IUSE/PFE:RED: Reinventing the Instructional and Departmental Enterprise (RIDE) to Advance the Professional Formation of Electrical and Computer Engineers

电子和计算机工程（ECE）技术已经从简单的电子和计算设备和工具发展到复杂的系统，深刻地改变了我们生活的世界。设计这些复杂的系统不仅需要技术知识和技能，还需要新的思维方式和社会、专业和道德责任的发展。通过RIDE项目，爱荷华州立大学电气与计算机工程系让学生、教师、工程师和其他人员参与到协作、探究驱动的过程中，共同、系统地改变该部门及其培养的工程师。学生不仅要在大二和大三（中期）的核心课程中学习基础的ECE技术，还要学习超越硬件和软件的社会技术背景，走向负责任的开发。学生们正在扩展他们的分析和设计技能，以创造适用于个人和社会的解决方案。为了实现这些目标，教师们正在使用基于证据的教学策略重塑核心课程，并共同努力提高他们对这些策略的理解和整合。这项工作是通过新的协作结构来完成的，并通过部门变革进程加以促进。该项目有望推动整个院系的学术教学和教育研究；作为全国ECE、计算机和工程部门的示范；加强在爱荷华州立大学进行工程教育研究的能力；发展一支多样化、具有社会技术意识的欧洲经委会工作队伍；通过包容性学习经验，扩大代表性不足的群体，特别是妇女在欧洲经委会的参与。通过这个项目，欧洲经委会正在转变为一个更灵活、不那么传统的组织，能够对工业和社会的需要作出反应，并维持创新。这种转变是由该项目新颖的跨职能、协作的课程设计和专业形成教学模式（称为X-teams）推动的。x团队正在通过以下教学方法重塑欧洲经委会中期核心技术课程：(a)促进设计思维、系统思维、领导能力等专业技能和包容性；(b)使课程概念切合实际；(c)为未来的智能系统激发创造性的、具有社会技术意识的欧洲经委会技术发展。x团队还通过被称为y圈子的实践社区充当部门其他成员的变革推动者。y圈由x团队成员、教职员工、本科生和研究生组成，通过一个融合了多种记录变革理论（包括协作转型、关键对话和基本张力）的敏捷框架，为促进和维持工程教育创新的组织文化做出贡献。y型圈参与了一个发现和探究的过程，以弥合工程教育从研究到实践的差距。正在进行研究，以回答以下问题：(1)参与x团队的教育工作者如何使用设计思维来创造新的教学解决方案；(2)中期专业形成教学法对学生设计思考者专业ECE认同发展的影响；(3)欧洲经委会学生如何克服障碍，做出选择，并在他们的教育和职业道路上坚持下去；(4)院系结构、政策和程序对教师态度、动机和行动的影响。这些研究为项目活动提供了信息和改进，促进了知识的发展，并支持其他人的适应。

Electrical and computer engineering (ECE) technologies have evolved from simple electronics and computing devices and tools to complex systems that profoundly change the world we live in. Designing these complex systems requires not only technical knowledge and skills but also new ways of thinking and the development of social, professional and ethical responsibility. Through the RIDE project, the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Iowa State University is involving students, faculty, engineers and others in collaborative, inquiry-driven processes to collectively and systematically transform the department and the engineers it trains. Students are not only learning about fundamental ECE technologies in core courses during their sophomore and junior years (middle years), but also the socio-technical context to go beyond the hardware and software toward responsible development. Students are expanding their analysis and design skills to create solutions that work for individuals and society. To accomplish these goals, faculty are reshaping core curricula using evidence-based pedagogical strategies and are working together to enhance their understanding and integration of these strategies in courses. This work is being done through new structures for collaboration and facilitated through departmental change processes. The project is expected to advance scholarly teaching and education research department-wide; serve as a model for ECE, computing and engineering departments across the country; enhance the capacity to conduct engineering education research at Iowa State; develop a diverse, socio-technical-minded ECE workforce; and broaden the participation of underrepresented groups in ECE, especially women, through inclusive learning experiences.Through this project, the ECE department is undergoing a transformation to a more agile, less traditional organization able to respond to industry and society needs and sustain innovations. This transformation is being driven by the project's novel cross-functional, collaborative instructional model for course design and professional formation, called X-teams. X-teams are reshaping the core technical ECE curricula in the middle years through pedagogical approaches that (a) promote design thinking, systems thinking, professional skills such as leadership, and inclusion; (b) contextualize course concepts; and (c) stimulate creative, socio-technical-minded development of ECE technologies for future smart systems. X-teams are also serving as change agents for the rest of the department through communities of practice referred to as Y-circles. Y-circles, comprised of X-team members, faculty, staff, and undergraduate and graduate students in the department, are contributing to an organizational culture that fosters and sustains innovations in engineering education through an agile framework that blends several documented change theories, including collaborative transformation, crucial conversations, and essential tension. Y-circles are engaging in a process of discovery and inquiry to bridge the engineering education research-to-practice gap. Research studies are being conducted to answer questions to understand (1) how educators involved in X-teams use design thinking to create new pedagogical solutions; (2) how professional formation pedagogy in the middle years affects student professional ECE identity development as design thinkers; (3) how ECE students overcome barriers, make choices, and persist along their educational and career paths in the middle years; and (4) the effects of department structures, policies, and procedures on faculty attitudes, motivation and actions. These studies are informing and improving project activities, advancing knowledge, and supporting adaptation by others.