The ETD  list server response was great for the “all too familier letter” that was posted August 11 that had been sent out to the ETD list serve.  The letter was written by  Vino Scott, Professor & EET Dept. Chair of New England Institute of Technology.  Below are the responses that he recieve and compiled.

Thanks once again to all those that responded to this request on how to improve enrollment in Electronic Technology programs.

I hope you will find this information useful.

Here is a summary of what some institutions have done that had a positive impact on enrollments:

These have been grouped by categories were there was a similar theme.

1.       Change the program name.

a.       ECET – Electrical & Computer Engineering Technology

b.      Instrumentation & Controls (1/3 Electronics, 1/3 Industrial Control, 1/3 Instrumentation)

2.       Add Emerging Technologies

a.       BioMed Engineering Technology

b.      Renewable Energy

c.       Sustainable Energy emphasis

d.      Networking Technology and Mobile devices

e.      Electronics and Mechatronics

3.       Improve relationships/make connections

a.       Local Industry (understand the job needs)

b.      High Schools (get to know the teachers and advisors)

4.       Partner with a 4 year program

a.       Articulation agreements

5.       Strengthen the Technical Advisory Committee

6.       Bring FPGA, Digital, Microprocessor & Robotics earlier in the program

7.       Participate in “FIRST” Robotics

8.       Focus more on a hands on approach

9.       Introduce short courses and certificates

10.   Offer an Electronics minor to an MET program

There were also two responses from NSF funded projects that have focused on the enrollment issue and the information on those sites follows below:

11.    Response from Tom McGlew, Project Manager for the ATE NSF funded project: “A Systems View of Electronics for 2010”.

12.  Response from Julie Foreman of Optic (to be posted tomorrow).

Tom’ response was posted prevously.  What do you think about changing a program’s name?  Any of the other suggestions?  Thanks to Vino for asking the question again and sharing the answers.

Mark Viquesney