Board of Trustees approves creation of Department of Engineering Education

In their November 6 meeting, The Ohio State University Board of Trustees approved the establishment of the Department of Engineering Education within the College of Engineering.

The new department is built upon the groundbreaking work over the previous 15 years by faculty and researchers in the former Engineering Education Innovation Center (EEIC) through first-year engineering programs, multi-disciplinary capstone design and technical communication courses.

With the establishment of the new Department of Engineering Education, the college is better positioned to support undergraduate education as well as graduate-level research in engineering education as a growing discipline. The new department also will enable faculty to assume broader roles of leadership with its benchmark institutions, both nationally and internationally.

College of Engineering Dean David B. Williams said the new department’s creation ensures that all Ohio State engineering students will continue to receive the best possible instruction. 

“The faculty in the department will be at the cutting edge of the latest developments in educational technology, pedagogy and practice,” he added. “We join an elite group of engineering colleges across the nation who believe the education of future engineers is highly complex and its study is worthy of the awarding of higher degrees. All our faculty will benefit from interacting with our very best teachers.”

The transformation from center to department began in autumn 2013 with an ABET-style self study review, led by Professor Bob Gustafson, then director of EEIC. Upon his retirement in June 2014, Professor Ann Christy assumed the position of interim director, leading the team that wrote the proposal to establish a department. The College of Engineering faculty voted in May 2015 to accept EEIC’s proposal and to move it forward through the appropriate university committees and councils for further review. 

The American Society of Engineering Education will hold its annual conference in Columbus in June 2017.