The Department of Physics at the University of Illinois has a long tradition of innovation in undergraduate education, from PLATO to Tycho to i>clickers. The tradition continues with their most recent innovation: prelectures — short Flash(r) animations designed to introduce students to the fundamental concepts before they attend a lecture. Watch the seminar by Tim Stelzer in the embedded player bellow or here.

On Monday April 13th, Sheri D. Sheppard, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, and Consulting Scholar at Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching presented “Educating Engineers: Designing for the Future of the Field”. The video from the talk can be found in the viewer below

or on Google Video here.

John Steck will present “New Directions for Product Development in Organizations”, as a part of the Designmatters2 lecture series. The talk will be held at the Siebel Center of Computer Science on Tuesday, April 21, 5pm. More information is available here.

Christian Sandvig will present the Department of Communication Colloquium – “Networked Television Beyond Television Networks: The Policy Problems of Internet Video Distribution”.
The talk will be held at Lincoln Hall on Friday, April 17, 2:30 p.m.

Abstract: We are in an exciting transitional moment for anyone interested in television–such as the 98.9% of Americans who watch it. Despite larger screens, new formats, digital broadcasts, and a variety of alternative platforms and technologies, the audience for network television is in decline (dropping 10% last year). Yet screen time with video remains strong, it is just increasingly on a device fed by (or occasionally replaced by) computation and served by the Internet in some form. Consider only one example of this Internet encroachment: Web-based video watched on a computer (Hulu, YouTube). About half of all Internet users in the US have tried it, nearly 1 in 6 adults watch on a daily or weekly basis, and almost 1 in 3 young people do. As of December, more than 1 in 6 searches performed on the Internet are seeking video, almost all on YouTube. Other Internet encroachments and combinations abound, with varying success so far (Netflix/360, AppleTV, Mobile TV, and so on).

About the Speaker: Christian Sandvig is Associate Professor in Communication, Media Studies, the Coordinated Science Laboratory, and an affiliate of the Illinois Center for Wireless Systems. In 2002 he was named “next-generation leader in technology policy” by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2006 he received the NSF CAREER award in Human-Centered Computing.

Edison Liu, A George A. Miller Visiting Professor at University of Illinois and Director of the Genome Institute of Singapore will preset the talk “Science and Technology and the Survival of Humankind”.

Thursday, April 16, 2009, 7:00 PM
Pollard Auditorium, The Forum, Carle Foundation Hospital
611 W. Park Street, Urbana

We, as a species, have now populated the world and control its resources. In the past our success has been in how we manage existing resources through agriculture, irrigation, mining and government. Today our solutions lie in the creation of new resources, the opening of new livable environments and the prolongation of our effective lives. The future of humankind and the health of the planet depend on science and its careful management and governance. Edison Liu explores the discoveries that brought us to this point, what challenges are ahead of us and what remarkable solutions might be available.

Abigail Stewart will present the seminar “Advancing Faculty Diversity in Science and Engineering” as a part of Provost’s Spring Lecture on Gender Equity. The Seminar will be held at the Law Auditorium, on the Wednesday, April 22, 12:00.

Abigail Stewart is a well-known scholar in the field of faculty diversity and gender equality, and is the central figure in the U. Michigan Advance program, which conducted the COE Workshop on Faculty Recruiting.

The University of Illinois and Olin College co-sponsored yesterday’s Summit on the Engineer of the Future at Olin College.  iFoundry co-director David E. Goldberg helped open the summit with his remarks, Lonely Dots, Dot Connecting & the Engineer of the Future. Download the remarks in pdf form here.

Monday 13 April, 4:00 p.m., 1000 Micro and Nanotechnology Lab (MNTL)

Sheri D. Sheppard, Professor—Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, and Consulting Scholar—Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

Abstract: A recently published Carnegie Foundation study of engineering education describes and analyzes both typical and exemplary approaches to teaching and learning engineering at the outset of the new century. It addresses the major questions of what engineering education looks like and how it prepares practitioners by exploring what lies inside the “black box” of preparation for the engineering profession. These questions are addressed in ways that will assist educators, students, university leaders, and practicing engineers to prepare future engineers more effectively. The study also provides an important point of linkage to foster an exchange of insights and best practices among and between disciplinary fields, and both graduate and undergraduate programs.

Educating Engineers: Designing for the Future of the Field is the final report from the Foundation’s study. As the Senior Scholar at the Foundation and lead author of the report, Professor Sheppard will describe the dominant model of engineering education, outline improvements to better align educational practices with the needs to today’s engineering professionals, and propose an alternate (and fairly radical) model suggested by new understanding of how people learn. Ample time will be allotted in the session for Q&A, and discussion.

Sheri D. Sheppard, Ph.D., P.E., is the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Consulting Senior Scholar principally responsible for the Preparations for the Professions Program (PPP) engineering study, the results of which are in the report Educating Engineers: Designing for the Future of the Field. In addition, she is professor of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. Besides teaching both undergraduate and graduate design-related classes at Stanford University, she conducts research on weld and solder-connect fatigue and impact failures, fracture mechanics, and applied finite element analysis. In 2003 Dr. Sheppard was named co-principal investigator on a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to form the Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education (CAEE), along with faculty at the University of Washington, Colorado School of Mines, and Howard University. She was co-principal investigator with Professor Larry Leifer on a multi-university NSF grant that was critically looking at engineering undergraduate curriculum (Synthesis); one of her key contributions in Synthesis was the development of a pedagogy called mechanical dissection.

Sheri served as co-director of Stanford’s Learning Lab (1997-1999), was Chair of Stanford’s Faculty Senate in 2006-2007, and since September of 2008 has served as Associate Vice provost of Graduate Education. For the last ten years she has been the faculty advisor to the Stanford graduate student group MEWomen.

Sheri is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE). She was awarded the 2004 ASEE Chester F. Carlson Award in recognition of distinguished accomplishments in engineering education, and the 2005 ASEE Wickenden Best Journal of Engineering Education Paper Award. Before coming to Stanford University, she held several positions in the automotive industry, including senior research engineer at Ford Motor Company’s Scientific Research Lab. Dr. Sheppard’s graduate work was done at the University of Michigan.

Sheppard’s co-authors on Educating Engineers: Designing for the Future of the Field are Kelley Macatangay, Anne Colby and William Sullivan.

Wednesday 29 April, 4:00 p.m., 301 Coordinated Science Lab (CSL)

Professor Tim Stelzer, Department of Physics

Abstract: The Department of Physics at the University of Illinois has a long tradition of innovation in undergraduate education. From PLATO (the first computer based learning system) to Tycho (web-based homework employing the Socratic method), to Peer Instruction with i>clickers, we have continually led the development and implementation of the best instructional practices for large-enrollement introductory physics courses. The tradition continues with our most recent innovation— prelectures. These short (<20-min) narrated Flash(r) animations are designed to introduce students to the fundamental concepts before they attend lecture, so they are better prepared to participate and learn in lecture. In addition to screening a typical prelecture, results from our published clinical studies, eyetracking studies, and student outcome data from the use of prelectures in our introductory E&M course will be presented.

David Whyte

Thursday 19 March, 5:00 p.m., Alice Campbell Alumni Center

David Whyte is a poet, speaker, and author who takes his perspectives on creativity into the field of organizational development. For more information on David and his work, you may visit his web site, and/or listen to his February 2 interview on WILL AMís Focus 580.