This grant is directed towards planning the new curriculum which will produce more computer engineering graduates who are better prepared for the rapidly changing and diverse world of industry. A key component of this new curriculum will be the incorporation of service learning and multidisciplinary teamwork. This is part of a larger effort at UC San Diego for incorporating multidisciplinary teamwork and service learning, undergraduate research, communication skills, and intervention to realize student potential into the engineering curriculum at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego. They are building on UCSD-TIES a service learning activity, initiated with the National EPICS program at Purdue University. The program offers undergraduates an opportunity to be part of a multidisciplinary team that provides technical expertise to non-profit community organizations. Students are being guided by faculty, community organizations, graduate students and each other in their quest to provide engineered products and services unavailable to organizations in need. The program goals are to provide skills in teamwork, leadership, technical prowess, organization, discipline, cooperation, communications, and motivation to students through the application of engineering principles to real-life problems and opportunities.
It will also produce a model program which could be easily replicated for similar benefits at other institutions. The proposed interventions would also improve performance and success of their more diverse population.
