2019 Polytechnic Summit Archives

KEYNOTE:
Bob Meyer

KEYNOTE:
Craig Yolitz

Craig Yolitz leads a multidisciplinary team of experts that creates and delivers FindLaw's industry-leading online marketing solutions. He is also responsible for developing and implementing an ongoing customer experience strategy that supports customer and revenue retention initiatives.

He holds an MBA in management from the University of St. Thomas and a B.S. in industrial technology from the University of Wisconsin-Stout.

KEYNOTE:
Denise M. Anderson

Denise Anderson has been on the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management faculty since 2003. From 2009 until 2015, she also served as the department’s graduate coordinator. Anderson’s major research interests involve youth development, youth sport, leisure education and student development, and girls’ and women’s access to recreation opportunities. Prior to coming to Clemson, she served on the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from Illinois Wesleyan University, a master’s in physical education from Eastern Illinois University and a Ph.D. in leisure behavior from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

KEYNOTE:
Steve Hellen

Sandra Bailey, MA

Innisfree McKinnon, PhD

Matthew A. Ray, PhD

Joshua E. Seaver

​Michael Cropp

Vladimir E. Kuznetsov, PhD

Fab lab Director, National University of Science and Technology "MISIS"
Moscow, Russia

Vladimir Kuznetsov, is a specialist in the field of metallic materials processing, CAD/CAM/CAE. In 2012 has founded the fab lab Moscow, directs the Technologies and Materials for Digital Fabrication Masters program. Vladimir Kuznetsov is also a well-recognized ambassador of makers movement in Russia, for the past three years has acted as the lead producer of Maker Faire Moscow.

Tuesday Sessions

Public dissemination of collaborative work is the core objective of this advanced undergraduate studio course. The instructor and students will share the process and outcomes of their project for Northern Spark 2017, a climate-focused public art festival in the Twin Cities. Using up-cycled materials, original animation and projection mapping, the work illuminates mycorrihizae, which facilitate the symbiotic relationship between plant fungus and roots. The teamwork and knowledge-sharing throughout the semester proved poetically analogous to the students’ chosen topic.

Learning From and Engaging with Assessment and Feedback (LEAF): A Strategic Initiative in Technological University, Dublin

A team of 18 academics from across all colleges and a student representative from Technological University Dublin explored the issues of Assessment and Feedback (A&F), to develop strategic and practical proposals to enhance this practice across the university. The research investigates the very real challenges involved with A&F in the higher education sector internationally, thereby contributing to the discussion on applied learning.

The first steps of the research were to identify the key issues in relation to A&F from the literature, carry out key informant interviews, and obtain student and staff insights through surveys. The paper goes on to discuss and evaluate the key strategies which were implemented/proposed to attempt to address these issues at the module, program, student and institutional level. This innovative and multi-layered approach, incorporating key stakeholders, uses theory, international literature and experience to inform the development of strategic initiatives regarding A&F within the university.

This presentation will discuss incorporating Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in Project Management courses. UDL is “a framework for designing curricula that enable all individuals to gain knowledge, skills, and enthusiasm for learning” (Center for Applied Special Technology, 2015). UDL emphasizes diversity, inclusion with different modes of learning and technology. Industry’s need for project management skills is growing according to the 2017 Project Management Institute’s Project Management Job Growth and Talent Gap 2017-2027 Report. Similarly, an increasing number of UW-Stout’s degree programs are receiving input from industry advisers and potential employers regarding the need for project management skills.

This presentation will describe options for incorporating UDL in project management courses, focusing on project life-cycle hands-on learning. The presentation will also include project management Universal Design for Learning (UDL) definitions, industry need for project management skills, curriculum requirements, course constraints, student learning in today’s environment, and options for incorporating UDL into project management courses. This presentation blends UDL theory with project management concepts and practices as required by the Project Management Institute (PMI) industry standard.

Pilots flying for airlines in the United States are subject to the current laws set for air carriers operating under Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 121. During the past decade, three high-profile aircraft accidents became catalysts for changes to regulations. Pilots seeking to act as second-in-command for an airline after 2013 must hold an Airline Transport Certificate (ATP) in order to meet new hiring minimums. This led to an increase in total flight time required to fly for a regional airline, which resulted in many unique and complex problems in both the airlines and flight training schools. Retiring pilots, U.S. pilots flying for foreign carriers, the cost of flight training, and an expanding aviation industry have exacerbated the shortage of qualified pilots.

To transform the challenges of supplying the pipeline into an opportunity, Flight faculty at Purdue University have set upon redesigning the curriculum. The purpose of the redesign is to develop a competency-based program that will attend to academic, regulatory requirements, and that are in alignment with the major aviation stakeholders’ standards and recommendations. The benefits of the redesign will include: the establishment of advanced training processes that will enhance the acquisition student knowledge, skills, and abilities that meet or exceed safety standards; amplifying quality of education and flight training over flight hours; to develop empirical data to inform decision-makers: the US Congress, the FAA, Part 121 airlines, and aviation curriculum designers. The primary focus of our presentation will be to cover the development process of moving from traditional bachelor’s degree requirements to competency-based requirements.

Nowadays engineering education is facing new challenges requiring both evolutionary and revolutionary reaction. The first and probably the most dramatic challenge is that the world around us is changing much faster than it used to. Some of the skills and knowledge gained by students in school may become obsolete before graduation.
The second challenge is the growing gap between information and knowledge. Information has become much more accessible (and much less reliable), but the knowledge still is information filtered through experience. The third challenge is that professional specialization is no more a single effective strategy. Instead of a narrowly focused specialist, our world now needs open-minded creative inventors.

An endeavor to answer those challenges was committed at the NUST "MISIS" by designing and launching the "Technologies and Materials for Digital Fabrication" Master Program. The program is based on experience earned by few years of informal teaching in the Fab Lab Moscow. In any Fab Lab, people of different age and with different backgrounds are learning how to apply modern technologies for their own projects. Projects made in the Lab might be just done for fun, might become applicable, but they are always of a great interest of the doers. Instructor in the lab plays an important role, but so called peer learning is prevalent. All the major principles of learning in the fab lab were introduced into the new Master Program: no theory without practice, learning by working on a project of great interest, peer learning.

The "TMDF" program is an evolving educational project with some practices and experience worth to be shared.

A shift to an abbreviated timeframe for meaningful hands-on “Learn-by-Doing” for senior projects in the Graphic Communication program at Cal Poly has necessitated a rethinking of the approach and outcomes. This has led to a model that encourages tackling real-life challenges and applying interdisciplinary solutions in teams with professional mentors and faculty facilitators. Students are currently working with the California Cyber Security Institute; the Central Coast Cyber Fraud Taskforce; a Tea Collective in Kenya, Africa, an educational program for orphans and Masi Women in Moshi, Tanzania; startup companies in the Central Coast area; People Self Help Housing, a non-profit providing housing for low-income and workforce families in the Central Coast Area of California; a fundraising event that benefits disabled veterans; a project focusing on fighting human trafficking in the Central Coast Area; and many more!

In these projects the students work with a variety of students and faculty from a cross-section of different disciplines across the Cal Poly Campus, bringing together graphic communication, agricultural communication, information systems, computer sciences, early childhood education, biology, aerospace, journalism, international business, and many more. In addition to the Cal Poly campus partners, the students develop partnerships with other campuses and community mentors including industry partners, government officials, law enforcement, federal agencies, and international partners.

Wednesday Sessions

One of the major hurdles facing modern engineering managers is intercultural professional communication. With industrial companies entering international markets, globally distributed teams that may span nations are becoming the norm. However, working with distributed culturally diverse teams is a challenge because, on the one hand, one needs to create a corporate culture remotely, and on the other hand, all the team members must have excellent soft skills to communicate effectively and strategically in professional settings.

The paper presentation will focus on an educational model that involves online instruction delivered by University of Wisconsin-Stout (USA) and National University of Science and Technology “MISiS” (Russia), along with access to offline project-based training. The training is provided by Mittweida University of Applied Sciences (Germany) and three German industry clusters with world-wide exposure: automotive cluster with production factories of Porsche, BMW, and Volkswagen; silicon Saxony with nearly 300 companies in the microelectronics and related sector; and logistics around airport Leipzig with DHL, Amazon, Zalando, and other e-commerce and logistics companies.

The cross-continental master’s blended-learning program opens up an opportunity for students to gain intercultural professional communication skills and cross-border experience as well as to strengthen competencies in project and innovation management. The program ensures international collaboration with experienced academic staff, industrial representatives (C-level of medium-sized enterprises and middle management of multinational enterprises), and a multicultural student team from North America, Russia, and Germany.

While many universities are prioritizing active learning and student success, few are doing so at the broad campus-wide scale necessary to affect culture change. Rarely do universities attempt large scale efforts over the extended period of time required to systematically improve the quality of undergraduate education, especially with faculty and instructors who have not received much support in teaching prior to their first teaching experience. One exception is the Purdue Polytechnic Institute and the “Instruction Matters: Purdue Academic Course Transformation” (IMPACT) program.

The Faculty Learning Community (FLC) model is a cornerstone of the IMPACT faculty development program. The FLC is informed by research-based practices in teaching and learning, as well as motivation theories, more specifically, the motivational principles of Self-Determination Theory (SDT). IMPACT participants report significant increases in both student engagement and their own satisfaction with teaching as well as significant improvement in their pedagogical practices and experiences with classroom learning spaces. During this session, the presenter will showcase different case studies in how the IMPACT program engaged different units and faculty in helping transform polytechnic education at Purdue. Participants will have an opportunity to discuss how this faculty development program might help instructors redesign or approach student learning in innovative ways at their own institutions.

The adoption of Industry 4.0/IIoT in industry creates the need to reassess and modify the current Manufacturing Engineering program curriculum.

This presentation evaluates the potential changes that might significantly impact the knowledge and skill-set requirements for the manufacturing engineering program. The different aspects of Industry 4.0/IIoT such as digital twins, data analytics, the application of clouds, cyber security and IIoT system design and their impact to the Manufacturing Engineering program and curriculum design and revision will be covered. In addition, bringing industry professional certification credential to enrich the program and curriculum content will also be discussed. Curriculum modification and design examples will be shared during the presentation.

This presentation is designed to explain how a new set of industry developed skill standards and certifications can be used as a roadmap to align curricular offerings with in demand Industry 4.0 skills and competencies.

The Smart Automation Certification Alliance, or SACA, is a non-profit foundation supported by industry with the goal of creating a larger number of individuals with Industry 4.0 skills. To accomplish this goal, the alliance is developing skill standards, providing teacher training, promoting these skills sets to students, and providing certifications.

Industry 4.0 technology is rapidly transforming the workplace. As companies increase their use of Ethernet networks and Internet technology, they are connecting more devices, from smart sensors to smart phones, enabling them to reduce downtime and increase quality and productivity. These highly connected systems require new skills in almost every occupation, which include the ability to interact with software, data, networks, and smart devices.

Many certifications are available today that address isolated competencies, from machining to maintenance and IT, but SACA certifications are different. They certify “connected systems” skills that address the integration of these technologies with Industry 4.0 technology. SACA certifications use a modular structure to enable them to fit into wide range of individual needs and industries and educational environments. The three SACA certification categories include, Associate, Specialist, and Professional