Rice University VIP Consortium Meeting ● May 12-13, 2016 Gary Woods ECE Dept., Rice University

VIP Consortium Meeting ● May 12-13, 2016 Numbers The Institution Enrollment (total undergrad)3926, private, R1 university Student body (Engineering)1500 Diversity (Engineering)34.5% Women 5.4% African-American 17.2% Hispanic/ Mexican-American 4.7% multi-racial 0.1% Native American 16.1% foreign nationals VIP First term students enrolled11 (out of 27) Number of teams3____ most recent term 4____ upcoming term Enrollment27 confirmed for F16 (expect to add more) Diversity by ethnicitySee next by major”__________________________________ by year”_______________________________ (FR, SO, JR, SR)

VIP Consortium Meeting ● May 12-13, 2016 VIP progress at Rice 3 teams, 27 students (F16) Diversity Majors represented

VIP Consortium Meeting ● May 12-13, 2016 VIP progress at Rice Distribution by yearNumber of semesters in program

VIP Consortium Meeting ● May 12-13, 2016 Successes 3 VIP teams (all ECE-centered) DiCE (Digital Cure for Epilepsy) DISSECT (Distributed Sensors, Effectors and Computers) Digital Gym More VIP teams in the pipeline PHAST (Parallel Hardware Applications in Science & Technology) (ECE) Inviting teams from other departments Pipe Robot lab (MechE) Mechatronics and Haptics (MechE)

VIP Consortium Meeting ● May 12-13, 2016 Successes – key factors OEDK – Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen Fabrication facilities 9 staff Meeting & classroom space Team work space dedicated VIP area

VIP Consortium Meeting ● May 12-13, 2016 Successes – key factors OEDK provides space for VIP teams Easy to collaborate with other teams & depts. Many capstone projects also in OEDK Collaborative Workspace Collaborative Workspace

VIP Consortium Meeting ● May 12-13, 2016 Successes – DiCE (digital cure for epilepsy) Capstone sub-team won Top Capstone Project at Rice Plan to design an tape-out an analog IC (implantable eventually) Very good continuity & good diversity: 5 seniors (2 female), 3 juniors (all female) and one will be added, and 4 sophomores (3 are female)

VIP Consortium Meeting ● May 12-13, 2016 Successes – Digital Gym Deployed wireless RPM & power meter for bike Integrating with research on video measures of health

VIP Consortium Meeting ● May 12-13, 2016 Successes – DISSECT team Built RC-motorcycle equivalent of UAV Incorporated Slack.com as team mgt. system – will be deployed across VIP teams Platform developed by team used by other capstone teams

VIP Consortium Meeting ● May 12-13, 2016 Key Factors to Success VIP was easy to set up at Rice Started in one dept. (ECE) Key decision makers were already believers VIP & capstone tightly integrated Minor course # changes Projects create their own “buzz” Top students want to work on VIP Students bring their friends Design Kitchen useful for teams Fall Spring Year 1-3 Year 4 Capstone VIP sub-project VIP project

VIP Consortium Meeting ● May 12-13, 2016 Challenges and Possible Strategies Maintaining team continuity on ECE teams Small dept. (about per cohort) We recruit through several forums Freshman week advising, ECE advising events, word of mouth, research fair, capstone projects Non-tenure track faculty running VIP team May be harder to keep funding level So far not a problem (internal grants + dept. funds) Growing pains – team infrastructure Common tools of GitHub and Slack to be promulgated among teams Anticipate standard curriculum issues as we integrate other depts.

VIP Consortium Meeting ● May 12-13, 2016 Opportunities Rice building an Arts equivalent of Design Kitchen Quality Enhancement Program at Rice involves Experiential Learning Natural fit for VIP Bringing in other departments Mech & BioE are natural fits – already part of Common Capstone

VIP Consortium Meeting ● May 12-13, 2016 Conclusion Rice is off to a good start with VIP Small size of school presents challenges but eases many issues Main goal: grow the program in 2016 & beyond!