program self-study report - Lamar University Electrical Engineering

constraints from the state and then due to hurricane Rita. Once funding is restored we will resume thesearch to secure the new faculty position.2.4.3.2 Alumni SurveysEach year we poll our alumni using what we call the "One Year Out" and "Three Year Out" surveys.Earlier in this accreditation cycle we were using "Five Year Out" surveys, but we elected to reduce to athree year out given current assessment practice. The response was less than encouraging since weimplemented this process (2003) as in 2004 we received no return on the five-year out survey. This isconsistent with what other EE departments have experienced as revealed at the March 18th 2005 ABETWorkshop sponsored by ECEDHA in New Orleans. At that juncture we learned of telephone interviewswith employers and made that instrument our primary assessment of objectives. Nevertheless, we willcontinue to do alumni surveys, but we consider them a secondary method.Overall, the responses that we have received indicate that our graduates consider themselves prepared fortheir work in terms of our program outcomes and objectives. Some commented on the desire to haveseminars with industry professionals and we have accommodated that request in the curriculum both inour required seminar course and with the "All College of Engineering" seminar series. There werecomments directed towards a lack of emphasis on project management skills and that issue has beenaddressed with a change in instructor in our senior design course (MS level adjunct to full-professor withPE and industrial experience). Multidisciplinary design was also mentioned and we have institutedprogram options in our senior projects course that allow students from other disciplines to participate ondesign teams. Finally, there were comments related to our lack of a process control course or processsystem training. This is an advisement problem as we have options within the program (electives) for ourstudents to take our graduate level process control course or to take the process control course inChemical Engineering. We have, however, began to emphasize process control issues in our controlengineering course in order to make students aware of what process control as defined by manufacturingis.3. Program Outcomes and Assessment3.1 General informationThe principle goal of our program is to provide students with the fundamentals of electrical engineering inorder that they have a strong foundation for a successful engineering career. This includes building asufficient reading knowledge and analytical capability so that the graduates can continue to expand theirknowledge as their fields of interest and the scope of electrical engineering as a discipline changes. Ourcore courses are intended to establish a broad base of fundamental knowledge so that those who terminatetheir formal education with the Bachelor's degree can continue to grow with a penchant for and anunderstanding of life-long learning. Likewise, the base provides insight into fields that students maychoose to study at the graduate level. This goal is met by a curriculum in which there is a progression incourse work and in which fundamental knowledge of earlier years is applied in later engineering courses.EE Program Self-Study Report-2006 16