ORIENTATION WORKSHOP

JRE College of Engineering, Greater Noida organized Orientation Workshop on “Integrating Projects and Design into Core Engineering Courses Enhancing Learning and Preparing Professionals” on 16th July 2015 under aegis of SPEED-IUCEE platform. Prof. TPN Singh, Advisor, Department of Research & Development and Mr. Ankush Yadav, Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering from Dronacharya Group of Institutions, Greater Noida attend the workshop.

Following dignitaries were present:

1. Dr. Krishna Vedula - Executive Director, SPEED-IUCEE

2. Prof. Bill Oakes - Director, EPICS, Purdue University, USA

3. Dr. Krishna Rao - Director, JRE College of Engineering, Greater Noida

The workshop commenced with the introduction of Dr. Krishna Vedula and Dr. Bill Oakes. Dr. Bill Oakes is Director of EPICS program and a Prof. of Engineering of Education at Purdue University, US. He has been active in the teaching of “Innovations in Engineering Education” and has conducted more than 100 faculty and teacher development workshops. He is the recipient of numerous awards in the field of Engineering Education.

Dr. Vedula in his introductory address stressed on the concept of, “How to do Engineering”. For learning to ride a bicycle one has to fall and get up many times. Similarly to be successful in the domain of Engineering, trials and errors are encountered. Engineering students should be creative and be practically oriented. All concepts of theory and principles should be practiced in a project. Any meaningful work achieved by students should have a logical conclusion.

Prof. Oakes spoke on reflection and metacognition concepts. Metacognitive activities engage participants in thinking about their learning. Reflection intentionally guides participants through activities to analyze and reflect upon their work and learning. This improves learning of academic content and connects experiences to it. Students increase learning in engineering by various attributes. These are, Reading - 10%, Listening - 20%, Seeing Pictures - 30%, Watching a Video/ Seeing an exhibit/ Watching a demo - 50%, Participate in a discussion/ Give a talk - 70%, Doing the real thing - 90%.

The first five attributes are passive and the last two are active. An analysis in one Corporation for correlation with undergraduate grades and success revealed that success in the company was NOT correlated with grades.

The implication suggests that success in traditional class room and examination does not always correlate with success in industry. The industry attributes required are as follows:

1. Good understanding of Engineering Sciences Fundamentals.

2. Good understanding of design and manufacturing process.

3. Multidisciplinary, systems perspective.

4. Good communication skills.

5. Ability to think critically and creatively.

6. Flexibility.

7. Curiosity and desire to learn for life.

8. A profound understanding of importance of team work.

Prof. Oakes described multidisciplinary community based designs engineered by students of his college like communication devices, Braille reader, custom prosthetics etc. He spoke on grading and assessments of students’ performance in terms of formative assessments (Home Work, Projects, in class assignments) and summative assessment (end of course or experience). Students are given academic credit for mastering course content and assessed on their demonstrated mastery of course content. A Rubric table is prepared to assess the outcome in various categories as required. Team work was stressed upon and a professional approach is undertaken for team preparation. Projects and courses are taught in teams in which students are exposed to team behaviors. Mutual accountability is graded wherein part of course grade is team performance. Students are motivated to work as team. Evaluation scheme envisages peers to evaluate each other. This approach has been highly successful and is practiced for all projects.

Few activity based assignments were given to the participants to be carried out in groups.

Dr. Krishna Rao, Director, JRE rendered the vote of thanks. The workshop came to an end at 5:15 PM.