January, 2007
This group is not a CASEE affiliate though some individual members are. This list is posted as a community service and is maintained by Tom Litzinger of Penn State whose contact information appears below.
Established Centers and Programs
Arizona State University
Center for Research on Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology (CRESMET)
Colorado School of Mines
Center for Engineering Education (CEE)
Georgia Institute of Technology
Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL)
Kettering University
Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL)
National Academy of Engineering
Center for the Advancement of Scholarship in Engineering Education (CASEE)
Pennsylvania State University
Leonhard Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Education
Purdue School of Engineering and Technology, IUPUI
Engineering Education Excellence Center (E3C)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Academy for Excellence in Engineering Education (AE3)
University of Michigan
Center for Research on Learning and Teaching North
Michigan State University
Center for Engineering Education Research
University of New Hampshire
Leitzel Center for Mathematics, Science and Engineering Education
University of South Carolina
Center for Engineering and Computing Education
University of Texas at Austin
Faculty Innovation Center
University of Washington
Center for Engineering Learning and Teaching (CELT)
Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education (CAEE)
University of Wisconsin - Madison
Engineering Learning Center (ELC)
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt-Northwestern-Texas-Harvard/MIT (VaNTH) Engineering Research Center for Bioengineering Educational Technologies
Washington State University
Engineering Education Research Center (EERC)
Other Related Engineering Centers and Programs (North America)
Queen's University, Faculty of Applied Science
The Integrated Learning Centre (ILC)
University of Colorado at Boulder
The Integrated Teaching and Learning (ITL) Program and Laboratory
Established Centers and Programs
Arizona State University
Center for Research on Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology (CRESMET)
Veronica Burrows Director, burrows@asu.edu
http://cresmet.asu.edu/
The Center for Research on Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology (CRESMET), an alliance of ASU’s Colleges of Education, Engineering & Applied Sciences, and Liberal Arts & Sciences, was initiated in 1999, growing out of what was previously the Center for Innovation in Engineering Education (CIEE). The mission of the Center is to bring together individuals, programs and organizations interested in improving K-20 science, mathematics, engineering and technology education to research, develop, and assess educational theories, curricula, courses and administrative policies that impact science, mathematics, engineering and technology education. The Center also encourages and supports wide-scale sharing and implementation of effective approaches to producing a more scientifically and technologically literate populace and more capable science, mathematics, engineering, and technology majors.
Current efforts include:
1. Research: CRESMET pursues research and development that demonstrates coherent, consistent, and conceptually powerful mathematics, science, engineering and technology education from kindergarten through college (K-20). The Center has core competencies in assessment and evaluation (A&E) and in educational technology, two areas vitally important to modern educational research.
2. Partnering: CRESMET supports collaborations across the traditional boundaries of university, community colleges, schools, community, business and local education agencies.
3. Sharing: CRESMET establishes communication avenues for intellectual and material products proven effective in supporting powerful learning in science, mathematics, engineering and technology fields.
Colorado School of Mines
Center for Engineering Education (CEE)
Ron Miller, Director, rlmiller@mines.edu
Heidi Loshbaugh, Assistant Research Professor and Associate Director, hloshbau@mines.edu
http://www.mines.edu/research/cee/
The mission of the Center for Engineering Education (CEE) is to improve the learning of science and engineering, thereby increasing the accessibility of these disciplines. CEE’s role is to act as a catalyst to bring together faculty who are interested in educational research, to disseminate the results of that research, and to provide professional development opportunities for CSM faculty, graduate students, and K-12 teachers.
CEE’s goals are:
- To conduct world-class research on teaching and learning in science and engineering.
- To use the results of that research to continually improve instruction at the Colorado School of Mines, thereby supporting the learning process of CSM students.
- To support the educational needs of science and engineering teachers and learners at the K-12, university, and continuing professional development levels.
Georgia Institute of Technology
Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL)
Donna Llewellyn, Director CETL, donna.llewellyn@oars.gatech.edu
http://www.cetl.gatech.edu/
The Georgia Tech Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning was founded in 1986 through a grassroots effort of a faculty committee. CETL’s mission is to assist faculty members, administrators, and graduate students in their efforts to offer high-quality education to Georgia Tech students. In February 1999, Tech received the prestigious Hesburgh Award, conferred by the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association/College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF), for its alumni-funded faculty and graduate teaching assistant development programs--the Junior Teaching Fellows Program; the Graduate Teaching Assistants’ Development Programs; and the Teaching Assistants’ Resource Office.
CETL also directs other programs including a Senior Teaching Fellows Program, a Faculty Development Seminar Series, New Faculty Orientations, Instructional Technology and Design Assistance, English Oral Skills classes for international teaching assistants, and general teaching consultations. Further, each term, CETL administers the online course/instructor opinion survey to all registered students. The Center publishes a semi-annual newsletter entitled The Classroom, which is also available on its web site in pdf format. In March 2001, the Director of CETL, Dr. Donna Llewellyn, received a National Science Foundation grant through the GK-12 program that puts graduate students into local area high schools in partnerships with science and mathematics teachers. The Center has a staff consisting of a Director, an Assistant Director, a GTA Coordinator, an Instructional Technology Specialist, an Administrative Assistant, and a Secretary.
Kettering University
Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL)
Daryl Doyel, ddoyle@kettering.edu
http://www.kettering.edu/acad/cetl/
CETL is Kettering University's Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. It was established in 2000 and is supported by grants from the Ford Motor Company Fund and Kettering University. The center is the brainchild of a faculty-initiated effort for teaching improvement, the Teaching Fellows. This group began discussing the concept of a center in September, 2000, and thereafter they established the mission and name of the center, identified goals, proposed services and actions to satisfy the goals, discussed staffing and funding issues, and discussed the role of the Teaching Fellows in the center. In January 2001, the first director of CETL was named. A CETL Advisory Board (comprised of faculty from each department, two administrators, and the director of UM-Flint's teaching center) was also selected to assist the Director in her duties. The 2001 2002 academic year marks its first full year in operation.
CETL has as its mission "...to support teaching excellence at Kettering University." In pursuing this mission, its six goals are to:
- promote a learner-centered educational community
- encourage and support the teaching-related professional development of all educators
- archive and disseminate teaching and learning resources
- coordinate activities for improvement of teaching and learning
- support innovation and scholarship activities related to teaching and learning and promote educational research
- provide training for faculty in student outcomes assessment
National Academy of Engineering
Center for the Advancement of Scholarship on Engineering Education (CASEE)
Norman Fortenberry, Director, nfortenb@nae.edu
http://www.nae.edu/casee
The Center for the Advancement of Scholarship on Engineering Education (CASEE) is the first operating center of the National Academy of Engineering. CASEE was created in 2002 with the mission of enabling Engineering education to meet, in a significantly better way, the needs of employers, academic institutions, current and former engineering students, and society-at-large. Our ultimate objective is to achieve a climate of continuous improvement in engineering education wherein the excellence of engineering education (at the pre-college, undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education levels) contributes to the sustained maintenance of a high quality engineering workforce.
By virtue of its role as a membership society of the Nation's premier engineers, its commitment to the highest standards of quality through peer review, and the resources it brings to bear in fulfillment of its mandate to "promote the technological welfare of the nation...", the NAE can lead the effort to achieve hallmarks of excellence in engineering education characterized by specific, attainable metrics of effectiveness, engagement, and efficiency in instruction and learning.
CASEE’s core research agenda has four thrust areas:
- Defining the bodies-of-knowledge required for a) professional practice within engineering disciplines, and b) using study within engineering fields as foundations for non-technical careers;
- Developing institutional, instructional, and curricular strategies that value diversity of populations, learning styles, and perspectives in the formulation and solution of engineering problems;
- Developing strategies for improving student learning and enhancing instructional effectiveness in cost-effective and time-efficient manners; and
- Developing assessments of student learning and instructional effectiveness.
Pennsylvania State University
Leonhard Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Education
Thomas Litzinger, Director, tal2@psu.edu
http://www.engr.psu.edu/www2/centers/leonhardcenter/lc/index.htm
The Leonhard Center for Enhancement of Engineering Education was established in 1990 at Penn State by an endowment from William and Wyllis Leonhard. The External Advisory Board provided the vision for the Center through their definition of a “World-class Engineer.” The Center’s mission is to enable the key changes that are required to maintain a world-class engineering education at Penn State. The Center provides financial support for innovative teams of faculty who are making major revisions to departmental curricula and to teams of faculty working on cross-college initiatives such as leadership, ethics, and entrepreneurship. In partnership with Engineering Instructional Services the Center also provides assessment of projects and faculty development opportunities. Current curricular and research thrusts of the Center include integration of ethics into engineering courses, entrepreneurship, the development of expertise, intellectual development, and technology-enhanced teaching and learning. More information on the Leonhard Center, including recent publications from projects, is available at http://www.eec.psu.edu/lc/lcabout.htm.
Purdue School of Engineering and Technology, IUPUI
Engineering Education Excellence Center (E3C)
Nasser Paydar, Coordinator, paydar@iupui.edu
Charlie Yokomoto, yokomoto@iupui.edu
http://www.engr.iupui.edu/edc/index.html
The Engineering Education Excellence Center (E3C) represents a virtual place where numerous projects directed toward professional development and for improvements in academic quality interface. Its main objectives are to facilitate the exchange of expertise and research on engineering and engineering technology education and act as a clearinghouse for those with similar interests. The Center was established to coordinate several existing functions within the Purdue School of Engineering and Technology that emphasize instructional improvement, a continuous quest for further excellence and quality, the identification of key issues that impact retention and student satisfaction with academic programs, and the identification of new challenges. The Center also serves as a resource that enables faculty and staff to quickly identify professional development opportunities and provides a centralized location where forthcoming professional conferences, meetings and workshops may be identified well in advance.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Academy for Excellence in Engineering Education (AE3)
J. Bruce Litchfield, Director AE3, b-litch@uiuc.edu
Leslie Crowley, Program Coordinator, National Teaching College, l-crowl@uiuc.edu
http://ae3.cen.uiuc.edu/
AE3 is a center for effective teaching and learning within the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In the midst of current concerns that large research universities often ignore teaching, AE3 is a clear example of a commitment to creating strong teachers, well-trained teaching assistants (TAs), and well-prepared, engaged students. AE3 advocates excellence in engineering education specifically through instructor development, course redesign, and learning innovations.
Current Programs include:
1. FAST Start: An award-winning faculty development program targeted at new faculty that enables its participants to be successful academic leaders.
2. National Teaching College: A nation-wide version of FAST Start assisting engineering educators in implementing faculty development programs.
3. Architecture for Change (ARC): An integration of faculty development and course redesign focusing primarily on large foundational courses. ARC emphasizes best instructional practices and the development of a model for curriculum change.
4. Engineering Emotional Intelligence (EEI): A course focusing on emotional awareness, personal and interpersonal development, and application of Emotional Intelligence to organizational life.
University of Michigan
Center for Research on Learning and Teaching North
Cynthia J. Finelli, Managing Director, cfinelli@umich.edu
http://www.engin.umich.edu/teaching/crltnorth/
The Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT) North is a unique partnership between the College of Engineering (CoE) and the University of Michigan's forty-year old CRLT. It was established to respond to the needs of the CoE, and it officially opened in January 2004. CRLT North is coordinated by an experienced engineering educator in close collaboration with CoE faculty and administrators. Some programs offered by CRLT North include:
- Consultations with individual or groups of faculty to evaluate and improve all aspects of a student's education;
- Special programs including orientations and seminars to help faculty match educational technologies or teaching methods to learning objectives;
- Customized services to assist departments in balancing and integrating various components of the engineering curriculum; and
- Incentives for instructional innovation and rewards for improvement.
University of New Hampshire
Leitzel Center for Mathematics, Science and Engineering Education
Karen Graham, Director, kjgraham@unh.edu
http://leitzelcenter.unh.edu/index.html
The Joan and James Leitzel Center works to transform education in mathematics, science, and engineering at the University of New Hampshire, in elementary and secondary schools, and informal settings through high quality research, carefully examined practice, and interdisciplinary collaboration.
The Center facilitates partnerships and initiates programs and activities with the goal of developing educators' thorough knowledge of science, mathematics, and engineering concepts and human learning strategies; developing learners who experience the joy of discovery and the challenge of understanding; and developing learning environments that support active and rich intellectual engagement.
The Center activities take place within a university culture that values the creation and the dissemination of knowledge equally, where the boundaries between research and teaching are blended, and where the research enterprise strengthens instruction in the K-12 schools and the university. Science and mathematics researchers of distinction play critical roles in the development of proposals and related Center activities. In addition, the Center will work to sustain and strengthen existing partnerships between UNH, local schools, and non-formal science settings.
University of South Carolina
Center for Engineering and Computing Education (CECE)
Jed S. Lyons, Director CECE, lyons@sc.edu
http://cece.engr.sc.edu/
The Center for Engineering and Computing Education is established to enhance engineering- and computer science-related education at the precollege, undergraduate and graduate levels.
The Center supports the research, development and implementation of improved teaching methods and facilitates interdisciplinary collaborations. Informal, formal and novel programs for our constituencies that include hands-on, inquiry-based learning are promoted.
The Center provides research and education opportunities for faulty, graduate students, undergraduates, and K-12 teachers.
University of Texas at Austin
Faculty Innovation Center, College of Engineering
Kathy Schmidt, Director, k.schmidt@mail.utexas.edu
http://www.fic.engr.utexas.edu
The Faculty Innovation Center mission is to support instructional innovation by providing instructional development and media services within the College of Engineering.
It is a key strategic goal of the College of Engineering to enhance and improve the quality of instruction. In part due to the pace of technological change, faculty need assistance in evaluating the appropriate use of instructional technology and they need ongoing training and support for integrating technologies into their teaching and instruction. A primary objective is to have the majority of the College faculty become innovative instructors who move away from faculty-centered approaches to student-centered instruction.
For the past ten years, the College has housed the Instructional Media Lab (IML). To broaden the scope of faculty assistance, the IML evolved into the Faculty Innovation Center (FIC) and added resources in instructional design, online course production skills, and additional multimedia talent to the FIC staff. When faculty come to the FIC, they can expect to receive a range of services from media development to pedagogical exploration.
Funding for the FIC is made possible by students' Instructional Technology Fees and by additional revenue projects. Faculty have access to the FIC and its resources, however the FIC charges for services when work is related to supporting research, promotion, and other non-direct instruction activities.
University of Washington
Center for Engineering Learning and Teaching (CELT)
Cindy Atman, Director, atman@engr.washington.edu
Jim Borgford-Parnell, Assistant Director, bparnell@engr.washington.edu
Jennifer Turns, Affiliate Faculty, jturns@engr.washington.edu
http://depts.washington.edu/celtweb/
Founded in 1998, the Center for Engineering Learning and Teaching at University of Washington is a pioneer in the national movement in Colleges of Engineering to combine research on engineering education with efforts to foster effective engineering student learning. By building the engineering education research base and grounding our work with engineering faculty in the best scholarship available we are better able to address the teaching and learning requirements of a dynamic profession. CELT’s mission is: 1) to conduct internationally recognized research in engineering learning, 2) to promote teaching effectiveness in engineering classrooms at the UW, and 3) to be a model for affecting change in Colleges of Engineering. The strength of the CELT model is the presence of these complementary goals and their synergistic relationship.
CELT educational researchers work on funded research projects with colleagues from the University of Washington and across the nation to conduct research that advances engineering education. CELT’s research agenda includes many aspects of research in engineering education. The major focus has been in the areas of design learning, knowledge integration of learners, and the significant challenge of integrating research findings with teaching innovations.
The CELT faculty development program began as an innovative integration of engineering education research and faculty professional development. The CELT program has matured into an integrated multi-pronged program for improving engineering learning and teaching, which includes working with individual instructors, conducting workshops and seminars, and active participation in strategic-level initiatives.
University of Washington
Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education (CAEE)
Cindy Atman, Director, atman@engr.washington.edu
Robin Adams, rsadams@purdue.edu
Lorraine Fleming, lfleming@howard.edu
Larry Leifer, leifer@cdr.stanford.edu
Ron Miller, rlmiller@mines.edu
Sheri Sheppard, sheppard@cdr.stanford.edu
Karl Smith, smith511@purdue.edu
Reed Stevens, reedstev@u.washington.edu
Ruth Streveler, streveler@purdue.edu
Jennifer Turns, jturns@engr.washington.edu
http://www.engr.washington.edu/caee/
CAEE is an NSF-sponsored higher education Center for Learning and Teaching originally funded from January 2003 to December 2007. Supplemental funding will support some of the work into 2008. NSF's Directorate for Education and Human Resources and Directorate for Engineering share support for the grant (ESI-0227558). CAEE was created by a team of scholars with diverse backgrounds and from multiple disciplines at five institutions: Colorado School of Mines, Howard University, Stanford University, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Washington, the lead institution. In addition, there are now research team members from Purdue University, Olin College of Engineering and the University of Rochester.
The work of the Center is focused on five overarching goals:
- understand and enhance the engineering student learning experience;
- integrate the needs of diverse faculty and diverse students into engineering education;
- strengthen the engineering education research base;
- expand the community of leaders in engineering education; and
- promote effective teaching for current and future faculty.
These goals are being realized through the interaction of three interdependent research groups.
- Scholarship on Learning Engineering (SoL) is conducting research on the undergraduate student learning experience in order to provide a comprehensive account of how students from diverse populations and environments become engineers.
- Institute for Scholarship on Engineering Education (ISEE) seeks to cultivate, foster, and sustain a diverse national community of engineering education scholars through the staging of three year-long Institutes that bring together engineering faculty and graduate students to engage in engineering education research projects.
- Scholarship on Teaching Engineering (SoT) is conducting research to understand and enhance the effectiveness of strategies used to help current and future engineering educators improve their teaching.
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Engineering Learning Center (ELC)
Sandra Shaw Courter, Director, courter@engr.wisc.ed
http://www.engr.wisc.edu/services/elc/
Mission: The Engineering Learning Center (ELC) serves faculty, staff, graduate students, undergraduate students, and administrators. Our motto, "sustaining educational excellence" suggests our commitment to fostering effective student-centered teaching and learning within the College of Engineering (COE). The Center's objectives are to:
- Provide professional development opportunities and resources for instructors and students;
- Facilitate connections for other units that support teaching and learning; and
- Help build a culture of continuous improvement in undergraduate and graduate education.
The center achieves these objectives through a variety of programs notably the Teaching Improvement Program, New Educators' Orientation, and the STEM Education Scholars Program. The center is a collaborative partner with the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL) and an active partner in NSF-sponsored eengineering education research projects.
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt-Northwestern-Texas-Harvard/MIT (VaNTH) Engineering Research Center for Bioengineering Educational Technologies
Thomas R. Harris, M.D., Ph.D., Director, trh@vuse.vanderbilt.edu
Janiece Harrison, Contact person, janiece.harrison@vanderbilt.edu
http://www.vanth.org
The VaNTH Engineering Research Center for Bioengineering Educational Technologies aims to integrate learning science, learning technologies, and the domains of bioengineering in order to develop effective educational resources that prepare for the future of bioengineering. The center teams the bioengineering, learning technology and learning sciences faculties of Vanderbilt University, Northwestern University, the University of Texas at Austin and the Health Sciences and Technology Division of Harvard and MIT to develop a better understanding of bioengineering students as learners and the methods that help them learn. This understanding will lead to development of teaching materials in bioengineering that will be learner centered, knowledge centered, and assessment centered.
The developed materials will ultimately be disseminated to undergraduate and graduate programs in bioengineering, to middle and high schools, and to the industrial and practitioner communities through continuing education programs. Research areas include 1) the intersection of learning science, learning technologies, and the domains of bioengineering, 2) determination of range of knowledge encompassed by bioengineering, 3) structure of knowledge in major bioengineering domains, 4) principles of modular design for teaching materials, and 5) development of assessment methods to determine the effectiveness of new learning materials.