Industry Perceptions of ERC Graduates

ERC计划的基本目的之一是改善工程本科生和研究生的教育。由于教育环境的改善和ERC提供的机会，其毕业生应该是更好的工程问题解决者，并精通工程实践的系统方面。所提出的研究将为评估ERCs在培训工程师方面的成功奠定基础。该项目将确定结果标准并建立统计上有效的抽样程序。重点将是工业界对ERC毕业生作为雇员的满意度。这项初步研究将包括一项试点调查，以测试所开发的方法，并为继续评价ERC概念的教育有效性奠定基线。本试点研究的受试者群体将是来自与ERC学校相当的非ERC大学的90名ERC毕业生的行业主管和90名类似毕业生的主管。一个会议/研讨会，包括选定的ERC和行业代表，将就与ERC毕业生有关的教育成功的定义达成共识，并完善结果声明。试点研究的重点是1987年以前设立的两个伦理研究中心的毕业生。该报告将分发给NSF工作人员、ERC主任和ECD咨询委员会。研究结果将有助于美国国家科学基金会对ERCs的监测，并有助于ERCs自身改进其教育计划。

One of the basic purposes of the ERC program is to improve the education of engineering undergraduate and graduate students. Because of the improved educational environment and opportunities offered by the ERC, its graduates should be better engineering problem solvers and well versed in the systems aspect of engineering practice. The proposed research would lay the foundation for evaluating the success of the ERCs in training engineers. The project would define outcome criteria and establish statistically valid sampling procedures. The focus would be on Industry's satisfaction with ERC graduates as employees. This preliminary study would include a pilot survey to test the methods developed and to lay a baseline for continuing evaluation of the educational effectiveness of the ERC concept. The subject population of this pilot study would be 90 industry supervisors of ERC graduates and 90 supervisors of similar graduates from a non-ERC university that is comparable to the ERC school. A conference/workshop, including selected ERC and industry representatives, would reach a consensus regarding the definition(s) of educational success as related to ERC graduates and to refine the outcome statements. The pilot study would focus on the graduates of two of the ERCs that were established prior to 1987. The report would be distributed to NSF staff, ERC Directors, and the ECD Advisory Committee. The results will be useful to NSF in monitoring the ERCs and to the ERCs themselves to improve their educational programs.