Bob Klenke, Professor and Director, VIP@VCU Virginia Commonwealth University VIP Consortium Meeting ● May 12-13, 2016 Bob Klenke, Professor and Director, VIP@VCU Franklin Bost, Executive Associate Dean

Numbers The Institution Enrollment 1500 SoE, 32,000 University wide Student body mostly in-state - many first-time college students Diversity male 41%, female 57%, Black/African-American 16% Asian 12%, Hispanic/Latino 7%, White 51% VIP First term students enrolled ~40 Number of teams 5 most recent term 7 upcoming term Enrollment 68 Diversity by gender/ethnicity 25 female, 6 under-represented minorities by major 12 BME, 2 CLSE, 5 CS, 31 ECE, 11 MNE by year majority SR by credit hours, but many are SO, JR by major

Success(es) 5 teams for the spring semester – 1 from AY 2014-2015, 2 in fall 2015, and 2 in spring 2016 Collaborative UAVs Engineering Critical Patient Care Bioenergetics Medical Device Design and Development Skintronics Over 70 students participating from 3 schools – Engineering, Arts, Medicine One new team already started for fall of 2016, 3 more preparing proposals

Success(es) School of Engineering-level class created for VIP – ENGR497 (1 or 2 credits) All 5 departments have policies for counting VIP as technical electives 8 cr in ECE, 6 cr in CLSE, 3 cr in BME, CS, and MNE – under review to increase in BME VIP program infrastructure in place VIP server – team wikis (Confluence) and Gitlab (Stash) VIP software – in progress (slow!) Automated “permit” process in place for enrolling in VIP sections External websites for each team End-of-year VIP faculty mentor meeting – “debriefing session”

Engineering Critical Patient Care Success(es) Bioenergetics Engineering Critical Patient Care Collaborative UAVs

Medical Device Design and Prototyping Success(es) ‘Skintronics’ Medical Device Design and Prototyping

Key Factors to Success School-wide commitment – Dean and Executive Associate Dean Dedicated VIP@VCU Director Altria Endowment for VIP support Infrastructure Seed grants ($10k) for each new team Staff support (not dedicated) Growth of the School – helps generate interest and enthusiasm Young faculty

Challenges and Possible Strategies Long-term financial support Industry involvement Develop VIP strategic plan with senior leadership Getting senior faculty to participate Recruit a few strategic participants More promotion of VIP team results Maintaining student interest and motivation More promotion of VIP results (VIP to present at 2017 Senior Design Showcase) Space!

Opportunities Large number of supportive local industry Need to develop a VIP “marketing” program Incorporation of VIP into senior capstone design