Gone are the days of stuffy lectures and drowsy students. At least, this is true of UMBC’s College of Engineering and Information Technology, where hands-on labs, industry simulations, new teaching methods, honors courses, and efforts to engage women and underrepresented minorities are being used to engage and inspire the next generation of Computer Scientists and Engineers.
- Computer Science and Electrical Engineering
- Informations Systems
- Chemical, Biochemical, and Environmental Engineering
- Mechanical Engineering
Computer Science and Electrical Engineering
A Little Healthy Competition
For an abstract concept like Computer Science, getting your hands dirty with micro-chips and robots might be the secret to engaging students. Dr. Tim Oates’ Robotics course shows that a healthy dose of competition helps, too. Oates devised a semester-long, team-based competition where students build robots and then battle them. They’re called “Sumobots” (pictured right), named after the age-old Japanese sport, Sumo. Like its na
mesake, the victor of a sumobot battle is the last robot standing in the circular arena.
“The competition element definitely made it a lot of fun,” says Emily Scheerer (CS ’14) whose team’s robot—made from a servo motor, microcontroller, and plastic binder–was the worst functioning sumobot on the first day of class. After a trip to Home Depot for some sturdier parts and a few revisions, the robot climbed to the top ranking by the last day of class.
Despite cheering that can be heard from inside the classroom on competition days, the course is not just fun and games. “You still have to work for the ‘A’,” explains Mat Kurtz (ME, minor CS ’13), “but the way it’s set up, you want to work for the ‘A’”. Oates explains that having students build and program a robot helps bridge the gap between computer science theory its application.
A similar energy can be found in Introduction to Engineering Science (ENES 101), co-taught by CSEE professor of the practice Dr. Chuck LaBerge and Mechanical Engineering professor of the practice Dr. Anne Spence.
Dubbed the “cornerstone” course because it teaches the basics of engineering to all engineering students (Computer, Mechanical, Biochemical), the course puts students from these different disciplines together to leverage their skills on group projects.
For the past two years, the semester has ended with the AROW competition (Academy Robotics on the Water). Teams design a robotic boat (pictured left) that emulates tasks of the U.S. Coast Guard: tending a light house, placing navigation buoys, cleaning and recycling and oil spill – represented by ping-pong balls – and rescuing Lego fishermen who have fallen overboard. The teams are then judged on the basis of the cost-effectiveness of the various team designs. The winner is chosen based on efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
Build it and they will Come
Replacing lectures with hands-on design experience is a growing trend in Computer Engineering courses at UMBC. Take Programmable Logic Devices (CMPE 415), which teaches students how to program FPGA boards. Two years ago, Dr. Ryan Robucci revamped the course so students could get their hands on FPGA boards from day one.
“We gave them something they can touch,” explains Robucci, who also introduced a “games” theme to the class. Instead of programming the boards to carry out abstract tasks, students connect the boards to monitors and make them play simple video games like the 70’s Atari classic, Pong.
Robucci applied the same technique to C Programming and Embedded Systems (CMPE 331), a similar course that involves programming microcontrollers rather than FPGA boards. In this case, students must program the microcontroller to play a song through a set of speakers.
Robucci stresses that the benefit of hands-on programming is that it forces students to troubleshoot to ensure physical results. Students can’t focus on a single problem and ignore the rest—as they’re apt to do on paper–or they will miss out on a rousing game of pong.
In Dr. Gymama Slaughter’s Biosensor Technology Course, student teams get to build and test their own biosensors (pictured right). This includes a trip to UMBC’s Cleanroom, located in the Technology Resource Center (TRC).
An emerging, multidisciplinary field, biomedical microsystesms (BioMEMS) is making strides with diabetes research. “The development of biosensors is a recent endeavor that is gradually replacing big and bulky laboratory-based diagnostics tools,” explains Slaughter. “Reliable and highly sensitive analytical devices for measuring different components in blood has allowed for patients with diabetes to be able to monitor their glucose levels at home.”
Dr. Fow Sen-Choa has a new Computer Engineering course in the works called “Experimental Techniques for Electrical and Computer Engineering” that will exposes students to basic technologies and laboratory techniques in the areas of wireless communications, optical communications, and bio-medical instrumentation.
Welcome to the "Real World"
CSEE courses that simulate what it’s like to work in the industry arm students with skills to help them thrive in the “real world.”
Take Chuck LaBerge’s Computer Engineering capstone course (CMPE 450/451), where Computer Engineering seniors are asked to apply what they have learned since freshman year. This semester, Dr. LaBerge is teaching the course in the same space as Dr. Anne Spence’s Mechanical Engineering senior capstone, allowing Computer and Mechanical engineers to collaborate.
“Dr. LaBerge ran the capstone class as though it was an engineering consulting firm in which he was the manager of several teams of engineers,” explains Jason Dunthorn (ME ’12), who was part of a team of mechanical engineering students who developed an ultrasonic transceiver to help the blind gauge nearby obstacles (pictured left).
Teams worked on projects for a third-party “customer” (generally a CSEE faculty member or external company), who specifies what they are looking for in a product. Throughout the year, the teams met with their customers to update them on their progress. If groups had trouble, they would seek out advice from other teams.
“This collaborative environment encouraged everyone to grow beyond what they were getting out of their own projects,” says Jason. “It was a wonderful success; Students felt enriched and strengthened.”
A special section of Dr. Susan Mitchell’s Software Design and Development (CSMC 345) course also follows the industry model. Last spring, Mitchell recruited her “customer” from Columbia-based tech company Next Century Corporation.
Made up of two teams of five students, the special section asked teams produce a visualization of how computer viruses spread geographically. As if they had been hired by the company, teams had to give regular updates every one to two weeks, sometimes in person, sometimes via Skype. Next Century even allowed the teams to use their own Wiki and a Configuration Management System, where they could structure their computer code.
Their midterm and final presentations were given in Next Century’s conference room, in front of the company’s president. “They were very nervous,” says Mitchell. Though chances are they’ll be less nervous when they do it for real a few years from now.
One-on-one contact with industry professionals is also an element of Dr. Marc Olano’s Senior Game Project (CMSC 493). A class for aspiring video game developers within UMBC’s Game Development Track, it brings together both Computer Science and Visual Arts students to create a playable video game by the semester’s end. “The final exam is a presentation of the finished games for 10-20 pros at a networking reception,” explains Olano.
SLUG (pictured right), a 2D flash game where the player must help a pink slug collect acorns while avoiding enemies: bees, birds and frogs, even won an award at the 2010 West Virginia Flash Festival.
“The core things (in addition to game development) the students learn during the class include working effectively with others with very different skills and backgrounds, scoping and planning development for a large project, and effective presentation skills through multiple presentations to the class and outsiders,” says Olano.
Teaching Tech with Tech
The “flipped-classroom” approach of Shawn Lupoli’s Programming Languages (CMSC 331) course replaces actual lectures with video lectures; The result is more class time that Lupoli can spend interacting with students.
“I find Mr. Lupoli’s approach much more friendly and easier to understand,” says Andrew Bosco (CS ’14). Despite the roughly 1.5 hours he spends watching videos and taking the online follow-up quiz, Andrew says the class is not more work than other classes; The time is just structured differently. “I’m spending time I would usually devote to studying watching videos.”
Lupoli spends hours writing and recording the videos, so that there is no gap between what the students learn online and what they learn in the classroom. Students come to class already knowing the material; They then use class time to ask questions and work collaboratively on projects.
Honors Seminars
It’s easy for technical subjects like Math and Computer Science to stick to an uninspired lecture-hall format, but the new Computer Science honors seminars are structured to celebrate discussion and student participation.
Dr. Anupam Joshi’s Security and Privacy in a Mobile Social World (HONR 300/ CMSC 491) explores how ubiquitous computing is effecting our personal privacy. Introduced last spring, the course discusses recent court cases like the United States. V. Jones case in which the government installed a GPS in a suspect’s car and monitored him without his knowledge.
As their final project, students were asked to look at Twitter feeds and predict whether the user was a Democrat or a Republican. Student predictions were 70-75% accurate. The point of the exercise, explains Joshi, was to help students realize how much of their personal information they could inadvertently be giving away using social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter.
Dr. Marie desJardin’s Computation, Complexity, and Emergence (HONR 300/ CMSC 491) course uses Computer Science to model and understand natural complex systems like bird flocks, ant colonies, coral colonies, the evolution of language, and weather systems.
“Many years ago, I read Gary Flake’s book The Computational Beauty of Nature and was completed fascinated by the concepts of fractals, chaos, and swarm systems, and how such simple individual behaviors could lead to such complex system behaviors,” explains desJardins, who started teaching the course last year. “…I had often thought of the ubiquity of these complex systems in the world around us would be a great launching point for engaging non-CS majors in understanding how relevant computational modeling can be to their own interests, and broadening the perspective of CS majors on the kinds of problems their training would enable them to work on.”
desJardins was also responsible for a new honors section for Introduction to Computers and Programming (CMSC 100), which she dubbed “Python Boot Camp.” A one-hour completely hands-on, very student-led interactive lab section, the course is meant to hook students who might never consider taking a hard-core programming class.
After students learn the basics of Python programming and using pseudocode to design an algorithmic solution to a problem, they are sent to the front of the room to solve a problem. “Just watching somebody else talk about programming, or even watching them write programs, is really not that effective in terms of actually learning to program," explains desJardins. “It’s one of those things you have to do.”
Computing for All
Making Computer Science and Computer Engineering accessible and enticing for students, especially underrepresented minorities in the field like women, minorities, and transfer students, has always been a priority of the department.
UMBC’s Center for Women in Technology (CWIT), directed by CSEE professor Dr. Penny Rheingans, has been focusing on this issue since the center came to be nearly 15 years ago. This summer, Dr. Rheingans received an NSF research award to develop and evaluate an innovative first-year seminar for computing majors aimed at increasing retention, completion, and success among students, especially women and those from underrepresented groups.
“Students arrive not really understanding which computing major is right for them,” explains Dr. Rheingans. She says that the course, Problem Solving and Computer Programming (IS 101Y/CMSC 104Y), which is being co-taught by herself and Dr. Susan Martin, Associate Director, CWIT, will overcome obstacles that prevent new students from sticking with Computer Science.
“Traditional computing programs generally spend the first semesters teaching skills (for example programming) without really talking much about the big picture, specifically the grand challenges of the field and the impact one can make on solving societal problems,” explains Rheingans. “This organization works fine for students with a love of programming, but not so well for those who see programming as a tool to achieve greater good.”
Students learn both technical skills–algorithmic problem solving, abstraction, programming, and analysis—and professional skills–time management, understanding learning styles, networking, working in teams, and presenting. They work together on a semester long team-based design, implementation, and evaluation project, which shows that working in teams is actually the norm in the industry.
Innovative teaching in UMBC’s Computer Science and Electrical Engineering department is the product of teachers who love the subject and want to make sure their students are similarly infatuated. The way to do that is by making the abstract approachable.
Information Systems
Undergrads in the Lab
To sum it up simply, students in the PAD (prototype and design) laboratory make things that help people. It’s a place where undergraduate and graduate students across disciplines like Human-centered Computing, Information Systems, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, Visual Arts, and the Erickson School of Aging come together to build devices that solve problems dealing with accessibility, sustainability, education, and community.
UMBC Junior Manpreet Suri (IS ‘14) is working on developing an alternative braille keyboard. About the size of an iPhone 4s, the device will be more portable and effective than a traditional braille keyboard. “The difference is that it uses motors instead of actuators to create the single character refreshable Braille display,” explains Suri. “These pager motors are laid out in a 2X3 matrix to mimic a Braille character.”
A McNair Scholar and part of the Information Systems’ MS/BS program, Suri sought out Dr. Shaun Kane because he wanted to get involved.
“We’re always looking for motivated students to help out with research,” says Dr. Kane, who runs the lab with fellow Information Systems professor Dr. Amy Hurst. He says the lab currently has ten undergraduate researchers who are working on projects from table-sized touchscreens to adaptive art tools for handicapped kids.
Senior Jurrell Brown (IS ‘13), is working on wheelchair customization. He’s trying to configure an XBOX Kinect to work as a sensor, turning any ordinary surface into a touch screen. The touch screen could then be easily added to any wheelchair.
“Some of the main benefits are providing an interaction surface that would connect to a computer or tablet device,” explains Patrick Carrington, Jurrel’s research partner and a graduate student in UMBC’s Human-Centered Computing program. “The surface would allow them access to all the features of the computing device.”
For undergraduates, it might be the manifestation of—literally—their wildest dreams that makes the PAD Lab appealing. Students get to fashion prototype devices out of PVC pipe. Sometimes they use the Makerbot, a 3D printer that takes a computer model of an object and then “prints” out a copy using spools of plastic that melt together, building the object layer by layer.
But, perhaps the biggest incentive for students is the feeling that they are doing work that makes a difference. At least, that is the case with Suri: “When I found out about [the braille keyboard] project, I knew that I had to work on it because it would give me a chance to be able to give back to the community,” he says. “Many people think that individuals who use and make technology are lazy. I wanted to erase this assumption by developing something for people that directly impacts them in a positive way.”
Teaching Tactics
Professors in the Information Systems department are using out-of-the-box teaching techniques to help students learn the material.
Dr. Sreedevi Sampath has changed the structure of her IS 448: Markup and Scripting Languages class. In IS 448, the students learn an array of web programming languages, such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP and XML. She lectures in short bursts and has students immediately apply the concepts through in-class labs. The technique ensures comprehension of the material and if students have trouble, Dr. Sampath is only a raised-hand away.
Dr. Sampath is teaching these programming languages in a way that connects them to one another. “At the end they actually see a fully functioning web system,” she explains. The final project has students create a blog application, like WordPress or Blogger. “I was really trying to find something that would put all of those technologies together,” says Dr. Sampath. Plus, she felt that the project would be interesting for college students, many of whom are no stranger to blogging
Dr. Henry Emurian believes that repetition is the key to learning, which is why he swears by Java Tutors.
Java tutors is a mandatory part of IS 147: Introduction to Computer Programming, a class that introduces basic principles and techniques of computer programming. The tutoring starts off by asking students to simply copy symbols and words common to Java like “public” and “static” and “{“. The exercise familiarizes students with the grammar of the language. It makes them aware of spacing, capitalization, and the location of these symbols on the keyboard. After a dozen or so repetitions, students graduate to the next–more challenging–exercise.
While the initial copying exercises might seem overly basic, Emurian explains that the goal is to promote a muscle-memory type of learning. More importantly, getting questions right builds confidence, which is essential for beginners who see programming as daunting and abstract.
Industry Experience
IS courses that simulate what it’s like to work in the industry give students practical experience and an undeniable edge. Taken in a student’s senior year, these classes get students ready for the “real world.”
Take Dr. George Karabatis’ IS 420: Database Application Development course, which, last spring, had managers from e-commerce company Paypal commission the students to make projects.
“Think of this team as a start-up company,” Dr. Karabatis tells his students at the start. Then student teams work on developing prototype client/server applications. Last spring Paypal sponsored two projects, the first inspired by Ebay.com and the second, a money transfer system.
Stand-out projects were demoed for Paypal executives. “They were quite happy with the demos,” says Dr. Karabatis. At least one student was offered a job interview as a result, he says. Dr. Karabatis, who, before teaching, spent years in the telecommunications industry, explains that his goal is to give students an idea of what to expect in the “real world.”
The course is an approved elective for UMBC’s new Entrepreneurship and Innovation Minor. Dr. Karabatis encourages his students to submit their class projects—or other ideas—to UMBC’s Idea competition—a campus-wide competition that asks students to solve problems plaguing society.
Raising Retention
What’s the difference between Information Systems and Computer Science? How about Computer Science and Computer Engineering? Not sure? Neither are the majority of freshmen who come to UMBC knowing only that they want to do something with computers.
Most end up as Computer Science majors, overlooking UMBC’s other computing majors like Information Systems, Computer Engineering, or Business Technology Administration. The result is frustrated students who switch majors, leading to wasted time and credits.
Enter COMP 101, a new course intended to help students discover the computing major that’s right for them. Next fall, Information Systems professor Dr. Carolyn Seaman and CSEE professor Dr. Marie desJardins will offer two sections of the course, (which are listed in the schedule of classes as combined sections of IS 101Y and CMSC 104). Their hope is to help increase retention in computing majors, especially among women and minorities—groups that aren’t statistically drawn to the field.
“Traditional computing programs generally spend the first semesters teaching skills (for example programming) without really talking much about the big picture, specifically the grand challenges of the field and the impact one can make on solving societal problems,” explains Dr. Penny Rheingans the Principal Investigator of the NSF research award that made COMP 101 possible. Rheingans taught the course last fall. “This organization works fine for students with a love of programming, but not so well for those who see programming as a tool to achieve greater good.”
Freshmen interested in computing are encouraged to take the course in place of IS 101 or CMSC 104, required introductory courses. In it, they will learn both technical skills—algorithmic problem solving, abstraction, programming and analysis—and professional skills—time management, understanding learning styles, networking, working in teams, and presenting. Students will work together on semester-long design, implementation, and evaluation projects. There are also peer mentors—Computer Science and Information Systems undergraduates—that new students can use as a resource.
COMP 101 is supported until summer 2015 by the NSF research award: Transforming the Freshmen Experience of Computing Majors. But, Seaman says the hope is to eventually make it a permanent fixture of the curriculum, giving computing students a good start and a straight shot toward success.
Chemical, Biochemical, and Environmental Engineering
Teaching Techniques
Innovation starts with the very first course taken by engineering majors: ENES 101: Introductory Engineering Science. Taught by Dr. Joshua Enszer and Dr. Taryn Bayles, the course is an introduction to essential concepts and computer tools. Students work in teams on projects like building K’NEX towers and making water balloon catapults.
Dr. Bayles just started using “Just in time teaching” to integrate engineering theory and computer programming in MATLAB with design projects in ENES 101. Instead of teaching material in one big daunting block, Bayles doles it out as needed. As a result, the class lecture sequence has shifted to Monday through Friday so that lectures and discussions are in sync across all the sections.
In ENCH 215: Chemical Engineering Analysis–an introductory course that teaches chemical engineering calculations and analysis–Dr. Bayles is experimenting with the “Lecture on Demand” technique. It allows students to request targeted mini-lectures on difficult subject matter, making better use of valuable classtime.
Bayles recently started quizzing students using the chemical engineering concept warehouse, an online question bank that helps educators identify areas of difficulty in the curriculum. The questions, which students answer in class using clickers, help gauge learning patterns and common areas of difficulty among the class.
In Enszer’s ENCH 225: Chemical Engineering Problem Solving and Exp Design and ENCH 442: Chemical Engineering Systems Analysis have adopted the “inverted classroom” model for MATLAB sessions. In class lectures have been replaced with video lectures that students watch at home. Students come to class knowing the material, making class time an opportunity to ask professors questions and work on group projects.
The department has introduced an overarching project that spans three core courses as a way to help students see how the course material connects. The project, which deals with how to safely remove heat from a chemical reaction, will occur in ENCH 427: Transport Processes II, which deals with heat and mass transfer, ENCH 440: Chemical Engineering Kinetics, which deals with chemical reactions, and ENCH 442: Chemical Engineering Systems Analysis, which deals with process control and safety.
Dr. Mariajose Castellanos has totally re-designed her ENCH 300: Chemical Process Thermodynamics class. What was once purely lecture-based in now an interactive course that livens up a subject that has a reputation for being difficult and non-intuitive, admits Castellanos.
Group projects (pictured left) are encouraged to be as creative as possible. One year Luigi, the pink power ranger, and a teddy bear showed up to talk to the class about thermodynamics.
Class kicks off with reading group sessions where Castellanos poses questions like “what was your favorite equation?” to make students think critically about the assigned reading. Afterwards, students jot down a new concept that they didn’t quite grasp from the reading. Rifling through the entries, Castellanos bases her lecture around those unlcear concepts. The strategy is similar to lecture on demand, and lets Castellanos focus her lectures on topics that are hard for the majority of the class.
Castellanos has also added an online discussion board. On it, students write about examples of thermodynamics found in everyday life. Students have drawn connections to out-of-the-box things like musical instruments and erasers, says Castellanos. And even though she only requires a mere six posts per student per semester, she says she is already unable to keep up with the outpouring of enthusiastic and creative responses.
Write on
Castellanos’ third new addition is a reflective writing assignment. In it, students reflect on what they've learned that week. “I want them to really feel free to write what they want,” explains Castellanos, so she only takes six of the twelve assignments for a grade.
The writing assignments help students connect concepts between classes and it makes them reflect on how they learn, says Castellanos. Reading them allows her to get to know her students and give them constructive feedback, which, in a class of more than sixty can be difficult to do one-on-one.
Dr. Bayles also assigns reflective writing pieces in ENCH 427: Transport Processes II, a class that covers various forms of mass transfer. Handing back lab reports that students turned in as freshmen, she asks them to reflect on how far they’ve come. It is embarrassing and surprising for most, explains Bayles. But, it’s a chance for the students to understand their academic growth and in the end, it’s encouraging to see their progress.
Students exercise their oral communication skills through the high school outreach program that Bayles started in 2003. Students visit high schools (sometimes their own) and teach Chemical Engineering concepts like the applications of heat and mass transfer to a class of highschoolers. They learn how to “convey that info to an audience that doesn’t have that technical knowledge,” she says.
In ENCH 437L: Chemical Engineering Laboratory, Dr. Jennie B. Leach has introduced Draft Conferences. The short student-teacher meetings are a chance for Leach to give feedback on in-progress lab reports. She has noticed overall improvement on the assignments since the conferences began.
“It puts more responsibility on the students to play an active role in the feedback process and therefore is a lot less time consuming for the instructor as no comments are written,” explains Dr. Leach. “Also, [students] get to see a reader’s reaction to their writing and be guided in the critique and editing process.”
Fostering communication skills in technical-minded students is a priority of the department. Currently, the CBEE department has three writing intensive courses; It is pulling for a fourth by adding written lab reports, essays, and technical writing training to ENCH 225. There's also a collaboration in the works with English Professor of the Practice Christopher Corbett.
Transfer Student Success
In an effort to increase transfer student success, the CBEE department offers a new one-credit Transfer Student Seminar (TRS 201). The course is tacked on to Dr. Bayles’ ENCH 215: Chemical Engineering Analysis—the first in a six semester sequence of Chemical Engineering courses—and goes over core concepts that might not have been emphasized at the students’ previous schools.
Held for an hour on Fridays, the class features a peer mentor. This fall it was Rima Abouzeid (CE '14), a transfer student herself. “I work with Dr. Bayles to try to always create a supportive environment for the students and help them do better in this class, and provide a strong background to be successful in their future classes,” explains Abouzeid. “I also try to always be a positive role model and be a good resource for any problems that might arise during the semester.”
Abouzeid explains that the biggest challenges facing transfer students is that expectations between community college or smaller colleges and the expectations at UMBC are so different. “Hard work is the key to success,” she says. The main section of the course also has two undergraduate teaching fellows—Chemical Engineering seniors that offer additional office hours. Which means that in addition to Dr. Bayles, the nearly one-hundred students in ENCH 225 have three other resources for help and guidance.
Industry Simulation
CBEE courses that simulate what it’s like to work in the industry give students practical experience and an undeniable edge. Taken in their senior year, the classes get students ready for the “real world.”
That is the goal of the Chemical Engineering Capstone courses. The two part capstone puts Chemical Engineering majors into teams to work on projects that they might encounter in the industry. The courses are run like businesses, where professors acts as CEOs and commission students to design products or processes to meet a need. Throughout the semester, students present on their progress, write reports, and evaluate their work and teammates.
Drawing on more than thirty-two years of industry experience, Dr. Joseph Loehe acts as the “director of engineering” in ENCH 444. Instead of lecturing, he gives students guidance and technical advice along the way. If it seems like extra help is needed, he’ll give a targeted mini-lecture on a specific subject.
“I’m trying to give them technical self-confidence,” explains Loehe, by giving them the freedom to work through problems with their teammates. Loehe puts students in teams of five with one team captain. “Part of this capstone experience is learning how to be a group member,” he says. Peer evaluations are a critical consideration in a student’s overall grade.
Teamwork and effective communication is also the focus of Capstone part two, ENCH 446 taught by Dr. Mariajose Castellanos. Focused around one semester-long group project, the course culminates in an anticipated group presentation to the entire CBEE department.
Projects—last spring it was turning liquid gas into petroleum–are also group based, but instead of assigning a group leader, students rotate roles. There’s a firing policy. “It’s like soccer,” she says: two yellow cards and you’re out. And at the end of the semester, Castellanos has students reflect on their success as a team with a creative presentation to the rest of the class.
One group, for example, that had trouble getting along wore sunglasses as a symbol of their blindness to one another during the semester. Another team came into the classroom dribbling basketballs and compared their group dynamics to a basketball team (pictured right). They weren’t passing the ball to one another, they said.
Next, students produce a digital story, a three to five minute video that recaps their experiences during the semester. They re-enact group fights, add music and graphics. “It’s such a cathartic moment for them,” explains Castellanos, because it marks the end of a class that marks the end of their college careers.
After a semester of hard work, group projects are presented during the last week of class. “I make sure that the whole department has been invited,” she says. Professors, staff, and students gather. There’s food. The students come early to prepare, dressed in suits and color coordinated outfits. “It’s culturally a big deal,” she says. Each team is evaluated by the audience, who answers questions like “would you hire the team?”
The event is an example of how teachers, like Castellanos, are trying to create a tight knit community within the department. Along with engaging classes and dedicated professors, helping students feel like part of a family is essential to their success. "I really do believe that it makes a big difference."
Mechanical Engineering
A Whole New World
When it’s one o’clock at UMBC, what time is it in Porto, Portugal? Dr. Marc Zupan would know. This fall the UMBC Mechanical Engineering associate professor lived there to teach a brand-new Global Engineering course: ENME 489.
“This course has really been cut from new cloth,” says Dr. Zupan, who co-taught it with Professor of the Practice Dr. Anne Spence and three colleagues at the University of Porto in Portugal. To create such an educational experience first you have to define what are key Global Engineering competencies, develop methods to teach them and final identify tools to measure that these Global Engineering competencies were learned.
Since working abroad or in interdisciplinary, multi-cultural teams is typical for Mechanical Engineers, the idea behind ENME 489 was to teach students how to do it well. But since going abroad is not practical for every student, the class was born from the thought: “How can we give them a similar experience at home?”
The answer was a course that used video-conferencing and Skype to merge two classrooms into one. Last fall, nine students from Portugal and twenty from UMBC made up the class. Together they broke into groups, depending on technologies like Skype, Facebook, email, Dropbox, and Google+ to stay in touch.
Naturally, this posed some challenges.
“The hardest part of communicating was the time difference,” says Shane Walston, a Mechanical Engineering Senior, of the five hour difference. “So many of us stateside would be ready to work a couple of hours after class to discuss a project, but in Portugal, many were already asleep.”
Languages difficulties were also an issue.
“They had to learn to speak slowly,” says Dr. Spence, and to not just smile and nod if they couldn’t understand their teammates. UMBC students had to carefully filter slang and colloquialisms out of their speech.
These obstacles, though, were the point of the class. Because, learning to navigate them was an invaluable experience for the students.
“I can say with a smile that in one semester I learned a whole new side of English termed “International English”” says Shane. The experience taught him how to alter his speech for non-native English speakers. “The value of this ability is limitless in my opinion. Hopefully in my career after college I will be presented with international opportunities, and the ability to communicate well across oceans and borders with confidence has limitless business and personal growth opportunities associated with it.”
In addition to “Global Skills”, the course helps students develop “enabling skills”, like good communication and teamwork across timezones. Project based learning in the class not only included engineering challenges but projects included creating a CV and giving an elevator speech to the class. “We’re trying to make it as real-world based as we can,” explains Dr. Zupan.
In the classroom, students had to pick teams, organize themselves, and work on projects with very little teacher intervention. Sometimes– like in the “real world”–personalities clashed. Some students were fired from teams and–also, like in the “real world”–had to find a way back on a team or risk a failing grade.
Part of UMBC’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation Minor, the course, explains Zupan, is an asset for students–many of whom will have to navigate a not-so-ideal job market come May. “If anything, you can put on the bottom of your resume that you have experience working in a Global Engineering team from this course and you’re different from everybody else.”
Getting Down to Business
Global Engineering skills aren’t the only “real world” skills being taught in Mechanical Engineering classrooms. In Dr. Neil Rothman’s ENME 444: Mechanical Engineering Systems Design class, he gives students a taste of what it’s like to work in the industry.
The course is combined with Dr. Chuck LaBerge’s ENME 450/451 class, so that Mechanical Engineers and Computer Engineers work together. This allows for more complicated, real-world projects that have included Intelligent Convoy Systems, Satellite Tracker Systems, and Underwater Gliders–all things that require both sets of expertise.
Occasionally teammates butt heads and must learn to work things out on their own. “This is part of what they’re learning as part of the course,” says Dr. Rothman, who stresses how good communication and teamwork is essential to succeeding in the business.
Presentation skills are cultivated. “It’s way more painful at the beginning of the class than it is at the end,” laughs Dr. Rothman. There’s also something called “Stand-up meetings”. Held every Monday, one student from each team is given two minutes to succinctly update his “colleagues” on the progress of their project.
“Companies do this all the time” says Dr. Rothman, who spent over thirty years working for start-ups.
Dr. Rothman soon hopes to collaborate with local companies. Doing so would give students experience with “real projects” and the chance to develop a rapport and relationships with key players in the industry. For the companies, it gives them first cut at the best students when it’s time for them to graduate at the end of the semester.
“It’s a win-win,” he says.
Building Bonds with Baltimore
“Win-Win” is also how Dr. Panos Charalambides could describe his new ENME 220H course. By increasing students’ civic awareness and assigning class projects that benefit the community, the course, dubbed: “Impacting Baltimore through Engineering” was a perfect candidate for UMBC’s new Breaking Ground initiative, a campus-wide push towards community engagement.
Dr. Charalambides’ goal was to pique interest in community problems and inspire students to work on them post graduation. To do that, he reached out to the city of Baltimore.
The class went on field trips to places like the Baltimore Traffic Control Center, where students got a behind-the-scenes look at how city traffic lights work. He invited guest speakers, like Rudy Chow, head of the Bureau of Water and Wastewater, who taught the class about Baltimore’s ageing infrastructure and how 100+ year old pipes are increasingly causing water main breaks throughout the city.
Students tackled these problems through group projects. A few groups worked on developing life expectancy models for water pipes. Though still preliminary, it is work like this that could eventually evolve into a helpful preventative tool, such as a map that pinpoints likely ruptures, explains Dr. Charalambides.
Another group went out into the community to make a difference. Stephen Gienow, a Mechanical Engineering Junior and his group members taught an after school Lego robotics program at Arbutus Elementary. The experience, says Stephen, was eye-opening.
“The honors section definitely increased my awareness of the importance of engineering education,” explains Stephen. “Although I’ve always known vaguely about the initiative to encourage more young people to pursue STEM related fields, working with students to promote science and engineering really brought to the front of my mind the importance of educating our youth and getting them motivated to pursue advanced careers.”
Stephen says the experience has made him consider doing further outreach for engineering education. That’s good news for Dr. Charalambides, whose goal was to do just that: instill students with a healthy set of ethical standards, and the drive to lead the way in bettering their community through Engineering.
So Long, Lectures
Dr. Charles Eggleton stopped lecturing in his ENME 320: Fluid Mechanics class. Instead, students come to class knowing the material and use class time to work through problems. The new technique is called “Flipping the Classroom”.
Students learn better this way, says Dr. Eggleton. Rather than sitting passively through long in-class lectures, they learn from video lectures available on iTunes. The videos can be watched (and re-watched) anytime and anywhere, like in bed in your pajamas or in the library between classes.
In the classroom, Dr. Eggleton teaches students how to work through problems. “If we expect them to learn to solve problems, shouldn’t they be doing that in the contact hours?” he says.
Students, like Mechanical Engineering Senior Chrysantus Bandon-Bibum, agree. “I learn by example,” he says. Watching Dr. Eggleton walk-through the problem solving process in class is essential to his learning process.
Dr. Anne Spence, who “flipped” her ENME 303 course on MATLAB, is also convinced that students should solve problems during class.
“It’s almost like forced office hours,” says Dr. Spence. As students work through difficult engineering problems in class, Dr. Spence is there to answer questions–something she didn’t have enough time for when she spent the period lecturing.
Before class, students watch a few short videos and take a quiz on blackboard. After a quick review, she puts them to work solving problems in groups. Why in groups? “Because they’re going to be engineers,” says Dr. Spence. “What gets you promoted is your ability to work with people.”
Dr. Spence borrowed her videos from “The Numerical Methods Guy”, a University of South Florida professor who got NSF funding to develop a free, web-based course in Numerical Methods for undergraduates. The result is a website full of tests, practice problems, short YouTube videos that Spence uses as resources for her students.
Since flipping her classroom, Dr. Spence has noticed better grades overall. It’s incentive, she says, to continue “flipping” for years to come.