Engineering Education

Head: J.M. Case
Assistant Head for Undergraduate Programs: H.M. Matusovich
Assistant Head for Graduate Programs: J.R. Grohs
Professors: J.M. Case, V.K. Lohani, H.M. Matusovich, L.D. McNair, M.C. Paretti, and B.A. Watford
Associate Professors: J.R. Grohs, D.B. Knight, T.W. Knott, W.C. Lee, and K.J. Reid
Assistant Professors: D. Bairaktarova, A.S. Katz, J. S. London, H. Murzi, and N.P. Pitterson
Associate Professor of Practice: W.M. Butler, B.D. Chambers, D.S. Gray, M.B. James, and N.C.T. Van Tyne
Senior Instructor: J.L. Lo
Instructor: J.L. Benning, J.D. Ortega Álvarez, C.A. Twyman
Professor Emeritus: O.H. Griffin
Associate Professor Emeritus: J.B. Connor, R.M. Goff, M.H. Gregg, and T.D.L. Walker
Academic and Career Advisors: C. Ballard, M.L. Cheatham, J.J. Elmore, M. Greene-Havas, M.B. McGlothlin Lester, A.N.W. Miller, D.C. Newcomb, J.N. Newcomer, and A. Noble

Web: www.enge.vt.edu
E-mail: enge@vt.edu

Overview

The Department of Engineering Education (ENGE) is home to all first-year and transfer engineering students. The department teaches the interdisciplinary first-year engineering courses, advises General Engineering (GE) students, and offers a graduate certificate and a Ph.D. in engineering education.

At the undergraduate level, the department provides the foundation for students to begin their engineering journey from their first semester until they complete a Bachelor of Science degree in one of the 14 College of Engineering programs. The department helps prepare students for academic success in a degree-granting engineering program and for success as an engineer. At the graduate level, the department prepares scholars to advance knowledge and address significant challenges facing engineering education in careers including engineering faculty, policy makers, corporate training, university assessment and university administration.

Accreditation statements may be found in the listings for individual undergraduate degree programs.

Special Facilities

In addition to the Frith First-Year Design Laboratory described below, the department houses research laboratories that focus on generating cutting-edge research in engineering education and translating that research into practice to enhance undergraduate education. Undergraduate students are welcome to apply for research projects in these labs and centers. https://enge.vt.edu/researchfacilties.html

• The Frith First-Year Design Laboratory (Frith Lab) is a space designed to support the retention and development of first-year engineers through hands-on learning, peer mentoring, and authentic problem-solving. Part collaboration and innovation space, part fabrication and prototyping space, and part learning laboratory, the Frith Lab enables first-year engineering students to learn by analyzing, designing, and making engineering products. It features a Tensile/Compression Materials Testing machine, 3-D printers, laser engraver, CNC routers, and drill press, along with various hand tools. https://enge.vt.edu/undergraduate/geexperience/frithlab.html
• ACE(D) Lab - Through real-world engineering applications, the Abilities, Creativity, and Ethics in Design (ACE(D) Lab experiential learning research cross disciplines including engineering, psychology and the learning sciences, as they uncover how individual performance is influenced by abilities, personal interests and direct manipulation of physical and virtual objects. http://aced.enge.vt.edu
• (EC)3 Lab - The (EC)3 Lab is a team of students and faculty committed to research, teaching, and outreach within three interconnected areas. The first is Embracing Complexities - We love wicked problems, coupled systems, socio-ethical complexities, and trying to make sense of all sorts of messy data. The second is Enacting Change - We are motivated by pressing challenges within the education system and broader society and we strive for positive change. Our final interconnected area is Engaging Communities - We believe good things can happen when diverse stakeholders come together around shared goals. https://enge.vt.edu/researchfacilties/(EC)3Lab.html
• ASPECTS Lab - The Academic Study of Pathways to Engineering for Children, Teachers, and Schools (ASPECTS) lab seeks to research and promote pre-college engineering education. Realizing that skill development and motivations for engineering are found far earlier than the admissions cycle for college, we seek pathways to knowledge about how students may learn, how teachers may instruct, and how school systems may implement engineering in PK-12. Our studies emphasize similar dimensions of education as college-based studies, with emphasis on enhancing the research community's understanding of the pre-college educational infrastructure and process so that we may better prepare students that enter college programs and alleviate concerns of ability and performance that are often found at the first-year level of college instruction. We also investigate developments in the first year of college to assess said concerns. Our contributions are also directed towards the introduction of engineering education as a means of augmenting teaching efforts and learning outcomes in other core subjects and state-of-the-art educational initiatives in K-12. https://enge.vt.edu/researchfacilties/ASPECTS.html
• The Critical Frontiers Research Group seeks in some way to push the boundaries in engineering education or higher education research. Many of us are interested in comparative educational questions; most of us are interested in culture and its relation to engineering education. We are open to critical approaches and we are interested in the sociology of education. https://enge.vt.edu/researchfacilties/CriticalFrontiers.html
• VT DEEP Lab - The VT DEEP Lab (Data Enlightened Educational Practice) strives to find ways to bring educational data into the conversation to guide decision-making processes for students, faculty, administrators, and policy makers. Our team takes a systems perspective of higher education whereby we consider a complex set of interrelated variables in investigating educational outcomes. Current projects include developing educational dashboards to illuminate broad patterns in learning data, investigating transfer students pathways into engineering, exploring shared leadership within student design teams using social network analysis, and exploring curricular, co-curricular, and organizational influences on the development of engineering students' learning outcomes. Team members have conducted research in both the U.S. and Australian higher education contexts. https://enge.vt.edu/researchfacilties/Deeplab.html
• ECLIPS Lab - The Engineering Competencies, Learning, and Inclusive Practices for Success (ECLIPS) Lab focuses on understanding how to create contemporary, inclusive, data-driven pedagogical practices to develop effective learning environments that better support engineering students, especially those from traditionally marginalized populations (e.g., Latinx, Native American, International students) and to prepare them for the complexities of the engineering workforce. This diverse community critically explores issues in engineering education and higher education, focusing on the following areas: Competencies, Learning, and Inclusive Practices. They value international perspectives and seek to expand their research agenda in ways that include international collaborators. https://enge.vt.edu/researchfacilties/ECLIPS.html
• ELITE Research Group - The Education, Learning, Identity and Transfer in Engineering Research Group (ELITE) engages in research aimed at creating, supporting and sustaining engineering learning environments, formal and informal, that are designed to provide students with relevant knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to be successful in their course of study and future professions. Our research seeks to answer the following core questions: How do we assess learning formally and informally in engineering (STEM)? How we design and innovate learning environments? How we support the development of students' identity and sense of belonging in engineering? What mechanisms can be best leveraged to optimize transfer of learning? How do we use instructional practices to foster cognitive engagement and conceptual understanding? https://enge.vt.edu/researchfacilties/ELITE.html
• GUIDE Research Group - The GUIDE Research Group is a unique and collaborative effort between engineering education researchers and student-support practitioners, directly bridging the research-to-practice cycle. Members of GUIDE (1) conduct practice-informed research, focused on identifying areas of opportunity within engineering education to advance inclusion and diversity; and (2) develop and evaluate research-based solutions for making engineering a more inclusive and diverse environment. Our vision of a more inclusive engineering community–locally, nationally, and globally–inspires our quest to answer the following questions: How might we better support a diverse population of students? How might we make engineering more equitable, accessible, and inclusive? How might we broaden participation in engineering? How might we educate engineering students and faculty about diversity? https://enge.vt.edu/researchfacilties/GUIDE.html
• IDEEAS Lab - The Improving Decisions in Engineering Education Agents and Systems uses multi-modal data to understand and improve decisions made throughout engineering education systems. Our work is driven by one overarching question: how can we use extant and novel data to support decisions from the individual level up through the organizational level in order to achieve better societal outcomes through engineering education? https://enge.vt.edu/researchfacilties/IDEEAS.html)
• RISE Research Group - The Research's Impact on Society and Education Research Group is a diverse team of mixed methods researchers investigating the impact of research on society and education while simultaneously making an impact on STEM education through research. http://impactfulresearch.com
• SMILE Research Group - The Studies of Motivation and Identity in Learning Engineering group engages in research on and outreach to all levels of learners from pre-kindergarten through academic and industry workforces. We aim to inform, support, and create learning environments that encourage and enable broad participation in engineering majors and careers. We use motivation-and identity-related theories to examine ways to break down barriers, create opportunities, and engage all stakeholders (students, parents, teachers, co-workers) in thoughtful teaching and learning processes. https://enge.vt.edu/researchfacilties/SMILE.html
• VTEEC - The Virginia Tech Engineering Communication Center integrates the professional and the technical to create a new kind of engineer. VTECC brings faculty, students, and professionals together to explore, design, practice, and teach communication and collaboration in support of engineering work. Our lab provides a creative think space for engineering students and faculty to break through disciplinary molds and collaborate across boundaries to drive innovation. www.vtecc.eng.vt.edu
• Wireless@vt.edu-The subgroup that Engineering Education is collaborating with works on the impact of serious games has on the teaching of wireless communication and the development and assessment of tutorials aimed to assist in the teaching and learning of spectrum sharing cognitive radios as well as hosing a Spectrum Sharing Competition each year. The work is facilitated by the CORNET radio network that is installed in Kelly Hall. http://enge.vt.edu/researchfacilties/wireless.html

First Year Students and General Engineering

The General Engineering (GE) program of the EngE department serves first-year students in the College of Engineering. Through EngE courses, first-year students participate in problem solving, engineering analysis and design exercises that represent the essence of the engineering profession. The courses emphasize team-based, design-oriented, hands-on experiences to develop students' concepts of engineering and engineering methods, while reinforcing the role of concurrent required courses (e.g. mathematics, English, physics). They also serve as a foundation for subsequent courses in the various engineering curricula. Coverage of engineering ethics instills a sense of the responsibilities of engineers to society. Algorithm development and computer programming develop logical thinking, provide the background for computer use in later courses, and support problem-solving skills. Spatial visualization skills are developed through engineering graphics, a primary engineering tool. Through writing and presentations, students begin to hone their professional communication skills, including audience analysis, visual rhetoric, effective writing styles, issues in collaborative writing, techniques of oral presentation, print and Web-based research, graphics for written and oral presentations, and editing.

All College of Engineering students must own 1) a laptop or 2-in-1 tablet running Windows 10 and meeting current specifications, and 2) stipulated software used to analyze and solve problems in and out of class. Computer requirements for engineering students can be located at www.eng.vt.edu/it/requirement.

Process for Declaring a Degree-Granting Engineering Major

Entering students are admitted to General Engineering, the first-year program for all engineering curricula. The program introduces students to foundational concepts and practices in engineering, allows time to adjust to the College, and provides opportunities to investigate the College's individual degree programs and select the branch of engineering or computer science best suited to their skills and interests. At the end of the year - after academic advising, contacts with the various departments, and satisfactory progress - students select a degree program and, if academically eligible, are transferred to the appropriate degree-granting department.

Entry into a degree-granting engineering department requires that students successfully complete all required first-year courses. Students must also earn a minimum grade of C- in ENGE 1215 and 1216 before transferring into a degree-granting engineering department.

Please see the College of Engineering catalog section titled "Required Academic Progress" for details, and visit https://enge.vt.edu/undergraduate/Undergraduate_changing_major.html for application policies and dates.

Undergraduate Course Descriptions (ENGE)

1014: ENGINEERING SUCCESS SEMINAR Introduction to opportunities and resources available to College of Engineering students during their undergraduate career at VT. Practice in information gathering skills critical for engineering students. Practice in oral, written, and visual communication. Preperation of an academic plan. Credit earned for this course may not be used to satisfy degree requirements. Co: 1215. (1H,1C)

1215-1216: FOUNDATIONS OF ENGINEERING A first-year sequence to introduce general engineering students to the profession. 1215 (2 credit) data collection and analysis, engineering problem-solving, mathematical modeling, contemporary software tools, professional practices and expectations (e.g. effective communication, working in teams, ethics), and the diversity of fields and majors within engineering. 1216 (2 credits): data collection and analysis, engineering problem-solving, mathematical modeling, design, contemporary software tools, professional practices and expectations (e.g. communication, teamwork, ethics). All engineering majors require a grade of C- or better in 1215 and 1216 for transfer into the major. Each course can only be attempted twice, including attempts utilizing the W grade option. Design Lab/Studio (3L,2C)

1354: INTRO TO SPATIAL VISUALIZATION Introduction to spatial visualization. Training to improve three-dimensional visualization skills. Does not count towards College of Engineering graduation credit. (1H,1C)

1414: FOUNDATIONS OF ENGINEERING PRACTICE Introduction to engineering profession for transfer General Engineering students including engineering problem solving and design, contemporary software tools, and professional practices and expectations (e.g., communication, teamwork, ethics). All engineering majors require a grade of C- or better in 1414 for change of major into the degree granting major. Duplicates 1215-1216. Design Lab/Studio. (6L,4C)

1644: GLOBAL STEM PRACTICE: LEADERSHIP AND CULTURE Develop global competencies in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) contexts and understand how problems and viable solutions vary across contexts and how intercultural communication and global leadership are important in an interconnected global workforce. Integrates semester-long on-campus module with international module following semester exams ("Rising Sophomore Abroad Program"). International module engages students in local culture during visits with STEM businesses and universities. Participation in both modules required. Enrollment by application. (3H,3C)

2094: CREATE!: IDEATION & INNOVATION Apply problem solving framing strategies as part of problem solving design processes. Consider cultural, economic, social, and other perspectives in customer discovery and design processes in order to ensure problem/solution fit. Ideate possible solutions or approaches to address open- ended problems using a variety of methods. Engage in iterative critiques of strategies, solutions and prototypes using methods drawn from industrial design, engineering and the arts. Collaborate in interdisciplinary and diverse project teams. Communicate deliverables in multiple formats and for different audiences. Identify and address impacts of designed services and products through global perspectives, such as patterns of inclusion and exclusion and effects on localized ecosystems. (3H,3C)

2974: INDEPENDENT STUDY Variable credit course.

2984: SPECIAL STUDY I Variable credit course.

2994: UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH Variable credit course.

3604: INTRODUCTORY INDUSTRY DESIGN EXPERIENCE Workplace and industry culture and practice, including folkways, mores, and ethics, centered on engineering design. Interaction with industry professionals. Workplace competencies including effective teamwork, project management, presenting technical information. Training with software, tools and skills used in design practice in industry. Pre: 1215, 1216. (3H,3C)

3984: SPECIAL STUDY Variable credit course.

4094 (IDS 4094) (MGT 4094): STARTUP: COMMERCIALIZATION OF INNOVATION Work in interdisciplinary teams in an experiential environment replicating modern innovation environments. Engage in real world innovation commercialization opportunities. Individual experiences and projects involving actual inventions, innovations, technologies, intellectual property (e.g. patents) and market opportunities. Integrate design thinking, scientists, entrepreneurs, advisors and other potential collaborators. Create a representation of a plan for a minimum viable product for an innovative product or service based on customer and market feedback. (3H,3C)

4104: APPLIED EXPLORATIONS IN INNOVATION Work in interdisciplinary teams to scope and plan an open-ended design project focused on technology commercialization that addresses a need or problem. Model systems and products computationally and quantitatively to address issues of technical and market feasibility and to predict performance under uncertain conditions. Engage in iterative design process that combines computational and quantitative processes with user-centered design and market analysis. Produce viable design that includes technical specifications, market evaluation, and customer discovery results. Communicate with wide range of audiences. Analyze ethical and intercultural and global impacts of innovation. Pre: 3 credits of foundational quantitative and computational thinking. Pre: STS 2254, ENGE 2094, (MGT 4094 or ENGE 4094 or IDS 4094). (3H,3C)

4974: INDEPENDENT STUDY Variable credit course. X-grade allowed.

4974H: INDEPENDENT STUDY Variable credit course. X-grade allowed.

4984: SPECIAL STUDY Variable credit course. X-grade allowed.

4994: UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH Variable credit course. X-grade allowed.

4994H: UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH Variable credit course. X-grade allowed.