Excellent article: The Olin Experiment by Erico Guizzo:
Founded with more than US $460 million from the F.W. Olin Foundation, the school, which will graduate its first class at the end of this month, was conceived as perhaps the most ambitious experiment in engineering education in the past several decades. Olin’s aim is to flip over the traditional “theory first, practice later” model and make students plunge into hands-on engineering projects starting on day one. Instead of theory-heavy lectures, segregated disciplines, and individual efforts, Olin champions design exercises, interdisciplinary studies, and teamwork.
And if the curriculum is innovative, the school itself is hardly a traditional place: it doesn’t have separate academic departments, professors don’t get tenured, and students don’t pay tuition - every one of them gets a $130 000 scholarship for the four years of study.
Find out more about the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering.
Building a Better Engineer by David Wessel:
To a visitor, the school resembles any other small college. What’s different about it is its almost messianic mission: to change the way engineers are educated in the U.S. so that they can help the U.S. compete in a global economy with lots of smart, ambitious engineers in China, India and elsewhere. “If they become another good engineering school, they will have failed,” says Woodie Flowers, an MIT professor advising Olin. “The issue is to do it differently enough and to do it in way that will be exportable” to other colleges.
We share more thoughts on Olin’s efforts to improve engineering education on our other blog.
June 7th, 2006 at 9:52 pm
“a national program forming partnerships among Public Schools, Higher Education Institutions and the Private Sector to increase the quantity and quality of engineers and engineering technologists graduating from our education system…”
June 17th, 2006 at 7:49 pm
[...] On our Science and Engineering blog I just posted on the Olin Engineering Education Experiment. It is a great story of doing things differently. [...]
July 11th, 2006 at 10:35 pm
“students will be encouraged to apply their theoretical learnings from maths, science and other subjects in a real world context using the most up-to-date technology and equipment made available in the School…”
July 20th, 2006 at 11:14 pm
[...] See our previous posts: Olin Engineering Education Experiment - Improving Engineering Education UW has been able to turn around a dismal attrition rate in the early 1990s, when two-thirds of engineering students didn’t stick with the program. Today, close to 60% of engineering students graduate with a degree in the field, he said. [...]
October 9th, 2006 at 2:17 pm
“the real fun happens in the research labs, where students work on projects such as a slithering snake robot for search-and-rescue missions…”
October 16th, 2006 at 2:18 pm
This post comes from the “Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog” by John Hunter. It is about very innovative engineering programs highlighted in the latest Popular Mechanics. Following is the quote of the post by John…
June 8th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
“So MIT must shift gears, and embrace two basic missions: continuing to produce world-class experts (geeks) – practicing engineers who design complicated systems – and generating world-class leaders (chiefs), who will deploy their technological expertise in the real-world…”
June 19th, 2007 at 6:31 pm
“Students also experience the business world firsthand through Olin’s senior consulting program for engineering. This year 12 corporations — including Boeing, Boston Scientific, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM — paid Olin a combined $700,000 to have groups of five seniors serve as consultants for a full academic year…”
September 12th, 2007 at 9:43 pm
The seven winning teams (including one from the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering) visited Google’s Mountain View Headquarters.