(280d) Re-situating the Professional Formation of Engineers at Oregon State University

Jim Sweeney, Milo Koretsky, Susan Nolen, Michelle Bothwell, Susannah Davis, Devlin Montfort

While industry has long called for changes to how engineers and computer scientists are prepared, much of the core coursework remains virtually the same as it was 50 years ago. To address this mismatch between industry and education, the National Science Foundation has funded a set of projects that aim to REvolutionize Engineering and Computer ScienceDepartments (RED), serving as leaders in institutional change. We describe early results and ongoing work in a RED project in the School of Chemical, Biological, and Environmental Engineering (CBEE) at Oregon State University. We seek to re-situate the faculty/staff/student community and curricular/co-curricular student learning experience. Our work is centered on the creation of a holistic, inclusive, and professionally-based learning environment for our students. We are working to promote change through establishing a culture of inclusion and shifting student learning environments from highly sequestered activities to more realistic and consequential work that more closely resembles actual engineering workplace. These efforts require an important and concurrent shift in unit culture (e.g. values, norms, policies and procedures).