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

2. 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

3. Success(es)
5 teams for the spring semester – 1 from AY , 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

4. 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”

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

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

7. Key Factors to Success
School-wide commitment – Dean and Executive Associate Dean
Dedicated 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

8. 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!

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