VaNTH Engineering Research Center

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VaNTH Engineering Research Center
for Bioengineering Educational Technologies
Student Leadership Council Update
Presented by Diane Muratore April 13, 2000
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SLC Members
Chair Diane Muratore Secretary Bryan
Schulze Recruiting Manager Tom Thomasson SWOT
Analysis Leader Jeff Nyquist Webmasters Hafidz
Daud Jeff Holmes NWU Contact Lorelle Falk
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VaNTH ERC Students
50 Students
24 Students
24 Students
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VaNTH SLC Website
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SWOT Analysis
Prepared by Jeff Nyquist SLC SWOT Analysis
Leader Presented by Bryan Schulze SLC Secretary
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Demographics
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Q Are you aware of the goals of our ERC?
Data

• 2/3 of students know our goals
• 1/3 of students are unsure or dont know what the
  goals are of our ERC.

Interpretation

• Lack of communication?
• Work on building an ERC community

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Q Do You Have a Good Idea How Your Project
Contributes to the Strategic Plan of the ERC?

• About 3/4 understood how their project
  contributes
• Significant number dont know how their project
  contributes to the ERC

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Strengths
Q What do you feel has been your best
experience as a participant in an ERC project?
3 Themes Emerged
Opportunity to make large scale changes in
learning environments and controlled
environments for experimental classroom
research To see the cooperation and
interaction between different universities and
departments in creating a cohesive idea of what
biomedical engineering is and how schools should
represent it Involvement in cutting edge
research
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Weaknesses
Q Is there anything you would change about the
ERC?
Data

• 5 People responded
• more communication with other schools in our
  ERC encouragement from faculty to be a part of
  the ERC
• Less administrative load from NSF. This has
  been a major source of distraction for people
  trying to make change
• I am hopeful that laboratory teaching and
  learning experience will be greatly improved
  through a new innovative method that implements
  learning technologies
• I think the ERC should involve more
  undergraduates. Further, I wish there was more
  information available about the ERC. That is, I
  dont think that undergraduates especially know
  much if anything about the ERC
• It seems a bit too soon to answer this question,
  but I will think about it

Interpretation

• Not enough knowledge about the ERC to give
  opinions
• Nothing needs to be changed because we are so new

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Opportunities
Q What do you hope to get out of your
experience with the ERC?

• Great majority of respondents are looking to gain
  skills and contribute to research in
  bioengineering.
• About 15 of respondents hope to gain career
  contacts in the ERC

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Threats
Q Please list any other major research projects
or companies you are aware of that are outside
our ERC but have the same goals

• About 90 of respondents had no response or saw
  no threats
• 1 person noted a research group in France to be
  developing basic engineering simulations

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Q How Frequent Are Your Interactions With
Faculty?
Q Are You Happy With This Frequency, or Would
You Prefer More or Fewer?

• 3 people with little or very little contact
  were content with this frequency
• The other 3 people from groups little and very
  little wanted more contact, along with one
  person with frequent interactions

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Q Rate the Quality of the Interactions with ERC
Faculty

• 16 Good, Very Good, or Excellent
• 1 Fair
• None rated faculty as Poor

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Q Would You Like a Student Event Held For Those
Involved in the ERC? What Form Would You Prefer
(Social, Presentation)?
Data

• Majority (12/15) want a student event

Interpretation

• Students responses demonstrate an interest in
  their work given that 8/15 want to participate in
  presentations

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Summary

• Our strengths are
• Quality faculty
• Interesting projects
• Involved students
• Collaborations with faculty industrial partners
• Our weaknesses are
• Communication among ERC members
• Our opportunities are
• Job contacts
• Research experience
• Skill development
• Our threats are
• Few to none (that survey exposed)
• Our SLC identified a potential threat as being
  institutional isolation