[BLINDED] University is establishing a new degree in Civil Systems Engineering, with the first intake of students in February 2016. [BLINDED] initiated its engineering course as a response to demand from local government and regional industry to address a shortage of engineers in the regions. While the genesis of the program was based in a regional outlook, the mission of [BLINDED] Engineering is far more than just providing access for regional students – there was a deliberate mission to anticipate and pre-empt global trends in higher education.
The key aim is to train entrepreneurial engineers in a regional setting. Regional engineering practice requires a number of valuable and transferrable skills – resilience, adaptability, a willingness to accept responsibility early, communicating with non-engineers. These skills are essential for regional practice; however they are also in demand throughout all of industry. As the only Australian engineering program based in a Faculty of Business, we have set ourselves a goal of educating a very different type of engineering graduate, and doing so in a very different learning environment.
The engineering degree program has been developed on a fast-track timeline, with just 503 days from University Executive approval through to the commencement of the first cohort of students. This paper details the specific goals of the program and the non-traditional nature of the curriculum that has been developed to meet them, and discusses the challenges that were overcome to make the program happen within the timeline provided.
Professor Euan Lindsay is a Mechatronic engineer, a discipline that integrates computers, electronics and physical hardware. Prof Lindsay’s PhD investigated whether remote and simulated access alternatives to the traditional in-person laboratory experience could provide the same learning outcomes for students.
Prof Lindsay’s work in Remote and Virtual laboratory classes has shown that there are significant differences not only in students’ learning outcomes but also in their perceptions of these outcomes, when they are exposed to the different access modes. These differences have powerful implications for the design of remote and virtual laboratory classes in the future, and also provide an opportunity to match alternative access modes to the intended learning outcomes that they enhance.
Prof Lindsay is the Foundation Professor of Engineering at Charles Sturt University. His research interests include engineering education, telecontrol (particularly internet-based telecontrol), artificial neural networks, and rehabilitative technologies for people with sensing impairments.
Prof Lindsay was the 2010 President of the Australasian Association for Engineering Education. He is a Fellow of Engineers Australia, and a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy. Prof Lindsay was the recipient of a 2007 Carrick Award for Australian University Teaching. In 2005 he was named as one of the 30 Most Inspirational Young Engineers in Australia.
Jim Morgan is the father of two daughters and the spouse of an engineer. Before joining Charles Sturt University as Professor of Engineering in 2015, he was at Texas A&M for 30 years, most recently as an associate professor of civil engineering. Jim has been active in the freshman engineering program at A&M for nearly 20 years; was an active participant in the NSF Foundation Coalition from 1993 to 2003; also has received funding for his engineering education research from the Department of Education FIPSE program and from the National Science Foundation CCLI program.
He is active in the American Society for Engineering Education, is past chair of the Freshman Programs Division, currently serves on the steering committee. In addition to his teaching in engineering, Jim served several years as Co-Director of the Eisenhower Leadership Development Program in the Center for Public Leadership at the George Bush School of Government and Public Service; and also served as director of Aggie STEM with funding from the Texas Education Agency and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
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