THE INTEGRATED TEACHING AND LEARNING LABORATORY,
UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT BOULDER - AN INTRODUCTION
Professor Dan Fambro told us about it. From the Internet
we also obtained the following information.
The new Integrated Teaching and Learning Laboratory is located
in a 34,400 sq ft hands-on learning facility that opened in January
1997. They started planning in early 1992, and got two-thirds of
the $17M funds from private donations. Hewlett-Packard Company gave
a $3M equipment grant to outfit the ITLL with computers, instrumentation
and networking. Engineers from Lockheed-Martin guided the faculty
in the use of a formal process to define the design requirements
for their revised curriculum. The focus of common fundamental engineering
concepts has been defined as: measurement and instrumentation, electronics
and microprocessors, controls, heat transfer, fluid mechanics, structures
and materials, manufacturing, and environmental engineering. These
are the topics that are needed by all undergraduate engineering
students.
In 1991, the engineering undergraduate students at the University
of Colorado had a referendum to charter the Undergraduate Excellence
Fund (UEF) to sponsor College-wide curriculum innovations. Now every
engineering student contributes $100 each semester to the UEF. A
group of students manage the $700K annual fund with the advice of
the Dean of Engineering. Half of this annual fund is committed to
the ITLL operation and the other half is awarded competitively for
curricular and laboratory innovations within the College. Students
also lobbied the Colorado Commission of Higher Education and the
state legislature to change state rules to allow a portion of the
UEF funds to be used for capital construction costs. Now they also
have more than $5M in state support of the program.
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