iLaunch as Magic Moment

iLaunch as Magic MomentWhat Do You Say to & Do with 93 Incoming iFoundry Freshmen?
David E. Goldberg & Karen K. HymanIllinois Foundry for Innovation in Engineering EducationUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignUrbana, IL 61801 USAdeg@illinois.edu, kkhyman@illinois.edu
© David E. Goldberg 2009

Last Week Held iFoundry iLaunch
93 iFoundry freshmen came to campus.
Believe entry to campus is a magic moment.
Students eager for new and different experience.
Meeting this expectation will pay dividend in engagement.
What should you say and do?
Kevin Wolz, ESS iChair

Roadmap
Brief refresher on iFoundry incubator concept.
The joy or (joys) of engineering (JoE).
The JoE and the aspirations of iStudents.
From the joy of engineering to the joy of X.
Historical perspective: Cold war curriculum in an internet world.
What don’t cold war engineers know how to do?
Social connectedness and iCommunity.
Dynamic T-shaped engineers and lifelong learning.

Why is Curriculum Change Hard?

Academic NIMBY problem.
NIMBY = Not in my backyard.
“It is OK to change the curriculum…”
“….just don’t change MY course.”
Politics of logrolling: You support my not changing. I support your not changing.
Even though agreement for change is widespread, specific changes are resisted.

iFoundry: Org Innovation for Change
Illinois Foundry for Innovation in Engineering Education:
Curriculum change incubator. Permit change.
Collaboration. Large, key ugrad programs work together. Easier approval if shared.
Connections. Hook to depts, NAE, ABET (?), industry.
Volunteers. Enthusiasm for change among participants.
Existing authority. Use signatory authority for modification of curricula for immediate pilot.
Respect faculty governance. Get pilot permission from the dept. and go back to faculty for vote after pilot change
Assessment. Built-in assessment to overcome objections back home.
Scalability. Past attempts at change like Olin fail to scale at UIUC and other big schools.
iFoundry marked by concern for philosophical foundations and effective organizational change.
www.ifoundry.illinois.edu

The Joy(s) of Engineering (JoE)
Engineering is not a monolith:
A creative, challenging profession
A constructive, real-world profession
A people profession
A global profession
An entrepreneurial profession
A serving profession
An optimistic profession

Creative & Challenging
The scientist merely explores that which exists, while the engineer creates what has never existed before.Theodore von Kármán
Engineers fundamentally create new products, services, & processes.
Intellectual challenge of engineering requires novel application of knowledge.
Theodore von Kármán (1881-1963)

JoE & the Aspirations of iStudents
3 Aspirations:
Create cool technology (products & services)
Wanna be the next Max Levchin (entrepreneurial).
Want to create sustainable world & solve societal problems (service)
4 Teams:
Art & engineering design (AED).
Services & systems engineering (SSE).
Entrepreneurship & innovation (EI).
Engineering in service of society (ESS).

From the Joy of Engineering to the Joy of X
To get a fuller picture need to go from Joy of Engineering to the Joy of X, where X is element of {engineering, community, learning}.
Historical perspective from WW2 & the cold war (CW): engineers as specialized, individualistic & narrow.
What’s missing in engineers educated in CW curriculum?
Consider joy of engineering, community, & learning from this perspective.

Cold War Curriculum in a Creative Era
Houston, we’ve got a problem.
After World War 2, engineers accepted notion (myth?) that “science won the war.”
1955 Grinter report spurred injection of math & science, reduction in design & practice.
Engineering was specialized, individualistic & narrow.
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(c) 2009 David E. Goldberg

Begin with the End in Mind
Senior design as way to see the end.
General Engineering at UIUC established in 1921 following curriculum study.
Grinter report of 1955 led to more math and engineering science at expense of design.
UCLA conference 1962.
Ford Foundation grant 1966.
Money ran out 1971.
Industrial funding supports thereafter.
Stephen R. Covey (b. 1932 )

Ready, Set, Go
These are seniors.
Should be engineers on the threshold.
Express preferences for projects.
Get assigned to a project: 3-member teams & faculty advisor.
Go on the plant trip.
Query: What don’t they know how to do?

What Don’t They Learn? Missing Basics
20 years of teaching senior design gives clue.
4 years in CW curriculum, what don’t they know?
Question: Socrates 101.
Label: Aristotle 101.
Model conceptually: Hume 101 & Aristotle 102.
Decompose: Descartes 101.
Measure: Bacon-Locke 101.
Visualize/draw: da Vinci-Monge 101.
Communicate: Newman 101
Call these the missing basics (MBs) vs. “the basics” = math, sci, & eng sci.
iFoundry focusing on missing basics to educate more creative engineers.
Socrates (470-399 BCE)
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(c) 2009 David E. Goldberg

A Cliché of Cold War Engineering School
Engin profs used to say the following:
“Look to your left. Look to your right.”
“One of the three of you won’t make it!”
Statistically correct: 50%-70% survive.
Pedagogically improper.
Why take pride in failure of capable students?
Assumes that “rugged individuals” must survive selective “weed out” process to be successful.

Research Shows Otherwise
Russ Korte’s work on transitions:
College to work
HS to College
Single most important variable in transition success social connectedness (SC).
iCommunity designed to promote SC & student success.
Russell Korte

Look to Left & Right: iFoundry Version
Try it again:
Look to your left. Look to your right.
In iFoundry those two people crucial supporters to help you complete a challenging learning experience.
iLaunch is primarily about the joy of community.
Not an accident that we start with this.
iCommunity calculus: How can we form a supportive group and become great engineers together?

What Needed for Joy of Community?
What skills necessary to become tight knit supportive community?
Need to probe and ask questions of others.
Need to label challenging people problems.
Need to create and communicate.
You need the missing basics!!!
Joy of community, teamwork, leadership, facilitated by mastery of the missing basics.

Teaching: Another Blast from the Past
In old model, students were passive vessels.
Professors poured knowledge into their brains.
Assumes static world of engineers as category enhancers.
Three flavors of iStudent as category creators:
Cool new technology.
Entrepreneurs & innovators.
Working with developing cultures.
Common thread: Need to create new stuff & need to keep learning.
Learning in creative era is never ending enterprise.

Research on Tech Visionaries as Clue
Helpful to look at extreme exemplars of success.
Price, Vojak, & Griffin have done work on tech visionaries (TVs).
TV creates bottom line revenue from new products & services.
T-shaped person both broad and deep.
TVs are dynamic Ts.
Do deep dive in unfamiliar area to make new products.
Bruce Vojak

How to Be a Joyful Lifelong Learner?
What skills do you need to be a dynamic T or lifelong learner?
Need to ask framing questions.
Need to learn lingo of new areas & connect to things understood.
Need to collect data in new situation.
Need to come up with creative solutions appropriate to situation.
You guessed it. The missing basics are the key.

Joy of Engineering, Community & Learning
Taken together these joys can help put you on track to engineering education aligned with the times.
Missing basics tie all three together: Critical & creative thinking skills cut across three areas.
iFoundry is committed to work with you in ways we start today.
Committed to learning and improving continuously.

Let the Joy of X Begin
iFoundry embodies joy of engineering, community & learning.
4 iTeams launched: AED, EI, ESS, & SSE.
ENG 198 launched.
HAPI underway.
EotF3.0 with Olin.
Engage iFoundry Council & Fellows.
New courses 2011.
iFoundry = Strong philosophical & organizational foundation for effective reform.
Claire Slupski, AED iTeam iChair

For More Information
iFoundry website: www.ifoundry.illinois.edu
iFoundry YouTube: www.youtube.com/illinoisfoundry
iFoundry SlideShare: www.slideshare.net/ifoundry
iFoundry Facebook: Search for iFoundry.
iFoundry Twitter: www.twitter.com/ifoundry
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