updated August 26, 2010

Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology administrators, faculty and staff members, students and alumni are proud of the college’s continued No. 1 national ranking in undergraduate engineering education through a survey of deans and senior faculty conducted by U.S. News & World Report magazine for its annual college guidebook.

However, Rose-Hulman officials are just as proud of its reputation as a leader in engineering education innovation -- affirmed in a study featured in the current issue of the Journal of Engineering Education.

Creative Problem Solvers: Three Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology students work together to come up with a solution for a project while working this summer as interns at Rose-Hulman Ventures, located at the college’s South Campus.

For the article “Diffusion of Engineering Education Innovations: A Survey of Awareness and Adoption Rates in U.S. Engineering Departments,” Maura Borrego and Simin Hall of Virginia Tech joined Jeff Froyd of Texas A&M University in asking more than 2,000 engineering academic department heads, academic deans and professional society leaders the following question: “Which colleges or universities are considered leaders or innovators in engineering education?”

 
The result: Rose-Hulman was cited more times than any other institution for innovative engineering education practices.

 
“Improving engineering education to produce engineers who are better prepared for the future global economy is vital to the nation’s competitiveness,” stated Borrego, Hall and Froyd in their study report.

 
Rose-Hulman administrators and faculty members agree, believing that for the Institute to achieve its mission of academic excellence, Rose‐Hulman must be a leader in innovation. Teams spent this summer examining innovation in education and other career fields, and hosted a Spirit of Innovation Workshop on campus before starting this school year. Leadership in innovation means that the college must excel in several areas including the practice, education and scholarship of innovation.

Innovation Leaders: Faculty, administrators and trustees from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology spent this summer examining ways how the college could adapt innovation across the curriculum to better prepare students to meet the challenges of an ever-changing world..

“It is through academic excellence and leadership in innovation that Rose‐Hulman will define the future of engineering education and, therefore, we will have an impact on the world around us,” states Bill Kline, interim vice president of academic affairs and dean of faculty. “A focus on innovation can serve as the catalyst to continue to improve what we teach, how we teach and the educational experience that we provide to our students.”

 
Understanding the innovation processes has helped Rose-Hulman reflect on and improve ways in which faculty members prepare students to be innovators.

 
“The time for innovation is now, and the academic environment at Rose-Hulman is prime for this movement,” stated Rebecca DeVasher, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry. “We (the educators) have both support from our administration and extremely talented students that allow us the opportunity to be innovative. We must seize this opportunity. At Rose-Hulman, we pride ourselves in being the best in engineering education, and innovation is the key to us being our best.”

 
One faculty group has proposed a living-learning community Home for Environmentally Responsible Engineering (HERE) project for a cohort of freshmen. This community will allow students to engage in discussions of sustainability in the classroom as well as in residence halls. Faculty members may have offices in the residence environment, and students will learn key skills of sustainable development and become more aware of issues concerning human health and the environment.

“This idea is new to engineering education, and it is this type of innovative thinking that will bring together new ideas for emerging technologies that solve the problems we face as a global society,” DeVasher points out.

 
Another proposed idea is the development of a Faculty Catapult program, a week-long immersion experience during which faculty can work on projects, develop their creativity and explore new areas of learning like sustainability.

 
“Our students come into our classrooms facing new challenges as they learn new subjects. Our goal should be to put ourselves in their shoes,” said Julia Williams, professor of English and executive director of the Office of Institutional Research, Planning and Assessment. “We envision Faculty Catapult as one way to ensure that our faculty members are always learning; that learning will translate into better classroom experiences for our students.”

Creative Students: Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology students Nathan Shumway (left) and Mark Jenne join computer science and software engineering professor Sriram Mohan (center) play a Monopoly game created as an application for Microsoft Surface, a product that combines software and hardware technology to allows a user, or multiple users, to manipulate digital content by the use of gesture recognition. Seven students developed the Monopoly game during the 2009-10 school year.

Groups of faculty members interviewed innovators in other fields –- creative arts, cooking and architecture to name just a few –- to capture ideas that could be integrated into the Rose-Hulman’s core academic principles.

 
“It’s a global world out there. We work hard to help our students become globally knowledgeable and competitive -– and I believe that innovation skills are a critical part of that professional development,” stated Kay C Dee, professor of applied biology and biomedical engineering. “Workforce tasks that require strong technical skills will be completed wherever in the world they can be completed fastest and cheapest. Tasks that require technical skills and forward and lateral thinking, creative problem-solving, interdisciplinary approaches -– the really interesting tasks -– will be conducted by teams of professionals who possess innovation skills (observing, questioning, connecting, creating, etc.). That’s where the future gets made, and that’s where I want our students to be . . . I’ve learned a lot over this past summer, and I’m really looking forward to taking some risks and trying some new things in my classrooms this fall.”

 
Jameel Ahmed, associate professor of applied biology and biomedical engineering, added: “There is no bigger challenge for engineering, math and science education than to provide the world with graduates who can develop innovative solutions to the world’s challenges. Rose-Hulman graduates have repeatedly proven themselves to be innovators, and we would like to do an even better job of providing our students with innovation skills while they are in school. By focusing our efforts on building innovation skills in our students, we will help them have a greater impact on the world around them.”

 
Students appreciate the innovative atmosphere already on campus and look forward to some of the faculty task force’s ideas being implemented into Rose-Hulman –- in and out of the academic environment.

 
“Where Rose-Hulman really excels in innovation is how the school links theory to the real world,” stated Andy Milluzzi, a junior computer engineering student who spent the summer working on creative projects for National Instruments, including developing a large Lego model (with approximately 15,000 Lego bricks) for the company. He also had the opportunity to interview famed theoretical physicist Michio Kaku, co-founder of the String Field Theory. “Rose-Hulman classes are taught like: Here is the concept, here is a real life example, now go do something cool. The real key to Rose-Hulman is in that last step: Once you have an idea, the professors go out of their way to help you realize it. I really think that attitude towards teaching is what fosters creativity and innovation on campus.”