1. Integrating Standards into Telecommunication Engineering Education
Project ISTEE
Tarek El-Bawab, PhD
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Jackson State University

2. Project ISTEE, IEEE Standards Education Committee (SEC)
Presentation Layout
Standards Education
Project ISTEE
Course Description
Evaluation
Communication and Dissemination Plan
T. El-Bawab, Feb 20, 2017
Project ISTEE, IEEE Standards Education Committee (SEC)

3. Project ISTEE, IEEE Standards Education Committee (SEC)
Three general approaches to standards education in university programs
Knowledge of standards is referenced, introduced, or incorporated into existing courses or capstone projects.
Approach focused upon in the IEEE Position Paper
Specialized courses in standards and standardization processes introduced into curricula where they make sense. Can be core or elective courses, depending on the needs of the discipline.
Approach focused upon in this project
A flexible mix of these two methods
Ideal, discipline dependent
T. El-Bawab, Feb 20, 2017
Project ISTEE, IEEE Standards Education Committee (SEC)

4. Project ISTEE, IEEE Standards Education Committee (SEC)
Academic/Industrial partnership with NIST to advance and integrate knowledge of Telecom standards into STEM in general, and into Telecom, Electrical, and Computer Engineering in particular.
Delivers new university course: Telecommunication Standards and Standardization Processes
Focuses on Telecom as a platform, but presents a model that can be adapted by other disciplines
Today, STEM education is re-examined in terms of objectives, curricula & majors, and instruction methods. Timing is good to pay attention to standards
T. El-Bawab, Feb 20, 2017
Project ISTEE, IEEE Standards Education Committee (SEC)

5. Course Description (1/4)
Senior undergraduate and graduate students
18 students in Spring 2016
21 students in Fall 2016
Innovation is twofold: in syllabus and in instruction strategy.
First-of-its-kind syllabus in modern Telecom
Innovative instruction strategy, which blends two distinct methods:
Traditional/conventional Instruction (lecture type)
Interactive Workshops (two per semester): simulation of SDO meetings.
T. El-Bawab, Feb 20, 2017
Project ISTEE, IEEE Standards Education Committee (SEC)

6. Course Description (2/4) Traditional Instruction Topics
Part I: Introduction to Standards and Standardization: A Telecom perspective
Part II: Telecommunication Standards Development Organizations (SDOs)
Part III: The Standardization Process
Part IV: Standards in Relation to Technology Life Cycle
Part V: Standards and Telecom Market Forces
Part VI: Miscellaneous Topics (Patenting, competition in standards, ..)
T. El-Bawab, Feb 20, 2017
Project ISTEE, IEEE Standards Education Committee (SEC)

7. Course Description (3/4) Interactive Workshops
One-hour seminar by invited standards expert (industry).
Two-hour interactive/simulation session where students take the stage and learn firsthand.
Capitalize on their prior learning in classes and on the seminar to simulate a standards meeting/activity.
Students experience critical thinking, debating, speaking, and team work within standards’ contexts
Simple technical problems/projects adopted in order to:
Strike a balance between keeping it technical , Telecom related; and enabling students to appreciate processes and none-technical issues.
Open up course enrolment to diverse majors, if possible
ITU-T & IEEE-SA based simulations have been administered
T. El-Bawab, Feb 20, 2017
Project ISTEE, IEEE Standards Education Committee (SEC)

8. Course Description (4/4) Samples of Real-Life Drama
Course involve discussions of topics where engineering, technology, economy, market, politics, and human behavior interacts! Examples:
The rise and fall of ATM
WDM PONs
The DSL Line-Code War
T. El-Bawab, Feb 20, 2017
Project ISTEE, IEEE Standards Education Committee (SEC)

9. Project ISTEE, IEEE Standards Education Committee (SEC)
Evaluation (1/4)
To measures the impact of this course on students’ learning and measure their appreciation of:
the role standards play on modern (21st century) life, and
the combination of technical, regulatory, market, political, and other factors involved in standards and standardization.
Two types of metrics involved
Questionnaire based (none-ABET-type) metrics.
ABET-type formal metrics to measure course outcomes, and how aligned they are with typical engineering programs objectives
T. El-Bawab, Feb 20, 2017
Project ISTEE, IEEE Standards Education Committee (SEC)

10. Evaluation (2/4) Students General Perception
T. El-Bawab, Feb 20, 2017
Project ISTEE, IEEE Standards Education Committee (SEC)

11. Evaluation (3/4) Students Rating of Interest in Topics
T. El-Bawab, Feb 20, 2017
Project ISTEE, IEEE Standards Education Committee (SEC)

12. Evaluation (4/4) Evidence of Meeting Certain Education Objectives
T. El-Bawab, Feb 20, 2017
Project ISTEE, IEEE Standards Education Committee (SEC)

13. Communication/Dissemination Plan (1/2)
Ambitious and diverse in terms of:
geographical coverage (from Jackson MS to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia),
targeted communities (from practitioners to academic researchers),
publication type (from invited talks to peer-reviewed scholarly papers)
Includes short-life and long-life deliverable
Conferences, IEEE DL tours, and other publications
Contract w/ NIST requires that course material be available to accredited programs, industrial educators, and general public.
Standard University?
T. El-Bawab, Feb 20, 2017
Project ISTEE, IEEE Standards Education Committee (SEC)

14. Communication/Dissemination Plan (2/2)
Feature topic on Standards education in IEEE Communications Magazine
Textbook Project
Project ISTEE, IEEE Standards Education Committee (SEC)
T. El-Bawab, Feb 20, 2017

15. Questions?
Contact
Tarek S. El-Bawab