ONR/NSF-Sponsored Workshop: Reforming Electric Energy Systems Curriculum : 3 Workshops; 1st to be held in Wash, DC Feb 12-15 2009

多个政府机构，如能源部、爱迪生电气研究所(一个股东所有的公司协会)和各种公用事业公司都对劳动力老龄化感到担忧，并预测合格的电气工程师将严重短缺。与此同时，本科教育出现了一场危机，课程几十年来没有改变，而工业和公用事业实践却发生了变化，在某些情况下甚至发生了戏剧性的变化。全国范围内的大多数电力项目都在停滞不前、缩减规模或消失。鉴于大多数公用事业和许多行业的劳动力老龄化，这一趋势必须扭转。这项提议的目的是获得国家科学基金会的合作和资金，以继续传播明尼苏达大学开发的教育材料和方法。这些教育材料的开发以前得到了国家科学基金会的支持，目前得到了ONR的支持。请国家科学基金会提供部分参加者的旅费，以参加为开展上述宣传工作而组织的三个年度讲习班。ONR将共同主办工作坊。智力优势：这次课程改革的尝试是为了激发我们的学生，因此与目前的比率相比，更多的学生将继续研究生教育和博士研究。通过创建教学学者社区，所有教师都将有机会将研究的热情带到他们的课堂上，并可能自己进行研究，例如，通过接近他们当地的公共事业。所有学校，无论其规模和研究与教学的取向，都将被接洽，从而创造一个更大的创造力和创新池。更广泛的影响：通过讲习班推动的课程改革的目标是向全国电力能源系统的本科生提供一流的教育。无论劳动力短缺的严重程度如何，这一课程都是有效的，以广泛地培训本科生，使他们在就业选择方面能够灵活。这种对全国受过良好教育的毕业生群体的广泛影响，是通过非常有效地利用教员和助教资源而实现的。因此，从主要专注于教学的四年制大学到大型研究型大学，所有学校都可以采用这一课程。将特别努力鼓励为少数群体服务的机构参加在该项目下组织的讲习班。

Various governmental agencies such the Department of Energy, Edison Electric Institute (an association of shareholder-owned companies) and various utilities are concerned about the aging workforce and are predicting sever shortages of qualified electrical engineers. At the same, there is a crisis in the undergraduate education where the courses have not changed for decades while the industrial and utility practices have changed, in some cases dramatically. Most Electric Power Programs nationwide are stagnating, downsizing or disappearing. This is a trend that must be reversed, given the aging workforce in most utilities and many industries. The objective of this proposal is to obtain NSF collaboration and funding to continue the dissemination of the educational material and approaches developed at the University of Minnesota. The development of these educational materials was previously supported by NSF and is currently supported by ONR. NSF support is request for partial participant travel funding to attend three annual workshops organized for carrying out the above dissemination effort. ONR will be cosponsoring the workshop.Intellectual Merits: The attempt of this curricular reform is to excite our students so more of them, compared to the present rate, pursue graduate education and PhD research. By creating a Community of Teaching Scholars, all instructors will have an opportunity to bring the enthusiasm of research in their classroom and possibly carry out research themselves, for example, by approaching their local utilities. All schools, regardless of their size and research-versus-teaching orientation, will be approached, thereby creating a much larger pool for creativity and innovation. Broader Impacts: The objective of the curriculum reform being promoted through the workshops is to provide first-rate education to undergraduates in the Electrical Energy Systems nationwide. This curriculum has been developed to be effective, regardless of the severity of the workforce shortages that cannot be predicted accurately, to train undergraduates broadly so they can be flexible in their employment choices. This broad impact on well-educated pool of graduates nationwide is made possible by this curriculum by using the faculty and teaching assistant resources very effectively. Therefore, this curriculum can be adopted by the entire spectrum of schools spanning from four-year colleges that primarily focus on teaching to large research universities. A special attempt will be made to encourage minority-serving institutions to participate in the workshops organized under this project.