PAC 2008 Activities Joan Carletta, PAC Chair 21 June 2008 Denver, CO, USA EAB Public Awareness Committee (PAC)

RWEP Real World Engineering Projects: Discovery-Based Projects for First-Year EE/CE/CS/EET Students l EAB Joint New Initiative with WIE l Two year project: l Total budget: $380,000

Focus: High-Quality Undergraduate Education Goal is to provide faculty worldwide with: l Fully developed curricula l for first-year EE/CE/CS/EET team-based projects l discovery-based l illustrate real-world problems l solutions impact society l Workshops l for EE/CE/CS/EET faculty l online, self-study l on the best pedagogical techniques

Benefits of RWEP l Students discover excitement of real-world problems and understand the importance of IEEE fields to society l Of benefit to all students, but critical for recruiting and retaining women l Former name: Increasing the Representation of Women in IEEE Fields of Interest

RWEP Review: A Three-Stage Process l Abstract submission l Reviewed double-blind online, followed by teleconference meeting of review committee l Accepted abstracts are invited for proposals l Proposal submission l Reviewed double-blind online, followed by in-person meeting of review committee l An award is expected for accepted proposals, as long as authors take reviewers comments into account and submit a final project/workshop l Project/workshop submission l Vetted by a volunteer subject matter expert l Ready for posting in the RWEP portal l An award is made

Review Criteria for Projects l Relevance l Does addressed problems solution benefit society? l Is context a real-world, contemporary application? l Are connections to real world societal impact explicit? l Quality l Is project straightforward, organized, and complete? l Are descriptions of methods accurate, clear, and concise? l Is project tractable for first year EE/CE/CS/EET students? l Discovery l Does project result in student discovery of an underlying principle or concept? l Does the proposed project illustrate strategies and trade-offs that are important in the engineering problem solving process?

Results of RWEP Calls l 2007 l Eight project awards made l Projects to be posted in the RWEP portal l Available to the public after site registration l Approx. three of eight awards extended to women l 2008 l Project abstracts l 21 received, 14 invited for full proposal l Workshop abstracts l 5 received, 2 invited for full proposal l Global participation l authors from US, Canada, Mexico, Western Europe, Eastern Europe and Asia

Eight 2007 Project Awards Span seven technical categories: l Circuits l Communications l Computer hardware / architecture l Controls l Human computer interaction l Power electronics l Signal processing

2008 RWEP Timeline l Summer 2008 l Post 2007 awarded projects in RWEP portal and publicize their availability l August 2008 l 2008 submitted proposals reviewed (double-blind) at in-person meeting l Best invited to submit projects / workshops for publication l December 2008 l 2008 projects / workshops completed l 2008 awards made to authors

RWEP 2008 Goals l Continue to develop RWEP portal l Develop assessment plan to understand impact on student outcomes l Publish and promote inaugural projects l Run second year of calls for projects and workshops l Work out plans for other author benefits (besides monetary award) l Work out plans for continuation funding