The Social Web of Engineering Education: Knowledge Exchange in Integrated Project Teams

Abstract

is the Arbutus Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech, where he directs the Arbutus Center for the Integration of Research and Education and is the founder of the Vertically-Integrated Projects (VIP) Program. Dr. Coyle is a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar and was a co-recipient of the National Academy of Engineering's 2005 Bernard M. Gordon Award for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and his research interests include wireless networks, digital signal processing, and engineering education.

—Transforming Institutions

“…With NSF support and support from a GT Global-FIRE grant, she has been characterizing knowledge exchange amongst the students both within and between VIP teams. She has also been evaluating the learning outcomes for students who participate in the VIP Program [Melkers, et al, 2012]. These results build on earlier efforts to evaluate the effect of vertically integrated project teams on students' development of both disciplinary and professional skills (Coyle, Jamieson, & Oakes, 2005).…”

Vertically Integrated Projects for Sustainable Development: Achieving Transformational Action by Embedding Research-Based ESD in Curricula

“…The VIP model evolved from a teaching programme initially implemented at Purdue University in 1995-The Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) programme [3], through which students participated in long-term, practical engineering projects focusing on delivering specific outcomes aligned with local community needs. At Georgia Tech, this model was honed to introduce a more research-intensive dimension, where student teams were built to address unstructured problems associated with broader 'real-world' and applied research areas-though still with an engineering and technology focus [4,5]. The International VIP Consortium, consisting of almost 50 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) adopting this model for integrating RBE in undergraduate teaching, was formed in 2012, and primarily serves as a community of practice around VIP implementation.…”

Using Vertically Integrated Projects to embed research-based education for sustainable development in undergraduate curricula

“…As practical and impactful as these projects were, they remained focussed on community engagement and outreach, with no explicit research dimension. This led academic staff, supervising project teams, to limit their time on these projects, and ultimately led to staff disengagement from the programme (Alber et al, 2017;Coyle et al, 2006;Melkers, 2012). This instigated the EPICS programme's evolution into the more research intensive VIP programme at GTech.…”