PAC 2008 Activities Joan Carletta, PAC Chair 15 November 2008 New Brunswick, NJ, 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 l (Continuing with EAB funding in 2009)

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 for engineering

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 2007 l Eight project awards / curriculum modules developed: l Circuits l Communications l Computer hardware / architecture l Controls l Human computer interaction l Power electronics l Signal processing l Approx. three of eight awards extended to women

Results of RWEP Calls 2008 l Project call (for curriculum modules) l 21 abstracts received (reviewed in May) l 14 invited for full proposal (reviewed in August) l 6 invited to submit curriculum modules (due in December) l Workshop call (for on-line study by faculty) l 5 abstracts received (reviewed in May) l 2 invited for full proposal (reviewed in August) l none invited to submit on-line workshops l Global participation l authors from US, Canada, Mexico, Western Europe, Eastern Europe and Asia

Project Library on RWEP Portal Status: l Six of the eight 2007 awarded projects available now. l Two of the eight being edited for quality. Publicity: l Beginning, with IEEE staff pushing information out on distribution lists. l Article in December issue of IEEE Institute. l Interface with ECEDHA annual meeting. Assessment: l Google analytics used to track downloads month-by-month. l Registration required for download; this allows us to track users, possibly to survey them later. l On-line rating and feedback system in place. l Faculty who use the modules can enroll as adopters and provide information on how they use the projects.

RWEP 2008 Goals l Continue to develop RWEP portal l maintain project library l automate all reviewing and administration features so that explicit web designer is no longer needed l Implement assessment plan to understand impact on student outcomes l Promote inaugural projects l Finish second year of calls for projects l Revise calls for projects and workshops for third year, to improve responses (particularly to workshop call) l Arrange for authors to present at FIE 2009, and for special issue in IEEE Transactions on Education