Spring 1998

Electrical Engineering

Design emphasis links students with industrial partners

It’s called Industrial Partners for Engineering Design Education. The goal of the program is to have every student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) participate in a team design experience that is sponsored by an industrial partner.

The program is part of the yearlong senior design course sequence. The course culminates the design experiences ECE majors received beginning in their freshman year. Students are taught team organization and operation, engineering economics, ethics, how to optimize a design, analyze information, and build a prototype.

Industrial partners provide projects that can be performed during a nine-month period and on a part-time basis by students. They meet with students, review interim reports, assess the design team’s performance, and review the student’s final project report and presentation, explains Fred Berry, associate professor and interim head of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Companies participating in the program include TRW, Chevron, the United States Navy, Indianapolis Power and Light, Sagian, Viewpoint Electronics and Integral Technologies.

“Our goal is to involve students in projects where the instructional and educational nature of the project experience is as important as the successful completion of the project,” explains Berry.

He estimates that each student will spend a minimum of 300 hours on the project.