Principal Investigator Herbert Einstein
The Engineering Coalition of Schools for Excellence in Education and Leadership (ECSEL) is a coalition of seven schools (CCNY, Howard University, MIT, Morgan State University, Penn State University, University of Maryland, and the University of Washington) that have joined in a 10-year program begun in 1990 (partly funded by the National Science Foundation) to bring about radical improvements in the teaching of engineering. The overall aim is to improve the attractiveness of engineering to women and to underrepresented minorities.
UROP and graduate students as well as MIT faculty are collaborating on ECSEL programs to introduce new teaching technologies; modify existing courses to introduce "design" -- in other words, real-life projects and problems -- throughout the curriculum; and to identify and help remove blocks and biasses that form barriers to engineering for some students. In some cases, the entire curriculum has been completely revised. Dramatic improvements in several problem areas have been achieved within the coalition. At MIT, ECSEL has influenced the approach to engineering education from a predominantly analytical approach to one with a larger proportion of synthesis (design) and hardware projects.
In addition to taking subjects restructured through ECSEL, students become involved in ECSEL work through: student-leadership activities; Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) and thesis projects on the impact of engineering on women and minorities, ethics, outreach to high schools, teacher training, and on the development of new teaching technology. ECSEL also schedules regular seminars and discussion groups.