Curriculum Reform at Rensselaer
R. T. Lahey, Jr.
Dean of Engineering
G. A. Gabriele
Chair-Department of Engineering Science &
Core Engineering
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Troy, New York - USA
INTRODUCTION
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is currently
engaged in major curriculum reform. In particular, the
curricula in all the Schools at Rensselaer are being
changed to a 128 credit four by four (4X4) Baccalaureate
program. That is, a program of study in which students
will be taking four, four credit courses per semester. The
School of Engineering at Rensselaer is a leader in these
activities.
In addition, many of our large enrollment
courses are being converted into a studio format. These
"theater in the round" type courses have few lectures by
professors but have intensive interaction among the
students. Indeed, the students learn by doing and many
of these courses involve extensive use of multimedia
computer technology to aid interactive learning.
Rensselaer has pioneered in the use of
computers in the classroom. We currently have calculus,
physics, chemistry and some of our large enrollment
introductory engineering courses (eg., Laboratory
Introduction to Embedded Control - LITEC) taught in
this manner to all of our students. Moreover, we are in
the process of converting a number of upper level
engineering courses to this format (eg, Electronics &
Instrumentation, The Analysis of Dynamic Systems,
Health Physics, etc.). Our experience has been that a
properly formulated multimedia computer-based course
promotes learning in the classroom, and less contact
hours are required to deliver it. Moreover, we have
found that teaching is not the same thing as learning and
that hypertext and computer-based visualization
capabilities significantly enhance learning and customer
(i.e., student) satisfaction. Thus the development of
multimedia computer-based studio classes are a key
feature of the curriculum reform activities atRensselaer.
It should be stressed that the primary motivation
for curriculum reform at Rensselaer is the desire to create
an exciting new state-of-the-art engineering curriculum
which not only reduces unnecessary load on both students
and faculty, but can be delivered at significantly less cost
(~20%). Indeed, we believe that successful technological
universities of the 21st Century must do more, and do it
better, with less, and curriculum reform is the key to
achieving this goal.
DISCUSSION
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, which was
started in 1824, has a long history of innovation in
engineering education. For example, for more than 30
years a Core Engineering program has been in place.
This program of study, which comprises the first two
years of our Baccalaureate degree, is required of virtually
all engineering students at Rensselaer. The purpose of
this program is to provide our students with the
foundation in technology that we feel every engineer
(regardless of discipline) should have. This distinctive
program will be retained in a 4X4 format, however, it is
now organized around 4 major blocks of courses:
(1) The Engineering Core. Courses required of
all disciplines. This core includes the Mathematics and
Science courses, required engineering experiences (such
as design early in the curriculum), Humanities and Social
Sciences, 12 credits of free electives and instruction in
Engineering Leadership.
(2) The Multidisciplinary Core. Four multidisciplinary core electives which each discipline will
choose from a defined list of courses shared by more than
one discipline.
(3) The Disciplinary Core. Courses that are core
to a particular curriculum.
(4) Disciplinary Electives. Each discipline can
outline a set of electives that students can choose from to
explore a particular interest within their discipline, or
acquire depth in an area in preparation for graduate
study.
The template for Rensselaer's new 128 credit
4X4 Baccalaureate degree program in engineering is
given in Table-I. As can be seen, the students have
ample opportunity to customize their plan of study and
can, if they wish, obtain dual degrees in several
engineering disciplines, or in engineering combined with
management (e.g., entrepreneurship) or the humanities.
The list of multidisciplinary courses to be shared
by the curriculums is shown in Table II.
Innovations
There are several distinctive features of our
curriculum that we have developed that will help make
this curriculum innovative. These are discussed below.
Engineering Leadership and Professional
Development
One credit modules in Leadership &
Professional Development will be required in each year
of the Baccalaureate degree program. In these modules
the students will learn the people skills needed for
successful and rewarding careers. In particular, they will
learn to be effective communicators (written and oral),
learn to work in multidisciplinary teams, learn the
principles of leadership and interpersonal relationships
and learn the value of diversity and empowerment. The
first of these occurs in the freshman year, Leadership &
Professional Development-I, and will introduce the
students to the basics required of good teams,
interpersonal skills, and leadership. The second
component will be combined with the required
sophomore course, Introduction to Engineering Design
(IED), where students have their first extended
experience in trying to work in teams in a design-buildtest experience. The third component will be provided
during the junior year to introduce advanced concepts of
professional development, team presentations, and
leadership types. The final component will be combined
with the senior capstone design courses in much the same
way as the sophomore experience with the topics being
focused on the transition to professional practice.
Studio Courses and Multimedia Instruction
Rensselaer has been leading the way in
engineering education in the development and
deployment of studio format courses and the use of
computers in the classroom.
Studio courses are designed to focus attention on
student learning rather than the professor’s performance
by actively engaging the students in the classroom. This
is done by transforming the classroom from the one-way
delivery of knowledge, i.e. the 50 min lecture, to
interactive sessions made up of mini-lectures and team
oriented exercises in the classroom that encourage the
students to discover the knowledge through their own
activities. A typical course consisting of 3 hours of
lecture and a 1 hour problem session will be reorganized
into two 2 hour studio sessions with each session
providing the mini-lecture/exercise session format.
The studio format has already been implemented
in our Physics I & II courses and our Math I & II courses.
We have also begun implementing this format in the
courses Introduction to Engineering Analysis, Chemistry
of Materials I&II, and Strength of Materials.
Experience with the studio courses has shown
that student activity in the classroom is much higher than
the typical lecture. Attendance is up, and tests of
retention show that students are understanding the
material better than in the past.
In addition to the implementation of the studio
courses, we have begun wide spread use of the computers
instruction in the classroom including the use of
multimedia instruction. As stated in the introduction, we
currently have several of our large enrollment courses
making active use of computers in the classroom, such as
the use of Maple in the mathematics courses and
freshman engineering course, Introduction
to
Engineering Analysis.
The physics courses and the multidisciplinary
course, Laboratory Introduction to Embedded Control,
make extensive use of multimedia instruction in the
classroom. These courses have typical semester
enrollments of 250-350 students. We have found
significant advantages to using multimedia instructional
modules in the classroom in assisting student learning
and reducing the required teaching resources.
Our future plans call for us to continue
development of multimedia instruction in our upper level
courses. In particular, those courses with high
enrollments can employ multimedia to help make
efficient use of teaching resources, to increase student
understanding through improved visualization, or to
allow for easy customization of multidisciplinary course
material to incorporate discipline specific examples.
Multidisciplinary Design Laboratory
The Multidisciplinary Design Laboratory
(MDL), which is currently in the development stages,
will be used to emphasize the multidisciplinary nature of
engineering, and help to train our students to be effective
members and leaders of multidisciplinary engineering
teams. The MDL consists of two major elements, a
design curriculum centered on providing a
multidisciplinary design experience at the senior level,
and a facility that supports design courses and
multidisciplinary hand’s on activities.
The curriculum portion of the MDL combines
the senior level capstone design courses that currently
exist in every department into a common,
multidisciplinary capstone experience. This will bring
together students from different disciplines into design
team settings that provide experiences more closely
attuned to the real world of engineering. Design
problems are inherently multidisciplinary. By bringing
groups of students from different disciplines together at
the senior level, students have the opportunity to better
understand what other disciplines contribute to a design
activity, as well as gaining a better appreciation for their
own discipline and skills. This curriculum development
has been underway since the 1995 fall semester and
should reach full implementation within the next two
years.
The MDL facility provides two different areas, a
design teaching area, and a multidisciplinary
experimental laboratory. The design teaching area is
being developed to support the team oriented work that
goes on in the sophomore design course (IED), and the
multidisciplinary senior capstone course described above.
This will be a large room configured to support both
lecture activity and design team meetings. Support for
advanced engineering workstations, white board
technology, and video conferencing are also planned.
The multidisciplinary experimental area will
provide a space to focus many of the dispersed activities
in our instructional labs that are common to many
curricula, as well as provide space for those activities that
are inherently multidisciplinary. An example of the first
type of space would be the need for materials testing.
Several curricula (mechanical engineering, civil
engineering, and materials science) employ some type of
materials testing as part of their undergraduate labs.
These labs would be consolidated into a common area of
the MDL. Multimedia instructional modules would be
incorporated as part of the lab to assist students in
understanding the equipment, experimental setup and
data collection methods.
An example of the second type of space,
inherently multidisciplinary activities, would be large
design projects, like the RPI composite sailplane project,
the mini baja or the Formula SAE projects, the teaching
factory, and the Advanced Manufacturing Lab.
CLOSURE
These are challenging and exciting times for
engineering education. Currently there is over capacity
in the country for the delivery of engineering education,
and there are unrelenting pressures on all of us to reduce
costs and to improve our educational programs. The
schools that will emerge strong in the 21st century are
the ones that successfully respond to the needs and
pressures of the market place, and the ones that offer a
distinctive and valuable educational experience for their
students. It is felt that curriculum reform is the necessary
but not sufficient condition for future success and
Rensselaer is pleased to be in the forefront of these
important activities.
Table I: Rensselaer’s School of Engineering curriculum template
Fall
Introduction to Engineering Analysis
Math-I
Chemistry of Materials-I
H&SS-I+
Leadership & Professional Development-I
Fall
Physics-II
Differential Equations
Multidisciplinary Core-I
H&SS-III+
Engineering Graphics and CAD
Fall
Modeling and Analysis of Uncertainty
Multidisciplinary Core-III
Disciplinary Core-II
H&SS-V+
Leadership & Professional Development-III
Fall
Disciplinary Elective-I
Disciplinary Elective-II
Disciplinary Lab Elective-III
Free Elective-II
Academic Year 1
Credits Spring
4
Physics-I
4
Math-II
4
Science Elective
4
H&SS-II+
1
Engineering Processes or Introduction
to Engineering Electronics
17
Academic Year 2
Spring
4
Multidisciplinary Core-II
4
Introduction to Engineering Design*
4
Disciplinary Core-I
4
H&SS-IV+
C Programming
1
17
Academic Year 3
Spring
3
Multidisciplinary Core-IV
4
Disciplinary Core-III
4
Disciplinary Core-IV
4
Free Elective-I
1
17
Academic Year 4
Spring
3
Disciplinary Elective-III
3
Multidisciplinary Capstone Design*
4
Free Elective-III
4
Disciplinary Elective-IV
14
Credits
4
4
4
4
1
17
4
4
4
4
1
17
4
4
4
4
16
3
4
4
3
14
Total: 128 credits
Table II: List of multidisciplinary core electives
Chemistry of Materials-II
Thermal/Fluids-I
Thermal/Fluids-II
The Analysis of Dynamic Systems
Engineering Electronics & Instrumentation
Strength of Materials
Engineering Mechanics
Engineering Economics & Project Management
Laboratory Introduction to Embedded Control
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------* Contains modules in leadership & professional development
+
May be taken in any order