Planning a dual-site electrical engineering program

A new program in Electrical Engineering (EE) is being offered at the Department of Engineering & Design within the School of Computing and Engineering Sciences at Eastern Washington University (EWU). The program was designed responding to a request by the American Electronics Association to fulfill the critical need for electrical engineering graduates in the State of Washington. Although the program is currently offered at the Eastern Washington campus in Cheney, there is a current proposal to extend this program into the western side of the state. EWU is partnering with North Seattle Community College (NSCC) to plan a dual-site EE program that would provide a seamless transition for students from the Seattle Community College system into a four year, EE program. Recently, funds from NSF were obtained to plan this novel partnership. This paper describes the planning process and it addresses the following elements. First, the curriculum will be modified to include effective, research-based pedagogies for teaching electrical engineering, particularly extensive experiential learning. EWU's curricular revisions will include adding a laboratory component to each class in the EE major, developing a class for each year of study that includes a service learning component, developing a class for each year of study that requires work on a real industry project, and requiring an internship and a project-based senior project for each student. Second, the program will be offered in a dual-site mode in both the EWU's Cheney campus and at North Seattle Community College (NSCC), a community college that serves a diverse, place-bound student body. Finally, the paper will document the design methods to recruit and retain underrepresented students in the EE program, both at EWU and at NSCC. These methods are adapted from strategies that have been proven effective at other universities. This paper reviews the planning of a dual-site EE program that partners a Regional Comprehensive University with a Community College. It includes the significance, goals, objectives, curriculum, infrastructure, and laboratory requirements. The result of this research will be a model that could be replicated by other universities and community colleges.