Panel Questions on Electronics Systems Technology Approach to Teaching Electronics Topics and Theory
Education, Electronics August 6th, 2007(Editor’s Note: This post had to be reposted. Comments were copied and posted again).
Hi everyone,
The SAME-TEC 2007 Conference was held last week in the Dallas Fort Worth area of Texas. This year’s conference included the third consecutive pre-conference workshop that focused on Electronics Systems Technology approach to teaching Electronics topics and theory. The workshop had a panel of five that represented both two-year electronics faculty and industry partners. The panel consisted of Lou Frenzel, editor of Electronic Design Magazine, Roy Brixen, Electronics faculty from the College of San Mateo, Jim Durham, Engineering and Production Manager for ON Semiconductor, Wayne Phillips, Electronics faculty from Chabot College, and Jim Hyder from Intel Corporation.
The panel’s mission was to first provide a context for each of the ten questions and then to engage the workshop participants in discussion around each of them. These ten questions were developed by Lou Frenzel and were based on the results of the two previous workshops that focused on what was going wrong with electronics technology programs and what could be done to save these programs from being closed due to low enrollments and student retention. The questions are:
- Is it time to change from an engineering technician orientation now that those positions have generally shrunk to a tiny percentage of all technician needs and what should the new orientation be?
- Given the answer to that question, is it essential to continue to provide a program for BSET transfer given that technician education is not longer engineering oriented?
- How much math is really needed today?
- What are the major changes needed to courses today?
- How do we address the (lack of) textbook problem?
- How can significant changes help turn around declining enrollments?
- How can faculty overcome their own barriers (internal and external) to make the change to a new program?
- What are the budget implications for building a new program (new labs, textbooks…?) and how can they be met?
- What are the roadblocks to creating and initiating a new program (college policy and procedures, state regulations, accreditation issues, etc.) and how can they be overcome?
- What can industry do to help and expedite the change that is needed?
If you are contemplating making changes to your current electronics technology program, I would like to invite you to answer these ten questions and share your responses here in this blog. In two weeks, I will add the comments that were generated by the twenty-five participants at last weeks SAME-TEC Conference workshop for your review and comparison. Talk to you soon!
Tom McGlew
October 28th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
Gordon Says:
August 7th, 2007 at 3:49 pm e
I’m interested speciically in ABET - anyone have any comments on how it fits
October 28th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Mark Archibald Says:
September 10th, 2007 at 12:03 pm e
I am very interested in reading the responses to the 10 questions from SAME-TEC conference attendees (I wish I was there to participate!)
Your 10 questions are esentially the key questions we are asking about our two-year electronics engineering technology program here in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Can you provide clarification on terminology? In question 1, what is your definition of an “engineering technician”?
Regards,
Mark Archibald
Chair
Electronics Group
NAIT
October 28th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Tom McGlew Says:
September 10th, 2007 at 3:12 pm e
Mark Archibald,
Hi Mark,
Thanks for viewing my blog and leaving a comment. What we mean by engineering technician in Question 1. is traditionally electronics technology programs prepared graduates to assist engineers in the design, protyping, and eventually in the sustainabilty of the new product once it went in to production. Today however, an engineer does the design, simulation testing, ordering of parts, and quite possibly the development of the prototype via software applications. Where is the engineering electronics technician in this process? (But we are still being preparing our electronics technicians this way today)I can look at my Associates Degree in Electronics instruction from about thirty-four years ago and it is essentially the same as most Electronis Technology curriculums today; very heavily focus on components, devices, and circuit analysis. The courses and resources the Systems Electronics Grant Project produces will still cover all of these topics but they will be emphasized to show how they impact or are part of the larger system. Most of this instruction will be aided by systems lab activities for the classroom labs and also via a real live online electronics system. The online electronics system will allow the student or faculty to have full operation of the system, its software development, and the ability to perform live trouble shooting tasks.
What has changed though is the typical jobs electronics technicians are employed at are heavily focused on systems. A electronics technician no longer only works on the electronics sections of a machine, but is engaged in mechanics, hydraulics, speciality gas plumbing,… and ultimately the maintenance of the product quality. A systems knowledge and the ability to know how all the sub-systems interact to control the product environment is critical for today’s electronics technicians.
The response to the ten questions will be posted shortly. I am conducting a webinar this Friday, September 14th at 10:00 a.m. MST on the outcomes of the ten questions and the current status of the Systems Electronics Grant. Please see the http://www.matecnetworks.org/webinars/ and click on the Webinars link to register for this event.
Thanks for the great question. If you would like to contact me please give me a call or email. Tom