Students will gain numerous marketable skills by pursuing this certificate. All students will gain fundamental leadership and management, project planning, and quantitative decision making skills and tools. Additionally, all students are required to take SIME 6530 Engineering Project Management. This course prepares students to become a Certified Associate in Program Management from the Project Management Institute. If the student selects the elective SIME 6400 Fundamentals of Systems Engineering as an elective, they will be prepared to earn the Associate Systems Engineering Professional from the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE).
ABET, the international engineering accrediting body, allows one program to be accredited by name at each institution.
Student Learning Outcomes
The following learning outcomes of the GCEM will be formally assessed. The assessment plan for the program as a whole is in the next section.
1. Describe leadership and management theories and applications
This student learning outcome will be assessed in SIME 6500 - Engineering Leadership and Management. The assumption is that the majority of GCEM students have had no formal training in management or leadership styles or methods. The goal is to provide the students with a broad range of knowledge so that the student can develop their own leadership and management style. Thus, the goal is not to demonstrate a skill, but rather for the students to have a wide exposure to a variety of leadership styles and methods.
2. Develop plans to manage projects relative to scope, time and budget
This student learning outcome will be assessed in SIME 6530 - Engineering Project Management. This course deals with project management scope, time and budget.
3. Apply and analyze probabilistic/statistical models for informed decision making
This student learning outcome will be assessed in both SIME 6000 Analytics for Systems Management and SIME 6050 Operations Research for Systems. SIME 6000 deals with statistical hypothesis testing and regression, while SIME 6050 covers discrete and continuous time Markov chains. Both classes have at least a third of the class dealing with probabilistic or statistical models with the purpose of making informed decisions.
4. Apply and analyze optimization models for informed decision making
This student learning outcome will be assessed in both SIME 6000 Analytics for Systems Management and SIME 6050 Operations Research for Systems. SIME 6000 teaches heuristical optimization, and SIME 6050 covers linear, integer and nonlinear programming. Both classes have at least a third of the class dealing with optimization models and tools.
5. Show a breadth and depth of Engineering Management knowledge beyond core Engineering Management topics
Students are required to take 6 hours of courses related to Engineering Management. There is limited number of electives. These classes are intended to provide additional breadth in engineering management knowledge.
6. Employ ethical considerations in Engineering Management topics and decision making
This student learning outcome will be assessed in SIME 6530 - Engineering Project Management. SIME 6530 has a section on ethics in project management and projects have an expectation of dealing with ethical issues in project management.
Program Assessment
The GCEM is assessed through courses. Having 90% of students that earn the equivalent of a B or better on the assessed homework, case study, project or test will be sufficient to show acceptable student learning outcomes for the program. The instructor will be required to submit a report to the GCEM director within a month of the completion of the course. The report describes the instructor's assessment method and numerical results. The reports will have a standard format and have the following sections.
1. The homework, projects, exam questions or other methods that the instructor used to assess the particular student learning outcomes.
2. A rationale for why the instructor believes that the assessed assignment accurately represents the students’ knowledge of the particular student learning outcome.
3. The number of students enrolled in the course, the number of students earning a B or better on only the assessed items, and the percent of students earning a B or better on the assessed items.
4. A discussion about the student’s performance regarding the student learning outcomes. This should section should include suggestions for improvements. Some common improvements may include spending a different amount of lecture time, requiring a different amount of student experience on a particular topic, recommending changes to prerequisite knowledge or including any other items that could lead to program improvement and better student learning.
Annually, the Director of Engineering Management Programs is responsible to gather the data from the instructors. Once the data is gathered, the Director of Engineering Management Programs will convene at least 3 faculty teaching MEM topics. These individuals will evaluate all of the assessment data, including summaries of the past 6 years of data. The individuals will provide recommendations, whether or not existing problems have been resolved, and the general trend of the student learning in the program.
At the conclusion of this assessment meeting, the Director of Engineering Management Programs is responsible to write an annual report summarizing the discussions and recommendations from the meeting. It is vitally important that any issues are tracked from year to year. Any items that are below the program assessment levels need to tracked for several years in the reports. This will allow the program to track its performance through years and to determine the impact of program changes.
The Director of Engineering Management Programs is also responsible to convey any suggestions or recommendations from the annual assessment meeting both the relevant faculty and in some cases to the faculty in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. If suggestions relate to the curriculum, the Director of Engineering Management Programs will be responsible to develop proposals to change/modify the curriculum or courses. Such proposals will need to follow the typical university procedures, which include departmental, college and Faculty Senate approvals.