Thomas M. Regan, James W. Dally, Patrick F. Cunniff, Guangming Zhang, and Linda Schmidt
James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742, USA
E-mail: tregan@eng.umd.edu

Abstract:
In 1991 we began a major change in educating engineering students at the University of Maryland. We reversed the classical sequence of teaching mathematics, science, engineering science, and then finally design. Our teaching methods were changed dramatically from large lecture classes to small classes taught by an instructor who coaches more than lectures. The framework is extremely robust, and it has become an exportable platform for course development across the country. We believed that through re-engineering our educational programs, including the vertical integration of the product realization process throughout the curriculum, we could add sufficient value to our graduates’ educational experience that will enable them to compete in the increasingly international engineering marketplace. Among these curriculum changes within the Clark School, we selected four pivotal courses to highlight in this presentation: ENES 100 `Introduction to Engineering Design’, ENME 371 `Product Engineering and Manufacturing’, ENES 120 `Statics’ and ENES 220 `Strength of Materials’.