The College of Engineering aims to make innovation in teaching and promotion of STEM learning and workforce development a priority area. Sponsors range from the National Science Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Department of Defense.

Student Space Exploration & Embedded Systems Laboratory

Faculty: Dr. John Helferty
Sponsor: Penn State University/Space Grant Consortium

The aim is to graduate or undergraduate/graduate students that will engage the students in STEM disciplines in both NASA-related activities and aerospace industry. Tracking students post graduation will be the main measurable metric and will be done by maintaining contact for several years post graduation via alumni associate contacts and longitudinal tracking through Space Grant. Additional focus is for engaging high school students in a university engineering college so as to educate them for careers in STEM related fields. Tracking students post high school graduation to see if they indeed enter Higher Education in a STEM related field.

Eclipse Ballooning Project

Faculty: Dr. John Helferty
Sponsor: Penn State University/Space Grant Consortium

Undergraduate students conducted high altitude balloon (HAB) flights from 15-20 locations across the 8/21/2017 total eclipse path, from Oregon to South Carolina, sending live video and images from near space to the NASA website. Under the umbrella of the Space Exploration and Embedded System Lab (SSEESL) at Temple University, four seniors and two juniors, along with faculty adviser Dr. John Helferty, participated in the NASA sponsored Eclipse Ballooning Project. This also included a Eclipse Ballooning Project workshop for the students in Bozeman, MT at the project lead site at the Montana State University campus to learn how to build and test common live camera payloads, in-flight tracking system and ground station, get an overview the eclipse ballooning effort and goals, build collaboration between nationwide teams, field ideas for secondary payloads and test a flight with the entire basic eclipse project kit.

Using Immersion to improve needs assessment and design in mid-career undergraduate engineering students

Faculty: Dr. Ruth Ochia
Sponsor: National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering

We propose to introduce and reinforce Design Thinking concepts throughout the entire 4-year bioengineering undergraduate curriculum. Specifically, we propose to reinforce the concepts of Design Thinking in “mid-career” sophomore and junior undergraduate bioengineering students via innovative didactic course work based on a combination of clinical and industrial summer immersion experiences. The long-term goal for this team- based project is to improve student preparedness to enter the workforce, or pursue post-baccalaureate education, if desired, and thrive in our ever-changing global economy.