Today at 10:15, Franklin W. Olin College and the University of Illinois will renew their groundbreaking partnership to work together to transform engineering education (here). The Olin-Illinois Partnership (here) was formed 12 September 2008 and in the past year the two schools have worked together on a variety of projects, including the Summit on the Engineer of the Future 2.0 and the formation of the Alliance for Promoting Engineering Education (APIE2).  Last year’s signing may be viewed on iFoundry YouTube (here).

The Illinois Foundry for Innovation in Engineering Education (iFoundry) will receive an HP Innovations in Education award package of HP technology, cash, and professional services valued at more than $260,000. Technologies such as wireless HP Tablet PCs, wide-format HP DesignJet printers, and remote access to high-power HP Blade Workstations from anywhere on campus, will be used in innovative ways to fundamentally redesign the undergraduate learning experience.

“The HP award is recognition of the systems approach iFoundry is taking to transform engineering education,” says iFoundry co-director David E. Goldberg. “Conceptual, organization, and curricular change must work together, and today they must work together in the context of great technology, both in- and outside the classroom.”

iFoundry seeks to transform the undergraduate engineering experience at a time when the demands of a creative era raise the need to develop engineers who are category creators, not just category enhancers. To help students practice engineering in an increasingly complex world, the pilot initiative maintains that engineers need increased exposure to design and increased attention to the objects of engineering, who they are made for and by whom they are made, as well as a larger picture of how engineers bring solutions to life.

iFoundry plans to deploy the HP technology, work stations, and tablet PC’s to create digital design hubs where students can explore these kinds of educational experiments and innovations conducted under the iFoundry rubric. The equipment generously provided by the grant will support collaboration in pilot courses in CAD/ID, between students in the learning community of a new freshman orientation course, and between the University of Illinois and faculty members and students at partner schools dedicated to transformative efforts in engineering education. iFoundry will also work closely with its Math, Science, Technology, and Education (MSTE) Office in the College of Education to support student volunteer efforts to educate local K-12 students on design artifacts and “how things work.”

More information about the 2009 HP Innovations in Education initiative and other global social investments is available at www.hp.com/go/grants.

iFoundry has been using Google video to store videos over ten minutes in length, but now all iFoundry long videos are on vimeo here.

Many of Jim Leake’s engineering graphics videos are there (here). So are videos from the Workshop on the First Year in Engineering (here) as well as Inquiries in Engineering Education vidoes (here).

Vimeo’s social media features will make it an easier place to browse iFoundry’s longer video collection.

The most popular videos on iFoundry’s YouTube channel (here) have been Michael Loui’s ethics videos (here).  A number of schools are using them as part of regular coursework and his first video in the series on professionalism is nearing 1000 views since its debut last fall.

Help put him over the top (over a 1000 views) by watching in the viewer above or at the link here.

At Olin College today, at 5:15 pm, attendees at the Summit on the Engineer of the Future 2.0 signed the “transformation proclamation” to promote change in engineering education in harmony with the practice of engineering in the 21st century.

The transformation proclamation is the founding document of a larger grassroots Alliance for Promoting Innovation in Engineering Education (APIE2).  APIE2 seeks to connect the dots between different individuals, institutions, and organizations in the furtherance of principled change in engineering education.

Individuals including students, educators, and friends of engineering education who wish to read and possibly sign the document can go to the online petition site gopetition.com here.  For more information about the transformation proclamation or APIE2 contact Sherra Kerns or Dave Goldberg.

With interest in joining iFoundry remaining high, we have extended our application deadline to April 19 and encourage all admitted students to apply here.  Applicants will be notified of their acceptance by April 30. We continue to build the iFoundry class of 2013 and are planning a range of special opportunities for program participants. These include a special orientation course, teamwork activities with Engineering upperclassmen, special design projects, and early exposure to the joy of engineering and the different kinds of engineering.  All admitted students are encouraged to apply. iFoundry looks to build an entering class with students of high academic standing but equally important are intellectual curiosity, perseverance, creativity, leadership, interest in engaging with others, social awareness, and passion for learning. Students should be comfortable collaborating with faculty and peers for iFoundry projects, discussions, and classes. Admissions and notification to iFoundry are on a rolling basis prior to the May 1st deadline for notifying the University of Illinois of your intent to enroll.

David Weightman’s presentation on Brainstorming has been picked by the editors of SlideShare to be highlighted in the education category here.  Watch it there or in the viewer below:

See news release here for the Summit on the Engineer of the Future 2.0 to be held at Olin College, 31 March – 1 April 2009 (Tuesday evening to Wednesday).  For more information go to the workshop website here and the Olin-Illinois Partnership tab here.

Bruce Litchfield, Deana McDonagh, and Sharra Vostral are discussed in the Daily Illini article here.

To pave the way for curricula reform, the College of Engineering is forging a program based upon organizational change first.

The college recently launched iFoundry: The Illinois Foundry for Innovation in Engineering Education, an interdepartmental curriculum incubator that is exploring ways to enrich and balance engineering curricula so that students develop competencies in crucial “soft skills” – such as communication and teamwork, critical and creative thinking, and ethics – in addition to math and science.

The goal of iFoundry is to shift the focus of engineering education from analysis to artifacts – products, processes and systems – and the ways in which people conceptualize and use them.

“The current engineering curriculum was established during the Cold War era and needs to be thoroughly re-examined and overhauled,” Ilesanmi Adesida, dean of the College, said in a news release announcing iFoundry. “Engineering today is unusually fast-paced and requires an uncommon blend of knowledge and skill along technological, humanistic and artistic dimensions.”

“One of the things that’s difficult about curricula change is that it is a political process, and you really have to change minds before you can get permission to change courses,” said David E. Goldberg, a professor of industrial and enterprise systems engineering and co-director of iFoundry along with Andreas Cangellaris, a professor of electrical and computer engineering. “Curricula change is an academic NIMBY – not in my backyard – problem. Everyone agrees it’s great, except when it comes to changing their own courses or prerequisites. The key to iFoundry is that it respects faculty governance while allowing experimental change.