • Gets engineers and technologists from different locales together • Organizes professional activities among engineering students • Educates the public about Engineering
What does IEEE do? • Publishes literature in engineering, technology and computing • Organizes conferences • Develops standards • Gets engineers and technologists from different locales together • Organizes professional activities among engineering students • Educates the public about Engineering
Why is IEEE interested in pre-university engineering education? • Because it is in our stated and un-stated mission • Because in many IEEE Sections there is marked decline in the interest of young people in Engineering • This is bad for the future of these communities and would have a negative impact on their standard of living • Because we do not believe the problem is going to be tackled effectively without us • Industry does not appear to be able to address the problem directly • Governments do not appear sufficiently concerned (yet) • Other engineering associations look up to us
What is the Problem? • Flat or declining engineering enrollments in most developed nations • Coupled with disappointing performance of youth in Mathematics • E.g., “free fall” in Scandinavia • Insufficient number of engineers and engineering educational programs in most developing countries • Asia is far behind Europe and the US in number of engineers per capita
Some of the problems are related to national policy UNESCO World Education Report
Percentage of Science Degrees Awarded Science degrees include life sciences, physical sciences, mathematics, statistics, computer sciences, engineering, manufacturing, and building Source: Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development
New baccalaureate engineering degrees per year per million citizens (2004)
What is the Problem? • Women & minority students conspicuously under-represented • Public perception of engineers/ engineering/ technology is largely misinformed • Resulting in early decisions that block the path of children to Engineering
Engineering degrees US: 2005-2006 http://www.asee.org/publications/profiles/upload/2006ProfileEng.pdf
B.Sc Degrees in Engineering by Gender, US: 2005-2006 http://www.asee.org/publications/profiles/upload/2006ProfileEng.pdf
Engineering Degrees Awarded to women, US: 2005-2006 http://www.asee.org/publications/profiles/upload/2006ProfileEng.pdf
In many countries in the Western Hemisphere, student achievements in mathematics are low
OECD Program for International Student AssessmentMathematics, 15 year old students Finland, Korea, the Netherlands, Japan The United States Mexico
Some data points for Brazil • Currently almost all students ages 7-14 (96.4%) attend school– up from 80.9% in 1980 • Currently 83.0 % of students ages 15-17 attend school– up from 49.7% in 1980 • Literacy rates for people ages 15 and older= 88.2% • As of 2002, Brazilians averaged 6.2 years of formal education (compared with 11 years in South Korea and 8 years in Argentina) • Brazil invests 4.3% of its GDP on education. The overall goal is 7%. Edudata Brasil (http://edudatabrasil.inep.gov.br/
On Line Portal Tryengineering.org “Strong On-line presence”
The Web provides us with high potential for reachability • A successful portal can become a major resource for students, parents, school counselors, and teachers • But success is difficult in an ever-crowded medium • Effort needs to be coupled with more modern tools • Instant messaging, podcasts
TryEngineering.org • A comprehensive portal on engineering for young people • Original target audience: young people ages 8-18 • Designed to convey excitement about engineering and design • Can-do attitude • Hands-on experience • Positive image of the engineering process and engineering • “Discover the creative engineer in you”
TryEngineering.org A portal for students, parents, school counselors and teachers
Unique features • School search • Ask an Engineer • Ask a Student • Coming up: Opportunities • Pre-university students: summer camps, science fairs • University students: research opportunities, summer and co-op jobs • Graduating students: graduate study opportunities, academic jobs
On-line Presence: TryEngineering • TryEngineering.org is becoming an increasingly popular resource for the pre-university and university communities: • 28,800 = average # of visitors per month • 126,835 = average # of page hits per month • 4,727 = average number of university searches per month • 10,223= average # of lesson downloads per month • 1821= number of questions submitted to Ask an Expert Statistics as of 1 August 2007
US (70%) India (5%) China (3.3%) Canada United Kingdom Austria Australia Malaysia Germany Japan Thailand South Africa Korea Brazil Countries of Users: English Version
Most Requested Files: Lesson Plans • Build a robot arm • Close to 17,000 downloads • Cracking the Code (bar codes) • Critical Load (Civil Engineering)
Australia Brazil Canada Pakistan France Germany India Japan Korea Mexico New Zealand Malaysia South Africa United Kingdom United States What’s new New University Searches: 15 Countries
What’s new New Languages 1 June 2007
Usage-- New Languages Since 1 June 2007
What’s new A New Original Game: Questioneering Question: The following are examples of word processing applications: Questions created by 26 graduate students, engineers, and engineering professors • LaTex and Microsoft Word • MIDI and RS-232 • Pdf and PCM • QWERTY and AZERTY
What’s new A New Original Game: Questioneering Question: Artificial neural networks are... • Brain implants designed by biomedical engineers • Models of interconnected processors used for signal processing and computation • Neuron architectures present in people who were in bad brain accidents • Internet discussion groups devoted to Cognitive Science We are looking for an Intern to provide players with more feedback
What’s new Future services – focus on the University/College Student • Effective oral and written presentations • Job search and preparation for interview • Writing a resume • Looking for graduate school • Graduate school homepage already available through University Search
Future Services – interviews with students and practitioners • Interviews with students from California State University, Northridge and Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA • Interviews with ECE and Biomedical Engineering practitioners engaged in Biometrics work
Coming in August 2007 Future services: www.Accreditation.org • Introduction to Accreditation • List of recognized accrediting bodies worldwide • And the programs they accredit • List of mutual recognition agreements • Including original texts and commentary • Policy papers on accreditation • Links and scholarly papers
The Teacher In Service Program (TISP) • A program that trains IEEE volunteers to work with pre-university teachers • Based on approved Lesson Plans • Prepared by IEEE volunteers • Tested in classrooms • Associated with Education Standards • Designed to highlight engineering design principles • Low cost