An Innovative Approach To Engineering Education

July 16, 2012

President of Olin Richard Miller (Tostie14/flickr)

Part of an occasional series of conversations with the leaders from colleges around New England

The Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in Needham is just 10 years old. It was created to address two related crises: that America is not graduating enough talented engineers, and it may be the very nature of engineering education that’s driving the most talented minds away from the field.

The Olin Foundation is an educational foundation that had spent the previous 60 years giving away money for established campuses to build new buildings.

But in 1993, they decided to build an entirely new school and educational model, from the ground up. And in 2002, Olin College welcomed its first class.

The school is interdisciplinary to its core — there are no academic departments and no tenure for faculty. Students dive into projects, not abstract theory, from day one. As Olin President Richard Miller said, “the college is creating engineers who are ‘comfortable as citizens and not just calculating machines.’”

Guests:

Richard K. Miller, Ph.D., president of Olin College

Other stories from this show:

EL

Frustration! That is what I felt after hearing your piece on Olin College. Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has taken an innovation approach to engineering education since 1865 with its focus on “theory and practice.” In 1970, it developed “The Plan” (http://www.wpi.edu/academics/catalogs/ugrad/wpiplan.html) which changed traditional rigidly egineering curriculum with an exciting and project based curriculum. Even the SCOPE project that you talk about Olin having has been done at WPI for years. Students do both two smilar projects. A Master Qualifying Project (MQP) is a captstone project students do in their major and is usually completed out in a company that pays for the project. In their Interactive Qualifying Project (IQP) students work in cross-functional teams to sovle a problem that combines technology for the good of socitety. Students have worked on problems like how to save Frescos in Venice from further water damage to solving housing and water problems for poor communities in Namibia. Students at WPI learn to be global citizens who care about the world and those in it. WPI has also been important in STEM education, even winning awards for helping bring more women into the STEM fields.

I would love to see Boston news look beyond the 95 loop for the many resources that exist in Massachusetts.
- Mary
  
  What I got from the short story was the difference between most engineering colleges,( I’m going to assume WPI goes into that group) and Ohlin is that most engineering professors have never worked in companies- they’ve only worked on campuses. There’s also no tenure for Faculty. There are no academic departments. I also note Mr. Miller’s comment’s about being marginalized by an engineering school (MIT)/ I’ve known many engineers who don’t take anyone seriously except for other engineers. That speaks to a certain mind set.
- Jared Kirschner
  
  I think that frustration is not the appropriate response here. The goal is not to convince everyone else that your particular school of choice is the best school. There is no need to get defensive about hearing praise of another school, even if the school in question sounds very similar to your school of choice. For example, I am sure that graduates from many different engineering schools would say that “at (my school), we learn to be global citizens who care about the world and those in it”, including Olin. Yes, I agree, it sounds like WPI does some really cool things, and I’d love to hear more about them.
  
  If the goal is to create an educational environment which produces people with the skills and mindset necessary to improve the global society, why do we have to compete? As one of my teacher’s has taught me, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” Let’s collaborate.
DK

It’s too bad Megna didn’t realize that WPI’s engineering model is very similar. Perhaps then she might have asked Richard Miller to compare and contrast the two programs. My son is looking at both and is thinking that he’ll get a great, hands-on, project-based engineering experience at both schools but at WPI he’ll ALSO get to be part of a diverse campus (versus the two buildings and two dorms that make up Olin). So what makes Olin better except its smallness, which is a negative to some kids. I’d love to have heard Mr. Miller’s take on this.
CM

An Engineering Professor at another college and the father of a young lady looking into Engineering as a major, I have to say that Olin College was unlike any other college my daughter considered. You really have to visit Olin to understand how different it is. While they are a small school, due to their agreements with Babson, Brandeis, and Wellesley colleges, they have a very diverse community and opportunities well beyond their own size. The programs at WPI were much more “traditional engineering” in nature, although they do an outstanding job of bringing projects and Co-op work into their programs. My daughter has shown interest in both schools, but I would guess that the faculty and environment at Olin would sway her in that direction. While it wouldn’t be for every student, I wish Olin well in their efforts to enhance the engineering education process and I’m glad their efforts were highlighted here.

I do hope Meghna will meet with WPI’s President later in this series. One amazing thing I have learned over this college selection process for my daughter is that there are some amazing colleges in New England. We are very fortunate in that regard.
- DK
  
  It looks like we are in similar situations! My son did visit the campus and was initially very attracted to this program. His attraction diminished after he visited WPI. So that’s why I would have loved to hear a comparison. I agree wholeheartedly with you regarding the quality of schools in our area. We are SO lucky!!
Meghna Chakrabarti

Thank you everyone for your comments. I will certainly add WPI to my list of colleges to visit in this ongoing series.

My biggest impression of Olin was that the school is applying innovative thinking across its entire mission. It’s not just co-ops and interdisciplinary education, but a school with no departments, no faculty tenure, courses that blend multiple fields in a way that doesn’t bias any particular field. Also, Olin seems to emphasize communication as well. Students have to give major talks to their peers at least twice a year.

I completely acknowledge that Olin isn’t the only school doing these things. As people here have mentioned, WPI has integrated its curriculum. The d-school at Stanford is also pushing forward on long term, multidisciplinary team learning. But, have any of these schools emphasized educational innovation to the degree where they’ve eliminated faculty tenure? Not that I know of.

I’m not celebrating Olin above any other school. Higher education as a whole is undergoing significant change right now. There is much to be discussed and explored, and I look forward to visiting many other campuses in our region. As you’ve noted, there are many great ones here. It’ll keep me busy for quite some time!
- Meghna Chakrabarti
  
  By the way, as an engineering grad myself, I welcome any innovation in how we teach students this most essential of professions!
Mary Morgan

What a wonderful interviewer you are! As parents of an Olin graduate we felt you did a great job of interviewing President Miller and getting at the essence of what an Olin education means . Our son went on to work for a large corporation and is now an entrepreneur and will receive his Master’s degree from WPI this year. He chose Olin over his acceptances at Cal Tech, Stanford and all the University of California engineering schools. He credits Olin in large part for his success.
Olin parent and proud

Our son went to Olin and it gave him a great experience–he was motivated by the stimulation of other minds bent on creativity, not by the pressure of trying to survive first year maths courses as one of 250 or more in a section as at one very well known engineering school in the area. Because there are no grad students at Olin, the courses are all prof all the time, and the profs have teaching the students as their main goal. It’s mentorship, academic leadership, and as importantly, intellectual rigor when many of these kids are used to being the brightest and, frankly, didn’t always work at 80 % in high school, let alone 100%. At Olin they work hard but it’s because they want to. It also is a very team/group oriented place, which is good for nurturing leaders who lead groups, not brilliant individuals conducting leadership of themselves. Like many, our son turned down the top 8 engineering schools in the country and doensn’t regret it. It’s not for everyone, but it was certainly great for him.
Olin Parent and Proud

I should also mention that from it’s inception, Olin has had a higher percentage of women and students of color than other leading engineering schools. It’s not perfect–it needs way more students of hispanic and African American origin–but it’s aware of it and everyone–from administrators to professors–is looking at how to get more of such students, not smirking derisively at the concept as happens unfortunately at many faculty lounges. There are many oportunities for extracurricular interchanges with students at MIT, Tufts, not just the “neighborhood” colleges–though Babson and Wellsley are pretty classy neighbors! But the big difference is the atmosphere–it’s rather like being selected to be among an extremely well sieved group of the best of the brightest, like Bell Labs, RCA or Xerox in they heydays–and being given opportunities and resources because there are no grad students to compete with. For the student who is conflicted because the name doesn’t have the “wow” effect with the general public,* I’d say save the Cal Tech or MIT for grad school.
*among those who are at the cutting edge of engineering it’s Olin that has the wow effect.
Bev Munsing

As parents we encourage any extremely bright high school
student to seriously consider Olin.   Our
son was accepted at all of the top
engineering schools in the country, and chose Olin above all of them, including
Cal Tech and MIT.     Olin was a
wonderfully nurturing school for extremely bright engineers. The students get to personally know top
professors from across the country who are now at Olin. Our son has continued contact with a number
of them after his graduation.   What
was
particularly delightful is that he met other students up to his academic
level,
but in a less cut throat atmosphere than we expected from MIT or Cal
Tech. He continues to vacation with school friends, and friends from
the associated Wellesley and Babson colleges, although they are
scattered across the country He attributes much of his professional and monetary success to his education at Olin.
Dan Kiser

We are parents of a 2010 Olin grad and couldn’t be happier with the education our daughter received. She’s currently doing fluids research as a civilian employee of the Navy and like every Olin grad I’ve heard about, she had no problem receiving job offers. Though the school is new, Olin is rapidly establishing a reputation with employers as a great source for innovative engineers who know how to work with people to get a job done.

Hosts Meghna Chakrabarti and Anthony Brooks introduce us to newsmakers, big thinkers and artists and bring us stories of relevance to Bostonians here and around the region. Live every weekday at 3.

Listen: Weekdays, 3 p.m. on 90.9 FM
Live Call-In: (800) 423-TALK
Listener Voicemail: (617) 358-0607

Think Money Can't Buy Happiness?

An Innovative Approach To Engineering Education