Pitt Brings Together Nationwide Engineering Educators, Industry Leaders

PITTSBURGH—More than 200 academic and industry representatives from across the country will attend the fifth annual First-Year Engineering Experience conference hosted by the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering Aug. 8-9. The academic conference, which will provide an opportunity for attendees to exchange ideas about educational programs that help freshmen engineering students adjust to campus life, will be held at Pitt’s University Club, 123 University Place, Oakland.

Many universities, including Pitt, have adopted first-year engineering programs to help freshmen engineering students learn how to balance their workloads and properly select majors. The conference will allow engineering professors to reflect on how they can better help students to draw connections between classes and gain a holistic understanding of engineering subject matter and methods during their crucial first year. The conference also gives educators the opportunity to network with industry representatives and discuss current engineering practices and how they can be translated to the classroom.

“Now that the prospective engineering cohort is a new generation of students who are more adapted to technology and less reliant on technological instruction, faculty must adapt their methods to produce quality engineers,” said Daniel Budny, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and academic director of the Swanson School’s First-Year Engineering Program. “Additionally, today’s engineering students encompass a broad spectrum of not only race and gender, but also learning styles. In the past, one presentation could educate an entire class, but today, if you don’t adapt to various learning types, you miss half the class.

“The faculty who attend this conference are passionate about their teaching and about student success,” Budny continued. “This conference provides an ongoing dialogue between engineering educators who are dedicated to improving how we educate students during that critical first year.”

Through the Swanson School’s First-Year Experience program, Pitt freshmen engineers participate in a seminar titled “Engineering Analysis” that introduces them to disciplines and careers related to engineering. At the end of the year, students present what they’ve learned at a symposium, sharpening their research and presentation skills. The Swanson School says this helps best prepare students for their future academic and industry careers. The seminar—like the conferences—goes beyond lectures and analyses. The seminar’s overall goal is to create a collaborative and educational experience for each attendee.

The conference will begin August 8 with a series of group activities and a noon keynote address,  “Changing Many Conversations,” by Teri Reed-Rhodes, assistant vice chancellor of academic affairs for engineering, assistant dean of academic affairs for the Dwight Look College of Engineering, and associate professor in the Department of Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M University. Group sessions will follow with a best practices session in which attendees can discuss education techniques.

The morning sessions are followed by a roundtable discussion in which attendees can talk about what they’ve learned through the workshops and what new approaches they may use in their own programs. This will allow attendees to discuss their ideas on topics related to first-year engineering education and to develop a network of like-minded peers.

Lorelle A. Meadows will deliver a keynote address titled “The Power of Empowering Students” at 10:45 a.m. August 9.  Meadows is the assistant dean for academic programs within the University of Michigan’s College of Engineering and leads the design, planning, implementation, and assessment of its first-year program.

The annual First-Year Engineering Experience conference is supported by Pitt’s Swanson School and Notre Dame University. The conference also received a grant in 2012 from the National Science Foundation to help develop its mission.

Click here for more information about the conference or email fyee@fyee.org. Registration is currently open.

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Written by Melissa Carlson

7/30/13/mab/jaf