The Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE) will receive one of three 2007 University Exemplary Department Award at ceremonies to be held Tuesday, Nov. 27 at The Inn at Virginia Tech.
Presented annually since 1994, the University Exemplary Department Award recognizes the work of departments or programs that maintain a first class teaching and learning environment for students and faculty. This year, the awards were presented to departments that developed and sustained innovative and effective departmental approaches to advising at the undergraduate and/or graduate levels.
"The Exemplary Department Award program is one of the most important recognition programs we do because it acknowledges the collaborative efforts and successes of teams of dedicated colleagues," said Ron Daniel, associate provost for undergraduate education, who oversees the awards program. "These group efforts make the university stronger, and benefit the students we all seek to serve."
The more than 350 undergraduates in ISE are served by a comprehensive system of advising strategies supported by faculty, staff, and administrators. As one senior wrote in nominating the department for the Exemplary Award, ISE is "almost like a family, where everyone tries their hardest to help everyone else succeed."
Undergraduate advising in ISE is led by Eileen Van Aken, associate department head and undergraduate program director, and Joyce Vest, academic and career advisor. Since Vest came to ISE in 2005, she and Van Aken, with the aid of the department’s Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, have revamped their traditional advising and assessment tools and developed new methods of communicating with students.
The group re-designed the ISE graduation checksheet — used as a course planning guide — to more clearly define prerequisites, required courses, and electives. Another primary advising tool, the ISE Undergraduate Handbook, is updated and distributed annually.
In addition to providing critical information to undergraduates, the department uses several methods to obtain direct student feedback. The annual ISE Undergraduate Student Survey solicits students’ perceptions of the industrial engineering capabilities they have learned in their courses and of their satisfaction with undergraduate program components, including teaching and advising. The survey, now distributed to all undergraduates rather than just seniors, is used to identify program and curriculum improvements.
In early 2007, ISE held its first "town hall" meeting to provide two-way communication and networking opportunities for students and faculty. Town hall meetings are now being held each fall semester.
The department also recently launched the ISE Ambassador Program. Sixteen students were selected to represent ISE at open houses and recruiting events, to provide input on electives and curriculum, and to help update recruiting materials.
With the department’s support, ISE undergraduates are among the most active nationally in their professional organizations — the Institute of Industrial Engineers; Human Factors and Ergonomics Society; and Alpha Pi Mu, the industrial engineering honor society.
Rounding out the undergraduate experience is the role faculty play in leading students in hands-on learning. The ISE 4994 Undergraduate Research course provides opportunities to work with faculty on research projects, and the number of students participating in research has doubled. In the required ISE capstone senior design courses, faculty advise student project teams and work collaboratively on real-world problems submitted each year by outside companies.
Don Taylor, ISE department head, summed up the re-invigorated undergraduate advising strategy: "We solicit input from many constituencies, we take the input very seriously, we utilize it to make improvements, we measure our progress toward our goals, and we always put the student first."
At the Nov. 27 awards ceremony, Provost Mark McNamee will present a plaque and a $20,000 award to Taylor on behalf of ISE, and a plaque and $10,000 awards to both Kimberly Brown, director of the University Academic Advising Center, and LuAnn R. Gaskill, professor and head of the Department of Apparel, Housing, and Resource Management, on behalf of their respective programs.
A complete list of past Exemplary Department Award winners (http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/story.php?relyear=2007&itemno=658), along with the theme of the award for each year, is available online.