UMN Undergrad Education Task Force Kick-Off Meeting 2/27/ PM

Agenda Welcome Introductions Overview Brainstorming

Undergraduate Education Undergraduates are our most visible product Undergraduates are our most important product

Dept Mission Statement The Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota offers undergraduate and graduate education of the highest quality in mechanical engineering, conducts significant basic and applied research in selected areas, and provides professional service to the appropriate constituencies of Minnesota’s land grant university.

Introductions Name Professional Passions What don’t we know about you?

Charge Identify strategic objectives that will have the greatest impact on our future success in educating undergraduates Develop plans to achieve those objectives

Think BIG! What skills will be of greatest benefit to the mechanical engineering graduate of 2020? What opportunities will place UMN ahead of the competition? We want YOUR IDEAS! We do not intend to identify the strategic objectives at today’s meeting

Think CREATIVE! Introduced 1953; 60,000,000 Sold

UG Ed SWOT Chart Leading supplier of ME undergrads in MN Strengths Student/faculty ratio Weaknesses Opportunities National energy initiative Threats University funding cuts

SWOT Charts Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats Internal External

Utilizing the SWOT Analysis How can we leverage our strengths? (Match with opportunities?) How can we improve on our weaknesses? How can we exploit our opportunities? How can we mitigate the threats? How should we restructure our UG curriculum?

Deliverables Document: Strategic issues/grand challenges in ME undergraduate education SWOT analysis results Departmental objectives in UG education Proposed action plan

Timeline Feb. 27:Kick-off event March-June:Task force meets April 22:ME day (Focus: UG Ed) July 1:Task force reports due

Next Steps How will we communicate? Next meeting?