UCSC CE and EE Departments' fulfillment of ABET Outcome I

Engineering programs must demonstrate that their graduates have a recognition of the need for, and the ability to engage in life-long learning.

These courses help fulfill this ABET outcome:

• CE118 via all Core Topics and all Core Labs.
• CE185 via Core Topic 7
• CE121 via Skill 4
• CE123a via Skills 1c and 2 and Topic 4

In the following section, representatives from each department talk about how their students fulfill this component, how it is monitored, and what the feedback loops are.

Engineering programs must demonstrate that their graduates have a recognition of the need for, and the ability to engage in life-long learning.

These courses help fulfill this ABET outcome:

1. CE185 via Core Topic 7
2. CE121 via Skill 4
3. CE123a via Skills 1c and 2 and Topic 4

In the following section, representatives from each department talk about how their students fulfill this component, how it is monitored, and what the feedback loops are.

1. The CE department on monitoring and feedback
   1. The initial take (as written by Kevin Karplus)

      Life-long learning is a difficult outcome to measure - by definition it extends over 30 years into the future.

      The short-term feedback is fairly simple: In CMPE 185, we have a required exercise in library and web search skills. These skills are checked again, in the capstone course, where students have to do literature searches and research components in order to create their own designs.

      We have a few proxies for life-long learning that we can measure later:

      1. membership in professional societies, such as IEEE or ACM
      2. enrollment in graduate school (either immediately or after a few years)
      3. certification (either by a vendor such as Microsoft or by an independent testing agency)
      4. courses taken (without certification or matriculation in a graduate program)
      5. survey questions about technical books and articles read recently
   2. Final metric and feedback as determined by the Oversight committee

      Our two metrics are:

      1. Quantitative: In 2009 we added a new question to the Senior Portfolio summary questions: "To what extent was it necessary to learn new information or skills not taught in a previous course in order to complete your project.  An average of 3.5 out of 5 must be maintained on this question.

      2. Subjective: In 2009 we asked our 123A instructors to ask their students to discuss what knoledge and skills they would have to acquire in order to complete their projects.  We are adding the metric that 90% of CE students mention this in their proposals and present plans for acquiring the missing knowledge and skills.

      3. Subjective:The exit survey results on Question 13: An average of 4 out of 5 must be maintained.

      If either of these is not met, the oversight committee must propose changes to the faculty and the advisory counsil.
2. The EE department's monitoring and feedback (as written by John Vesecky)
   The EE Department strives to fulfill Outcome i concerning a recognition of the need for, and the ability to engage in life-long learning through faculty awareness and teaching in several courses as well as through specific learning experiences, such as a required training session at the Science and Engineering Library and the writing of technical memos.

   As with all School of Engineering faculty, the tools for life-long learning are emphasized as they bear on academic assignments and tests. This begins with Required Skill 7 of CMPE 185. All Electrical Engineering majors are required to take CMPE 185, Technical Writing, where web search and library search skills are first taught.

   The capstone design courses (EE125 & EE126 and EE127 & EE128) emphasize the practical application of tools for life-long learning, including the collection of information from web searches, library book and literature searches (Melvyl, INSPEC, etc.) as well as contact with equipment suppliers and human resources, such as faculty and retirees with engineering expertise. The use of these tools throughout one's professional career is emphasized through examples of application in the instructor's professional career. Students are strongly encouraged to join the IEEE student branch and make full use of IEEE resources throughout their career as both students and after graduation.

   Feedback to assure continuous improvement in achieving Outcome i is present over short, medium and long time scales as shown in the EE ABET Feedback Loop Diagram. The shortest time scale is within a given course (over one to six months), medium term is between courses (three to twelve months) and long term is over a student's degree term (two to five years) or longer (four years and more after graduation). An example of short term feed back is the writing of technical memos that show research learning skills (EE127 & EE128). As mentioned above, feedback on engagement in lifelong learning can be obtained by noting membership in professional societies, achievement of advanced degrees and certifications as well as surveys.

The CE department checks this outcome via the exit survey.