Dr. Phillip C. Wankat is Clifton L. Lowell Distinguished Professor and head of interdisciplinary studies at Purdue's Schools of Engineering. During his 12-month appointment beginning Jan. 1, 2004, Wankat will produce original work assessing the development, testing, and implementation of innovative, cost-effective, and time-efficient strategies for improving student learning in engineering. The project also aims at characterizing efforts to enhance the teaching abilities of current and future faculty. Part of NAE's Center for the Advancement of Scholarship on Engineering Education (CASEE), these activities will result in a white paper that will be presented orally in a forum at the end of the appointment.
Wankat's project consists of five tasks. First, Wankat will develop and implement a national survey on best curricular practices in engineering education. He will also identify and describe the engineering programs that are most prominent in students' technical competitions. The third task will be to identify campuses making substantial progress in the use of Web-based technologies to personalize engineering education. Wankat will also perform a survey of former doctoral students in the "Educational Methods of Engineering" course offered by Purdue University. Finally, he will conduct a census of U.S. engineering programs to determine which ones offer instruction in pedagogy to new faculty and doctoral students.
Wankat is the author of numerous books and peer-reviewed articles on teaching engineering. His most recent book, published in 2002, is The Effective, Efficient Professor: Teaching, Scholarship, and Service. His research is in separation processes and improving engineering education. Wankat is
a fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, a 1994 recipient of the American Chemical Society's Award in Separation Science and Technology, and the 1990 recipient of the Chester F. Carlson Award for Innovation in Engineering Education of the American Society for Engineering Education.
Major Products:
- Wankat, P.C., "Survey of K-12 Engineering-oriented Student Competitions," International Journal of Engineering Education accepted.
- Wankat, P.C. and F.S. Oreovicz, "Teaching Prospective Engineering Faculty How to Teach," International Journal of Engineering Education,vol. 21, no. 5, pp. 925-930.
NOTE: The research in this paper was the basis of the Plenary Lecture: "Teaching Professors How to Teach," International Conference on Engineering Education 2004 (ICEE04), University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, October 19, 2004.
- Wankat, P. C., "Survey of K-12 Engineering-Oriented Student Competitions," Invited paper ASEE/AaeE Global Colloquium on Engineering Education, Sydney, Australia, September 2005.
- Brannan, K.P. and P.C. Wankat, "Survey of First-Year Programs," Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education annual Conference and Exposition held June 12-15, 2005 in Salt Lake City, UT. Session 1353
NOTE: This paper won the ASEE Freshman Program Division Best Paper Award, the ASEE Professional Interest Council III (PIC III) Best Paper Award, and the ASEE Best Conference Paper Award.
- Wankat, P.C., "Undergraduate Student Competitions," Journal of Engineering Education,vol. 94, no. 3, July 2005, pp. 343-347.