RosEvaluation Conference 2013: Keynote Speakers

Keynote speakers

Rebecca Bates, Ph.D., Professor and Chair, Department of Integrated Engineering at Minnesota State University, Mankato

Ron Ulseth, P.E., Instructor and Director, Iron Range Engineering at Itasca Community College and Minnesota State University, Mankato

Bios:

Becky Bates directs the Iron Range and Twin Cities Engineering programs, which use real-world projects in a project-based learning context for upper-division engineering learning.  She administers an interdisciplinary, peer-mentoring support program associated with two NSF S-STEM grants.  She spent 2011-12 as a AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow in the Division of Engineering Education & Centers at the National Science Foundation.  Her teaching focus is on artificial intelligence and computational linguistics.  Her favorite class to teach is Artificial Intelligence and Science Fiction because it uses the power of story to engage students with ethical questions, issues of technology and society, and the creative process, which can be adapted to their own technical development.  In 2010, she was able to teach this class while on sabbatical in Brazil as a Fulbright scholar.  Her research background has focused on speech recognition and understanding, most recently for healthcare applications on mobile devices.  She is also a PI on a collaborative research project looking at the relationship between connection, community, and belonging and student engagement.  Her degrees are in biomedical engineering (B.S, Boston University), electrical engineering (M.S., Boston University, Ph.D., University of Washington) and theological studies (M.T.S, Harvard University).

Ron Ulseth directs and instructs in the Iron Range Engineering program in Virginia, Minnesota and he teaches in the Itasca Community College engineering program in Grand Rapids, MN. He was instrumental in growing the Itasca program from 10 students in 1992 to 160 students in 2010. In 2009, he worked with a national development team of engineering educators to develop the 100% PBL curriculum used in the Iron Range model. He has successfully acquired and managed over $10 million in educational grants including as PI on 7 grants from NSF. He has been in the classroom, teaching more than 20 credits per year to engineering students for more than 20 years. His specific areas of expertise are in active learning, faculty development, and learning community development.  He has been awarded the 2012 Progress Minnesota award, 2012 Labovitz Entrepreneurialism award, and 2012 Innovator of the Year award from the Rural Community College Alliance all for his work in developing the Iron Range Engineering program. His degrees are in civil engineering (B.S., University of North Dakota), and mechanical engineering (M.S., University of Central Florida). He is licensed as a professional engineer in the state of Minnesota.

Keynote Topic:

“Assessing Project-Based Learning: Providing Evidence for Continuous Improvement”

 Iron Range Engineering is an upper-division engineering program that uses a 100% project-based pedagogy. The learning model integrates technical, professional and engineering design content in a series of four semester-long projects. As part of our application for ABET accreditation, we have developed approaches and tools for assessment and continuous improvement. This talk will present a description of our educational model, including examples of courses and projects that have been used in our program. Program-level tools include student outcome portfolios, stakeholders input sessions and 4 faculty summits a year. Course- and project-level tools include a broad range of activities including oral exams, reflection memos, deep learning activity reports, scoping documents, final design reviews and client reviews of work and presentations. Participants should gain knowledge about potential tools or combination of tools to use for assessing project-based work at the course or program level.