Contents

Publications listed here were curated by the VIP Consortium to show the impact of the VIP model at Consortium member institutions.

Click on a title to jump to the abstract, citation and full-text link.


 

Participation in Undergraduate Research Reduces Equity Gaps in STEM Graduation Rates

Results from this multi-institution study suggests that the higher rates of academic success for undergraduate researchers can be generalized beyond a single program or institution. As we seek ways to close education gaps and increase graduation rates, undergraduate research can be a meaningful practice to improve student success.

H. Haeger, E. Hilda Bueno, Q. & Sedlacek, "Participation in Undergraduate Research Reduces Equity Gaps in STEM Graduation Rates," Life Sciences Education, 2024 23:1.

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Breaking Down the Silos: Innovations for Multidisciplinary Programs

Universities, colleges and academic departments acknowledge the need for more collaborative, multidisciplinary, entrepreneurial, and global education. Unfortunately, this is no trivial task. Centuries of tradition have produced institutional silos, reinforced by layers of policy and cultural differences between academic departments, between colleges, and between academic and non-academic units. Successful multidisciplinary programs require programmatic and administrative innovation that meet faculty, student and institutional needs and leverage available resources. The Vertically Integrated Project (VIP) model, in place at thirty-seven institutions, has achieved notable success in these areas. This paper profiles innovations from ten VIP Programs in three areas: institutional organization, program organization, and faculty approaches. With these innovations, the programs have broken down silos and cultivated meaningful partnerships to meet the needs of multiple stakeholders. The featured institutions vary in size and mission and represent four countries. Each innovation is presented with a brief background to provide context on how the VIP Program is situated within the larger institution. Together, these backgrounds, innovations, and lessons learned can benefit others seeking to develop and/or maintain cross-campus multidisciplinary programs.

M. E. Amoo, J. Bringardner, J. Chen, E. J. Coyle, J. Finnegan, C. J. Kim, P. D. Koman, M.Z. Lagoudas, D. C. Llewellyn, L. Logan, J. Sonnenberg-Klein, N. M. Trent, S.M. Strachan, & B.C. Ward, "Breaking Down the Silos: Innovations for Multidisciplinary Programs," presented at ASEE Virtual Annual Conference, 2020.

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Correlation between Academic Credit-use Policies and Student Persistence in Vertically Integrated Project (VIP) Courses

In the Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Program, undergraduates earn academic credit for their participation in long-term, large-scale, multidisciplinary project teams that are created at the request of faculty to assist them with their research and other innovative activities. The students contribute their disciplinary skills to the project, collaborate with students from other disciplines, and learn and practice many professional skills. A key to launching and maintaining productive VIP teams is having students participate for multiple semesters, sometimes up to six semesters. This allows students to develop deeper expertise and take on increasing levels of responsibility. Academic departments have established a range of credit-use policies for VIP courses, with some departments incentivizing multiple semesters of participation, with different incentives and varying thresholds for each policy. Beyond curricular policies, the number of semesters students participate in VIP may be affected by matches/mismatches between students and their instructors' departments, as well as student academic rank in their first semester of VIP. This study describes policies for the four academic units with highest enrollments in VIP at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and examines the number of semesters students (N=869) participate in VIP by policy, by academic rank, and by matches/mismatches between student and instructor departments. In a secondary analysis, persistence rates are compared for a degree program before and after an incentivizing, credit-use policy was established (N=45). Results show correlation between higher persistence and two policies: (1) allowing all VIP credits to count as in-major electives after a minimum number are earned and (2) allowing students to fulfill a design sequence requirement through VIP, with no additional planning/requirements beyond the normal design sequence. The study employed chi-square analysis for all but one analysis, because assumptions for analysis of variance were not met. These findings will be of use to existing and prospective VIP Programs, as well as institutions and departments seeking to increase student persistence in undergraduate research.

J. Sonnenberg-Klein, R. T. Abler, and E. J. Coyle, "Correlation between Academic Credit-use Policies and Student Persistence in Vertically Integrated Project (VIP) Courses," presented at the 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, 2018.

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Diversity and Student Persistence in the Vertically Integrated Project (VIP) Course Sequence

While historically underserved students derive differentially greater benefits from participation in research with faculty, they engage in the activity at lower rates than their peers. In contrast to the national trend, the Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Program at the Georgia Institute of Technology enrolls representative proportions of Black/African American students and Hispanic/Latino students with respect to the campus population. This study examines student persistence in the VIP course sequence with respect to race and ethnicity. The VIP model is unique, in that it fully engages faculty; is cost effective, building on existing faculty research interests and efforts; and is fully scalable, with the potential to serve every student at a given institution. The model has been adopted by 24 institutions of varying sizes and varying levels of research activity, including large research institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and Hispanic Serving Institutions. The VIP implementation at Georgia Tech is not tailored to serve specific subgroups but aims to serve all students. With current enrollments of 900 students each semester and continued growth, serving every student is a realistic possibility. This paper examines student persistence in the VIP course sequence and provides an overview of the VIP Program, including common elements across VIP sites, prior research on student interactions within teams by race/ethnicity, and aspects of the Georgia Tech implementation of VIP, which may contribute to student diversity within the program. Findings indicate that students of different races and ethnicities persist in the VIP course sequence at equal rates.

J. Sonnenberg-Klein, R. T. Abler, and E. J. Coyle, "Diversity and Student Persistence in the Vertically Integrated Project (VIP) Course Sequence," presented at the 2018 Collaborative Network for Engineering and Computing Diversity (CoNECD), 2018.

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Social Network Analysis: Peer Support and Peer Management in Multidisciplinary, Vertically Integrated Teams

In the Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Program, undergraduates earn academic credit for their participation in long-term, large-scale projects. Teams are created at the request of faculty and are embedded in their ongoing research/innovation efforts. Students can participate for multiple semesters and up to three years. Two important elements of VIP teams are peer-to-peer support and peer project management. Encouraging students to assist each other (peer support) and to be aware of each other’s work and hold each other accountable (peer management) shifts ownership of key aspects of the project to students, thus decreasing instructor time spent on low- and mid-level operational/logistics issues. Through social network analysis of peer evaluations (N=483), this paper quantifies peer support and management between students on VIP teams at the Georgia Institute of Technology, examining patterns within individual teams and across the site. A previous study found that within teams, students interacted more often with students from majors other than their own and more often with students of other races/ethnicities than their own. Another previous study found stronger connections between students within academic ranks (sophomore to sophomore, junior to junior, etc.). To better understand dynamics within VIP teams, this analysis considers how academic rank, student major, and number of semesters in VIP affect student interactions in peer support and peer management. The study looks at team-level interactions as well as program-wide patterns, providing a wide view of VIP student engagement across many different projects and teams. The results and method of analysis would be of interest to current and prospective VIP sites, as well as programs seeking to develop or quantify multidisciplinary student experiences.

J. Sonnenberg-Klein, R. T. Abler, and E. J. Coyle, "Social Network Analysis: Peer Support and Peer Management in Multidisciplinary, Vertically Integrated Teams," Accepted, 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, 2018.

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STEM Active Learning Vignette Series: The Undergraduate VIP Program at Virginia Commonwealth University

Since beginning active grantmaking in 2008, the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust (the Trust) has committed more than $1.5 billion to nonprofits and other mission-aligned organizations in the United States and around the world. Although no longer a focus for the Trust, from 2008 to 2016 the Trust's postsecondary education grantmaking focused on increasing the number of college graduates in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields — particularly female students and students of color. The Trust’s postsecondary grantmaking portfolio supported networks of higher education institutions committed to improving instructional practices, primarily for gateway STEM courses, and creating incentives to adopt model policies, practices, and systems that can help improve student retention and completion. Each network adopted one or more active learning strategies, evidence-based teaching and learning approaches that can improve students' performance in STEM. While the Helmsley Charitable Trust's investment has concluded, most of the networks continue to move forward with implementing these strategies. As the STEM Active Learning Networks evaluation and learning partner, Equal Measure is tracking the impact of the Helmsley Charitable Trust's postsecondary grantmaking on faculty, departmental, and institutional change across networks. Since 2014, Equal Measure has examined the conditions that support progress at the institution, department, and classroom levels toward network goals. Using qualitative methods, we have documented the results of network efforts, including emerging outcomes at the institution, department, and educator levels. In 2017, Equal Measure visited five campuses representing four of the initial seven networks to delve into site-level implementation. In this vignette, we showcase Virginia Commonwealth University's undergraduate VIP program, which focuses on student persistence in STEM majors though the incorporation of active learning techniques.

G. Kioukis and R. McGhee, "STEM Active Learning Vignette Series: The Undergraduate VIP Program at Virginia Commonwealth University," Equal Measure, Jul-2018.

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Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) at Inha University: The effect of convergence project education on learning satisfaction

Due to the advent of the 4th Industrial Revolution in the 21st century, people with abilities based on convergence thinking are required in various fields of society. In addition, there is a growing interest in emphasizing the innovation of knowledge through academic, industrial, and technological convergence, and in how to foster convergent human resources as the scope of creativity expands. To this end, it has become necessary to change educational practices in higher educational institutions. Inha University began developing a convergence education curriculum at the Innovation Center for Engineering Education in 2013 to cultivate undergraduate students with convergence competency. This paper describes the implications of the results of multi-year, multi-disciplinary convergence education and the effectiveness of various convergence education methods for continuous education improvement. The VIP (Vertically Integrated Project) course, which has been run every semester at Inha University since the spring semester of 2014, is designed to give students practical research experiences connected with the industry in advance and apply actual projects in which professors participate in undergraduate education. The curriculum is designed to improve students' major knowledge, research skills, and collaboration skills by teaming up multi-year and multi-disciplinary students. In addition, the effectiveness of convergence education is analyzed through various student evaluations every semester, and based on the results, the students' understanding of convergence education and the need for training convergent human resources in educational institutions are further expanded.

J.-E. Choi and H. Kim, "Vertically integrated projects (VIP) at Inha University: The effect of convergence project education on learning satisfaction," 2017 IEEE 6th International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering (TALE), Hong Kong, China, Dec. 12-14, 2017

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Adapting Vertically Integrated Projects to University Team Competitions

Beginning in 2009, Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) courses have been implemented at Georgia Tech. These VIP classes allow undergraduate students to receive academic credit for participating on teams that further faculty research efforts. The teams are multidisciplinary, vertically integrated, and long-term. Participation on these teams has been shown to help students gain understanding of project timelines, effective project communication, and other applicable real-world experience. EcoCAR 3 is the latest in a series of Advanced Vehicle Technology Competitions (AVTCs) sponsored by the Department of Energy since 1988. At Georgia Tech, the EcoCAR 3 team has been structured using the VIP program to improve the all-around experience of faculty members and the graduate and undergraduate students. Based on Georgia Tech’s experience in the first three years in EcoCAR 3, we have learned lessons that we are implementing on our team to improve the educational experience of the students working on the project. One of these lessons is the value of strong undergraduate leadership on competition teams and in project-based learning. The benefits have included a more evenly distributed workload, increased mentorship of new undergraduate students, and improved team capability to successfully meet deadlines while still educating undergraduate team members.

G. D. Chipman and T. F. Fuller, "Adapting Vertically Integrated Projects to University Team Competitions," ASME 2017 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, Tampa, FL, Nov. 3-9, 2017.

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VIP Approach at the University of Strathclyde: A Pilot Evaluation Report 2015-16

The potential for enhanced knowledge creation through collaborative group effort has been reasonably well established within educational discourse. This stands in direct contrast to former traditional models, where knowledge was treated as a transmitted commodity from "expert" to "student." Such transmission models have long been viewed as broadly ineffectual, especially as regards the teaching of primary Science, Technologies, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) subjects. The Vertically Integrated Project (VIP) approach may offer pedagogical advancement in terms of STEM teaching and learning in Higher Education (HE). Established within the University of Strathclyde some five years ago, an initial University-wide evaluation of the programme was piloted in Session 2015-16. Students' perceptions of their participation in VIP generally very positively reported within the pilot evaluation. Key messages centred on students' perceptions of the benefit of participation in the unique, collaborative, real-world study afforded by the VIP approach and their desire for the programme architecture to expand even further, both laterally and vertically across the University.

R. Collins, A. Buckley, S. Strachan, and P. Murray, "VIP Approach at the University of Strathclyde: A Pilot Evaluation Report 2015-16," University of Strathclyde, rep., May 2017.

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STEM Education and Public Engagement 2017

The Vertically Integrated Project: STEM Education & Public Engagement aims to foster both an interdisciplinary approach to learning and the development of enhanced communities of inquiry. Within the project students create and sustain STEM Education Clinics in schools and Public Engagement events within related local communities in Scotland. In so doing, the project develops students’ own STEM domain knowledge and intra–professional skills sets and also seeks to promote the development of STEM literacies across stakeholder communities in which these clinics are set.

R. Collins, "STEM education and public engagement 2017," in Book of VIP Abstracts, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.

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Use of a Vertically Integrated Project Team to Develop Hands-On Learning Modules

Hands-on learning (HOL) is an excellent way to engage and motivate students and to enhance the learning of difficult concepts. In engineering education, hands-on learning has traditionally involved instructional labs or studio classes, which are focused on these types of activities. Recently, however, people have started to advocate for the distributed use of mobile, hands-on learning experiments that can be done by students in non-traditional settings. For example, students can now do sophisticated experiments with student-owned equipment and can perform the experiments on their own, or in traditional classroom settings. The combination of miniaturization of electronics with student ownership of measurement equipment and/or smartphones means that there are now many more possibilities for hands-on learning than ever before. The biggest problem, however, is to know what experiences are effective, and how best to execute them. For the past two years, the authors have co-advised a Vertically Integrated Program on Hands-On Learning (VIP-HOL).

VIP was developed at Georgia Tech and grew out of the EPICS program, for which Edward J. Coyle, Leah H. Jamieson, and William C. Oakes received the 2005 Gordon Prize from the NAE. The VIP program consists of teams of undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty advisors who work on projects on a single theme. The unique aspect of VIP is that students remain in the program for several semesters, which allows them to transition from "learners to leaders" as they gain experience. At the authors' institution, there are currently 41 VIP teams. In Spring 2015, the authors launched their VIP team on HOL. The premise of the team is to make students active partners in the educational process. In particular, the students are able to suggest projects that would facilitate learning in courses and subject areas that they have encountered. Hence, a topic that they struggled with can be suggested as the focus of a design project on which a subteam of a few students can work. The projects on which the VIP team has worked include hands-on experimental platforms that are used in lecture-based classrooms, as well as self-paced tutorials that students can work on in a maker space. As an example of the latter, the students developed an autonomous RC car and have demonstrated it at a number of workshops that they ran to introduce students to microcontrollers and embedded systems. They also suggest portable hands-on learning modules, followed by efforts to prototype, test, and implement the module into engineering classes. The full paper will describe the activities of the HOL group. Several projects that they have worked on will be described. Assessment data will be presented for the hands-on learning modules they have developed to date.

A. Ferri, B. Ferri, R. Lineberg, K. Ferri, Z. Crawford, and J. Tamayo, "Use of a Vertically Integrated Project Team to Develop Hands-On Learning Modules," 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings, Jun. 2017.

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Developing a Vertically Integrated Project Course to Connect Undergraduates to Graduate Research Projects on Smart Cities Transportation Technology

This academic practice paper describes the design of a new Vertically Integrated Projects course on smart cities at New York University Tandon School of Engineering. It provides an overview of smart cities topics and related project-based design curriculum. The goal of this paper is to make this type of course transferable to other universities. Vertically Integrated Projects, a program based at Georgia Institute of Technology, has expanded to a consortium of 24 universities. The goal of this program is to provide long-term research projects to undergraduate students. Typically, five to 30 students from all grade levels and disciplines work under a faculty advisor on a team project. Sophomore to senior students receive one credit hour per semester and must enroll for at least three consecutive semesters. Requiring multiple semesters helps students to advance the project's complexity and move through ranks of leadership. Teams recruit students at the sophomore level and can have leaders through the graduate level. This research paper documents the preparation of a Vertically Integrated Projects course focused on creating innovative technology for smart cities initiatives. Four sub-teams will be working on different aspects of smart cities, including quantified cities, autonomous vehicles, connected infrastructure, and shared mobility.

J. Bringardner, "Developing a Vertically Integrated Project Course to Connect Undergraduates to Graduate Research Projects on Smart Cities Transportation Technology," 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings, Jun. 2017.

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Multidisciplinary Vertically Integrated Teams: Social Network Analysis of Peer Evaluations for Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Program Teams

Twenty-two colleges and universities have implemented the Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) model, which consists of multidisciplinary teams; long-term, large-scale projects led by faculty; the enrollment of students from different academic ranks; and the ability of students to participate for multiple years. At Georgia Institute of Technology, analysis of university exit surveys found VIP participation correlated with a meaningful effect size on three questions: the degree to which students’ education contributed to their ability to work in a multidisciplinary team; their ability to work with individuals from diverse backgrounds; and their understanding of technology applications relevant to their field of study. Motivated by these findings, the VIP coordinators conducted a retrospective study of peer evaluations, applying social network analysis to quantify student interactions and identify patterns across the program. Results indicate that within the VIP Program, students interact more often with other majors and other races/ethnicities than their own major and race/ethnicity. Results support the findings of the previous study, providing evidence of VIP experiences related to working in diverse groups and in multidisciplinary teams. This paper reports the results of this analysis and plans for further work.

J. Sonnenberg-Klein, R. T. Abler, E. J. Coyle, and H. H. Ai, “Multidisciplinary Vertically Integrated Teams: Social Network Analysis of Peer Evaluations for Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Program Teams,” 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings, Jun. 2017.

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Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Programs at International Institutions: Multidisciplinary Projects with Homes in Any Discipline

A survey of papers in the ASEE Multidisciplinary Engineering Division for the last three years shows three main areas of emphasis: individual courses, profiles of specific projects, and capstone design courses. However, multidisciplinary education across all disciplines requires a larger-scale model that can be incorporated into any discipline, a model that is both cost effective and scalable, and one that fully engages and benefits faculty. A consortium of 19 US and five international institutions has come together around such a model, the Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Program. VIP unites undergraduate education and faculty research in a team-based context, with students earning academic credits toward their degrees, and faculty and graduate students benefiting from the design/discovery efforts of their multidisciplinary teams. VIP is novel, because it unites rich student learning experiences with faculty research, transforming both the context of undergraduate education and the concept of faculty research as a separate endeavor. It provides a cost-effective, scalable, and sustainable model for multidisciplinary, project-based learning. Students earn academic credit instead of stipends; typical teams consist of fifteen or more students from different disciplines; students participate multiple years as they progress through their curriculum; and faculty benefit from the research and design efforts of their teams, with teams becoming integral parts of their research. While VIP programs share key elements, approaches and implementations vary by institution. This paper presents an overview of the VIP Consortium; the multidisciplinary nature of the program within and across institutions; and profiles of four international institutions and their implementations of the model. The profiled institutions are based in Colombia, Korea, Latvia, and Scotland.

R. T. Abler, E. J. Coyle, T. Junha, H. Kim, S. Marshall, M. Pardo, J. Sonnenberg-Klein, and W. S. Percybrooks, “Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Programs at International Institutions: Multidisciplinary Projects with Homes in Any Discipline,” 2017 ASEE International Forum, Jun. 2017.

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Cross-Cohort Research Experience for Project Management and Leadership Development

Project management and leadership skills are essential for career development. However, in typical university settings, undergraduate students take different courses and work on different projects in different teams each semester. As a result, students lack opportunities to work on multi-year projects and develop the skills essential for long-term planning. To remedy this situation, our department has created elective courses that allow students from all years (first-year students to graduate students) to work on research projects under the supervision of faculty members and the mentorship of senior graduate students. These projects provide the opportunities for students to learn many skills essential in workplaces, such as (1) understanding how projects are designed and managed; (2) taking responsibilities on different components in the projects; (3) learning computer tools for collaboration and integration; (4) developing leadership skills; (5) cultivating self-learning; and (6) improving communication, both speaking and writing. This paper reports one project that involves undergraduate, masters, and doctoral students. The project, now in its fifth year, builds computer tools for researchers, educators, and students using cloud computing for large-scale image analysis. The project has received an award in a student competition and three research grants for international collaboration, entrepreneurship, and big-data analytics and has produced more than a dozen research papers. This paper describes the project in detail and shares experiences on many crucial factors necessary for creating a successful, cross-cohort research project. Research experience is not required in typical undergraduate curricula; thus, it is essential to recruit well qualified and interested students. From the beginning of this project, there was a clear goal to create software tools that would become available to the research community. The opportunity to serve real users is appealing to many students. In order to build software tools for users, this project has established rigorous procedures common in commercial software development, such as version control, testing, and documentation. Leadership development is another key component; if a student continues in this project over multiple semesters, the student may be promoted to lead a subteam or the entire team. In addition to learning technical skills, the team has participated in multiple student competitions and has won the second prize in one competition. This project also encourages entrepreneurship; a group of students plan to start a company after they have interviewed potential customers exploring the feasibility of commercializing the technology and investigating market-product match. Four foreign institutions are collaborators on the project, and the students have experience working with these collaborators through video conferencing.

Y.-H. Lu, T. J. Hacker, C. B. Zoltowski, and J. Allebach, (2016, June), "Cross-Cohort Research Experience for Project Management and Leadership Development," Paper presented at 2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana. 10.18260/p.26604

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Blended Learning in a Rigid-Body Dynamics Course Using On-Line Lectures and Hands-On Experiment

Rigid-Body Dynamics is a foundational course that forms the basis for much of the ME curriculum in the mechanical systems area. Under the best of circumstances, the topic is challenging, but especially so when both two-dimensional (planar) and three-dimensional rigid-body dynamics are covered in the same three-hour semester class. To address these challenges, several changes were implemented in a section of Rigid-Body Dynamics in the Fall of 2014 and continuing into Spring 2015. First, in-class lecturing was replaced with online videos developed for two Coursera MOOCs on dynamics. Second, various types of active learning were introduced into the classroom. Of particular concern in this paper is the inclusion of experiments into the lecture portion of the class. These experiments are described in this paper, and assessment results from the two sections of dynamics are presented and discussed. It was found that the students reacted very favorably to the experiments, as seen by a comparison of pre-, post-, and longitudinal surveys. It was also seen that experiments where students actually touched and performed the experiments were perceived as more valuable to the students compared with experiments performed by the instructor.

Ferri, A.A. and Ferri, B.H., “Blended Learning in a Rigid-Body Dynamics Course Using On-Line Lectures and Hands-On Experiments,” 2016 ASEE Conference and Exposition, New Orleans, LA, June 26-29, 2016. Winner of Best Paper Award from the ASEE Mechanics Division.

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Multidisciplinary Vertically Integrated Project (VIP) Teams at the University of Hawaii: Challenges and Synergy

The Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Program is characterized by large, multidisciplinary teams of undergraduate and graduate students focused on long-term research problems aligned with the faculty mentor's field of interest. In terms of methodology, it follows a project-based cohort approach to education where students can potentially work on the same project over multiple years and with a familiar group of students. One of the challenges in running a VIP team is the multidisciplinary aspect. This paper discusses the challenges associated with transitioning traditionally discipline-siloed projects to multidisciplinary projects using VIP as the catalyst. Said another way, we describe the ongoing lessons learned of changing the mindset of students (and faculty) from "You're electrical engineering, I'm mechanical engineering'' to "We're engineering." In Fall 2015, the VIP Program at the University of Hawai'i consisted of six VIP teams: three composed primarily of EE students, one composed of ME students, and two with a mix of engineering students. The latter two teams are used as case studies to test our theories for incorporating multidisciplinary VIP teams into existing curricula. A desired outcome of this investigation will be elucidating a best-practices approach for VIP teams across disciplines, including electrical, computer, mechanical, and civil engineering. This includes how to initiate formation of such groups, how to handle curriculum challenges between the programs, and how to handle the needs of the students within this educational program. Ultimately, we hope to develop learning in a multidisciplinary design environment that also fulfills the requirements of a degree in engineering, to the benefit of all the students involved, regardless of major.

A. Trimble, W. Shiroma, D. Garmire, and A. Ohta, “Multidisciplinary Vertically Integrated Project (VIP) Teams at the University of Hawaii: Challenges and Synergy,” 2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings, Jun. 2016.

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Vertically Integrated Projects: Improving the Overall University Competition Experience

Beginning in 2009, Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) courses have been implemented at Georgia Tech. These VIP classes allow undergraduate students to receive academic credit for participating on teams that further faculty research efforts. The teams are multidisciplinary, vertically integrated, and long-term. Participation on these teams has been shown to help students develop an understanding of project timelines, and effective project communication, while gaining other applicable real-world experience. EcoCAR 3 is the latest in a series of Advanced Vehicle Technology Competitions (AVTCs) sponsored by the Department of Energy since 1988. At Georgia Tech, the EcoCAR 3 team has been structured using the VIP program to improve the all-around experience of faculty members and graduate and undergraduate students. Based on Georgia Tech’s previous experience in EcoCAR 1, the team leadership hoped to increase participation of undergraduate students, improve collaboration between students and faculty members, and raise retention levels. The team has shown improvements in each of these categories through implementation of the VIP program. Some of the primary challenges that the team experienced during the first year of competition are also presented here, along with plans for further improvement in future years of the competition.

G. D. Chipman and T. F. Fuller, “Vertically Integrated Projects: Improving the Overall University Competition Experience,” ASME 2015 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, vol. 5, Nov. 2015.

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The Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Program – Leveraging Faculty Research Interests to Transform Undergraduate STEM Education

We compare the implementations and success of VIP Programs at five different institutions by a variety of criteria, including: origin and type of implementation strategy; number of disciplines involved; type of institution; implementation in the curriculum; resources and support available; growth of the program; grading/assessment strategy and tools; relationship with other design programs; software tools for program administration; and number of students and faculty involved. While programmatic variations and support have a marked effect on the success of VIP at each institution, its implementation in the curriculum and the ease of scheduling and timetabling teams stand out as two of the most important issues for every VIP site. The common slow pace of curricular change and the variability of curricular implementations across disciplines and institutions are two of the key issues being addressed by the VIP Consortium that has recently been formed. It will enable the development and sharing of ideas, processes, and software tools for improving, growing and evaluating VIP programs at all Consortium sites. Its overall goal is systemic reform of STEM education.

E.J. Coyle, J.V. Krogmeier, R.T. Abler, A. Johnson, S. Marshall and B.E. Gilchrist, “The Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Program – Leveraging Faculty Research Interests to Transform Undergraduate STEM Education,” Proceedings of the Transforming Institutions: 21st Century Undergraduate STEM Education Conference, Indianapolis IN, Oct. 23-24, 2014. Book chapter adapted from article: E.J. Coyle, J.V. Krogmeier, R.T. Abler, A. Johnson, S. Marshall and B.E. Gilchrist, “The Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Program: Leveraging Faculty Research Interests to Transform Undergraduate STEM Education,” Chapter in Transforming Institutions: Undergraduate STEM Education for the 21st Century, edited by G.C. Weaver, W.D. Burgess, A.L. Childress, and L. Slakey; Purdue University Press, West Lafayette, IN 2015; pp. 223-234.

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The Framework on Innovative Engineering

Leaders in industry and government call today for the development of innovative or entrepreneurial behavior and skills in engineers. (Innovative is defined in this paper as including commercial execution and/or entrepreneurial behavior.) Defining the critical characteristics of an innovative engineer in the different stages of the innovation process (or the Framework for Innovative Engineering, or Framework) was the goal of a team of 14 engineers, entrepreneurs, and engineering faculty who participated in two focus group discussions on how successful innovative engineers behave during the innovative process. The first focus group discussion was held in October 2012 during the NSF-sponsored Epicenter retreat at Stanford’s Sierra Camp. The second focus group discussion was sponsored by the NCIIA and was held for two days in Atlanta, Georgia at Georgia Tech in June 2013, following the annual ASEE meeting. The research question discussed at those two meetings was: What are the most important characteristics (knowledge, skills, or attributes) of an innovative engineer in discovering, developing and implementing and sustaining an improvement in a new or novel, product, process, or concept? The purpose of this paper is to document and share the processes used and the resulting definitions and identification of innovative engineering characteristics that were developed during those two Framework focus group discussions.

D. M. Ferguson, W. C. Newstetter, E. Fisher, P. Gangopadhyay, J. E. Cawthorne, S. S. Condoor, E. J. Coyle, D. Wroblewski, and C. Huellstrunk, “The Framework on Innovative Engineering,” 2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Indianapolis IN, Jun. 2014.

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Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) @ the University of Strathclyde: How to enhance the student and staff learning experience through VIP

The purpose of this paper is to outline and share with the wider academic community the experience of developing and implementing Vertically Integrated Projects at the University of Strathclyde during their pilot phase. In turn, we consider the results of a preliminary evaluation, paying particular attention to the effects on the student learning experience (and to a lesser extent the academic staff) and illustrate how those results and our own observations have been used to identify constraints in VIP development and expansion, in addition to those critical factors which have contributed to their success. We conclude with a reflective statement on "moving forward" in the hope that others will be inspired to follow suit.

I. Bell, A. Johnston, and C. Woolmer, "Vertically integrated projects (VIP) @ the University of Strathclyde : how to enhance the student and staff learning experience through VIP," 10th Enhancement Themes Conference, June 11-13, 2013.

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Managing for the Triple Bottom Line in Project-Based Learning

Project-based learning is a popular engineering education approach that involves at least three stakeholders: students, faculty, and an external client. But more often than not, one or more of these parties have to compromise their goals in the interest of the learning experience. This discourages stakeholders and threatens the sustainability of project-based learning programs. This paper defines the objectives of the stakeholders that engage in project-based learning, defining the triple bottom line that a project-based learning experience should aim to fulfill if it wishes to be sustainable.

The iTransport team at the Georgia Institute of Technology is one of many Vertically Integrated Projects that seeks to implement meaningful technology applications for real-life clients through a multidisciplinary, multi-ranked student group. The paper further presents a case study of the first four semesters of the iTransport team, highlighting that expectation management, management of team dynamics and keeping the triple bottom line front of mind through good project management principles is essential to addressing the triple bottom line.

N. Viljoen, “Managing for the Triple Bottom Line in Project-Based Learning," 42nd International Conference on Computers and Industrial Engineering, Cape Town, South Africa, July 16-18, 2012.

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The Social Web of Engineering Education: Knowledge Exchange in Integrated Project Teams

Engineering education is evolving to become an environment of project-based learning, research assistantships, and other mechanisms that approximate the research and collaborative aspects of true-to-life processes. From this diverse set of learning environments, students are expected to not only gain technical skills, but also social and group skills relevant to the realities of collaborative work in engineering. This expectation is in turn underscored by ABET accreditation standards, which extend beyond simply technical skills to include the development and learning of professional skills. In this paper, we ask: From an instructional perspective, how can learning outcomes be better observed so that faculty can provide appropriate guidance and occasional control? What are the sources of this diversity of learning within student groups? How do the ways that engineering students interact in team network environments matter for the skills that they develop through this experience? Scholars working in the science of learning argue that peer relations form a social context of knowledge creation that constitutes a foundation for the development of team skills. In this paper, we show how peer relations develop, and subsequently provide knowledge and learning resources within multi-ranked student teams over time. The data in this paper are based on a multi-year evaluation of the NSF-funded Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Program at two institutions. The VIP Program brings together graduate and undergraduate students to solve applied engineering problems. Results show different patterns of knowledge-seeking and exchange behavior across student groups. These results show that technical knowledge sources are distinct from project management and related information needs. Most interestingly, results show that knowledge exchange does not maintain its hierarchy. Undergraduate students develop their own information communities within teams, including regarding technical information. These results have important implications for the management of teams that include a range of students and expertise.

J. Melkers, A. Kiopa, R.T. Abler, E.J. Coyle, J.M. Ernst, J.V. Krogmeier, and A. Johnson, “The Social Web of Engineering Education: Knowledge Exchange in Integrated Project Teams," Proceedings of the 2012 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, San Antonio, TX, June 10-13, 2012.

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Team-based Software/System Development in a Vertically Integrated, Project-Based Course

We use per-student virtual machines to allow new students to configure servers, thus enabling them to develop an understanding of the complex eStadium system. The outcomes include student learning as the per-student virtual machines progress into software development and production machines supporting the eStadium game-day environment; the teamwork and leadership skills that evolve as students progress from initial learning to leadership roles in the creation of sophisticated applications; guidelines for instructors mentoring students through the process of building and maintaining a working production system; and parallels with best-practice software and system development in industry. The use of peer-evaluations and social-network studies enable us to determine how the students interact with and learn from each other across years (sophomores through seniors). This cross-year, cross-experience-level learning process is essential for maintaining the technical and team continuity of the project. It also prepares students in a very realistic way for the software development process in industry.

R. Abler, E.J. Coyle, A. Kiopa, and J. Melkers, “Team-based Software/System Development in a Vertically Integrated, Project-Based Course," Proceedings of the 41'st Annual ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, Rapid City, SD, Oct. 12-15, 2011.

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On Project-Based Learning through the Vertically Integrated Projects Program

Georgia Tech's Colleges of Engineering and Computing initiated the Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) program in January 2009. Undergraduate students that join VIP teams earn academic credit for participating in design efforts that assist faculty and graduate students with research and development issues in their technical areas. The teams are multidisciplinary, drawing students from around the university; vertically integrated, maintaining a mix of sophomores through PhD students each semester; and long-term, enabling each undergraduate student to participate in a project for up to six semesters. We describe the Video and Image Annotation VIP (VIA-VIP) project, which provides undergraduates unique opportunities to learn and apply state-of-the-art video-mining algorithms by processing a large archive of football videos recorded from GT football games. Their results are documented. Based on their feedback we believe the VIA-VIP course is on track to meet the needs of undergraduates in areas they don't usually see in the traditional undergraduate classroom.

M. Baxter, B. Byun, E.J. Coyle, T. Dang, T. Dwyer, I. Kim, C.-H. Lee, R. Llewallyn, and N. Sephus, “On Project-Based Learning through the Vertically Integrated Projects Program," Proceedings of the 41'st Annual ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, Rapid City, SD, Oct. 12-15, 2011.

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Enabling and Evaluating Collaboration of Distributed Teams with High-Definition Collaboration Systems

The Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) program creates and supports large-scale, long-term, vertically-integrated teams that pursue design projects embedded in the research efforts of faculty and their graduate students. The undergraduates on these teams earn academic credit for their participation in the projects and benefit from long-term mentorship by the faculty, graduate students, and more experienced undergraduates on their team. In this paper, we report on a unique opportunity for VIP teams at Purdue and Georgia Tech to collaborate on a common VIP project called eStadium. The goal of this project is research, design, and deployment of applications related to the real-time delivery of multimedia content over wireless networks to fans' mobile devices in a stadium during football games. To help the teams collaborate to achieve this goal, we have deployed High-Definition Distributed Collaboration (HDDC) systems at Purdue and Georgia Tech. They support two-way, high-definition video links and shared computer applications that together significantly enhance the teams’ collaboration on the project. The VIP Program benefits from a multi-methodological and longitudinal evaluation of progress toward goals and VIP outcomes. The evaluation blends rich interview-based qualitative data with a detailed social network analysis of student-level collaborative interaction and outcomes. The approach draws from studies of scientific collaboration, student learning outcomes, and social network analysis. This paper presents baseline evaluation data on early learning outcomes, student expectations, and the structure and resources of the student VIP networks. The lessons learned from this initial round of assessments will be used to improve both VIP and the collaborative system.

R. Abler, J.V. Krogmeier, A. Ault, J. Melkers, T. Clegg, and E.J. Coyle, “Enabling and Evaluating Collaboration of Distributed Teams with High Definition Collaboration Systems,” Proceedings of the 2010 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Louisville, KY, June 20-23, 2010.

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The Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Program in ECE at Purdue: Fully Integrating Undergraduate Education and Graduate Research

The Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Program is an engineering education program that operates in a research and development context. Undergraduate students that join VIP teams earn academic credit for their participation in design efforts that assist faculty and graduate students with research and development issues in their areas of technical expertise. The teams are multidisciplinary, drawing students from across engineering; vertically-integrated, maintaining a mix of sophomores through PhD students each semester; and long-term, enabling each undergraduate student to participate in a project for up to seven semesters and each graduate student to participate for the duration of their graduate career. The continuity, technical depth, and disciplinary breadth of these teams enable the completion of projects of significant benefit to faculty members’ research programs.

E.J. Coyle, J.P. Allebach, and J. Garton Krueger, “The Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Program in ECE at Purdue: Fully Integrating Undergraduate Education and Graduate Research,” Proceedings of the 2006 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Chicago, IL, June 18-21, 2006.

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The Development and eStadium Testbeds for the Research and Development of Wireless Services for Large-scale Sports Venues

We provide an overview of two closely related testbeds, a development testbed located in the CWSA wireless lab and the unique eStadium testbed located in Purdue’s Ross-Ade Football Stadium. In the development testbed we have studied such high-bandwidth, delay-sensitive applications as on-demand streaming of video clips to a large number of wireless clients. This includes optimizing video streaming performance in wireless settings and characterizing the relationship between wireless LAN channel conditions and user-perceived quality. The lessons learned in this development testbed have been scaled up into the fully operational eStadium testbed in Purdue’s Ross-Ade Stadium. This large-scale “Living Lab” enables measurements of football fans’ use of and experiences with wireless devices to access infotainment content during Purdue football games. These measurements, some of which are summarized in this paper, have led to further research issues that are being addressed in the development lab. These include selective broadcast and multicasting of video clips to enable services to a very large number of wireless clients.

X. Zhong, H.-H. Chan, T.-J. Rogers, C. Rosenberg, and E. J. Coyle, “The Development and eStadium Testbeds for the Research and Development of Wireless Services for Large-scale Sports Venues,” 2nd International IEEE/Create-Net Conference on Testbeds and Research Infrastructures for the Development of Networks and Communities: TridentCom 2006, Barcelona, March 1-3, 2006.

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eStadium: A Wireless “Living Lab” for Safety and Infotainment Applications

We propose an application framework that supports safety and security applications and emergency-response procedures via integration and inter-operability of sensor networks and wireless LANs. Such a network structure can take advantage of the computational and communication heterogeneity of different devices when the system is carefully designed and optimized. The proposed wireless network, sensor system, and application framework will be integrated with and support an already functioning 802.1 lb. wireless network in the stadium. This existing network supports the delivery of a variety of multi-media applications, such as on-demand unicast of video clips of game highlights, to fans' portable wireless devices. The resulting dual-use system will be more economical and more capable than two separate systems.

X. Zhong and E. J. Coyle, “eStadium: A Wireless “Living Lab” for Safety and Infotainment Applications,” ChinaCom 2006, Beijing, China, Oct 25-27, 2006.

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