CU-Boulder at the Forefront in Engineering Education

by James P. Avery
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs

A professor of electrical and computer engineering, Jim Avery served as technical director of the ITL Laboratory before he was named associate dean for academic affairs in September 2000.

When I first heard that Michael Lightner, then associate dean for academic affairs, had decided to become associate dean for special projects, I joked with a colleague that the administration was going to have trouble finding someone to take over his old job, given that Mike had taken all the fun things with him.

I was wrong on both counts. Dean Corotis managed to find me pretty quickly, and many of the interesting aspects of the job are still run off of my new desk.

There are many aspects of the job that are important, but not fun. I am the person students come to see if they've been placed on probation or are about to be suspended. I chair the committee that hears academic ethics cases. And when students have problems with instructors, or instructors have problems with one or more students, they come to me.

But I am also in charge of facilitating change in the academic programs of the college, and am responsible for student programs, such as the Multicultural Engineering Program, the Women in Engineering Program, and the Student Services programs. In these endeavors I am pleased to work with Dave Aragon, Bev Louie, and Sherry Snyder, as directors of these programs. I am proud of the work these programs are doing in making the college a better place to learn.

I also coordinate the visits of the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology, the group responsible for accrediting our undergraduate degree programs. ABET has in the last years changed the requirements for accreditation, and our programs have been changing to meet these requirements. The most fundamental changes are that the programs now must specify what they intend to accomplish, and then design assessment tools to measure their performance. These tools have led to considerable involvement by industry, alumni, and students, as well as faculty and staff, and have also led to considerable improvements in the way the programs are managed by the departments.

CU has in place the students, facilities, and personnel to remain at the forefront of engineering education. The Integrated Teaching and Learning Program and the ITL Laboratory have been widely admired and imitated. Queen's University, one of Canada's premier engineering schools, has invited faculty from CU to help them build their Integrated Learning Center. The Discovery Learning Initiative and its physical embodiment, the Discovery Learning Center, will build on ITLL's success and offer new experiences for undergraduates in research.

CU's reputation in engineering education will be further enhanced when the 2003 Frontiers in Education Conference comes to Boulder. This annual event is one of the premier engineering education conferences in the country. Melinda Piket-May and I are general co-chairs.

Alumni can be proud of their alma mater as CU-Boulder continues to move forward as a nationally renowned leader and innovator in engineering education.