Jean Nocito-Gobel

A comprehensive engineering college-wide program for developing technical communication skills in students

The Project to Integrate Technical Communication Habits (PITCH) is being implemented in the Tagliatela College of Engineering at the University of New Haven across seven engineering and computer science undergraduate programs. PITCH develops written, oral and visual communication skills in students starting in the very first semester and continuing through all four years of each program. Communication instruments encompass technical memoranda, poster presentations, oral presentations, laboratory reports, proposals, and senior design reports, including the use of tables and graphics in each. Advice tables, annotated sample assignments and grading rubrics are being developed for each instrument to assist students in their work and facilitate consistency in instruction and assessment across multiple instructors teaching different course sections. Within each of the seven programs, specific courses that span all four years are targeted for implementation and assessment of technical communication skills. The different communication instruments are distributed across courses as appropriate, and the skills are developed at deeper and deeper levels as students progress through the years. A critical feature of the project is that technical communication skills are integrated into the content of regular engineering courses and are taught by regular engineering faculty.

Preliminary Assessment of and Lessons Learned in PITCH: an Integrated Approach to Developing Technical Communication Skills in Engineers

The Project to Integrate Technical Communication Habits (PITCH) was recently implemented at the University of New Haven. The goal of PITCH is to develop good communication habits in engineering students. The program is designed to integrate technical communication learning objectives into a sequence of engineering courses, culminating with the senior design experience. Engineering students are introduced to the PITCH program in three courses during their freshman year and the skills they learn are reinforced in each subsequent year of their studies. After three years of progressively more extensive development and deployment, a preliminary assessment of student writing from freshman to junior years was performed. PITCH teaches students how to report on technical work with an appropriate level of detail and how to effectively present data. As part of the program students prepare laboratory reports, technical memoranda, poster presentations, oral presentations, and senior design reports. PITCH has been integrated into four freshman and sophomore courses taken by all engineering students, as well as two higher level, program specific courses. Engineering faculty teaching these courses were trained through workshops conducted over three summers. A random sample of students across four majors was selected for the assessment. The sample was taken from the first cohort of students that had taken freshman through junior courses with trained instructors. Four faculty members and an external consultant involved in the development and deployment of PITCH were chosen as evaluators. The student assignments chosen for review were evaluated by a common rubric to determine whether students achieved the PITCH learning outcomes. The evaluations were done with all five evaluators present. Student progress through the first three years of PITCH is quantified and the results demonstrate that student writing improved significantly. The pedagogical and administrative lessons learned by developing and implementing the program are also discussed. PITCH is supported by a grant from the Davis Educational Foundation.

Integrating e-Learning Modules into Engineering Courses to Develop an Entrepreneurial Mindset in Students

Engineering graduates who will be leaders in today’s rapidly changing environment must possess an entrepreneurial mindset and a variety of professional skills in addition to technical knowledge and skills. An entrepreneurial mindset applies to all aspects of life, beginning with curiosity about our changing world, integrating information from various resources to gain insight, and identifying unexpected opportunities to create value. The Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN) defines curiosity, connections and creating value as three core components of an entrepreneurial mindset. These 3Cs coupled with associated engineering skills forms KEEN’s entrepreneurial mindset framework. An entrepreneurial mindset enables engineers to develop sound technical solutions that address customer needs, are feasible from a business perspective, and have societal benefit. The Tagliatela College of Engineering at the University of New Haven is working to develop an entrepreneurial mindset in its engineering students through a four-faceted framework based on KEEN’s constructs that includes: 1) developing an entrepreneurial mindset amongst faculty; 2) providing curricular components that develop specific student knowledge and skills; 3) structuring the physical environment to promote entrepreneurial minded learning; and 4) providing opportunities for students to engage in meaningful extra-curricular activities. This paper focuses on the curricular component of this framework. As part of these curricular activities, 18 short, self-paced, e-learning modules will be developed and integrated into courses spanning all four years across all engineering and computer science disciplines. Each module contains readings, short videos and self-assessment exercises. Five of these e-learning modules were developed in fall 2014, four of these five were piloted in the Spring 2015 semester, and all five modules were broadly deployed in the Fall 2015 semester. A flipped classroom instructional model is used to integrate the modules into courses. Content is delivered via a short online module outside the class, and student learning is improved by reinforcing the content covered in the module through class discussions and contextual activities. Direct and indirect assessment is performed through formative and summative class assessments and module specific pre and post surveys, respectively. The five integrated e-learning modules presented in this paper are: 1) Developing customer awareness and quickly testing concepts through customer engagement, 2) Learning from failure, 3) Cost of production and market conditions, 4) Building, sustaining and leading effective teams and establishing performance goals, and 5) Applying systems thinking to solve complex problems. The first two modules were integrated into freshman classes, the third into a sophomore class, the fourth into third year laboratory courses, and the fifth into senior design courses. This paper describes the learning outcomes and the reinforcement activities conducted in the courses into which they were integrated for two of these modules. The findings of the module specific surveys and the assessment results are also presented.

Developing Entrepreneurial Thinking in Engineering Students by Utilizing Integrated Online Modules

Maria-Isabel Carnasciali is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Tagliatela College of Engineering, University of New Haven, CT. She obtained her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech in 2008. She received her Bachelors of Engineering from MIT in 2000. Her research focuses on the nontraditional engineering student – understanding their motivations, identity development, and impact of prior engineering-related experiences. Her work dwells into learning in informal settings such as summer camps, military experiences, and extra-curricular activities. Other research interests involve validation of CFD models for aerospace applications as well as optimizing efficiency of thermal-fluid systems.