Technology Leaders Program Curriculum
The Technology Leaders Program curriculum is formalized as the Design Integration Minor, which is composed of the following elements.
1. Integrated Sequence of Courses
Second Year Courses Disciplinary Grounding
- Fall: SYS2001 Systems Engineering Concepts
- Spring: SYS2048 Introduction to Electromechanical Systems
Third Year Courses: Interdisciplinary Integration
- Fall: SYS3501: Cyper-Physical Systems
- Spring: SYS3048 Integrated Systems Design
Fourth Year Courses: Capstone
- TLP students complete 2-semester interdisciplinary capstone projects. More details below.
More about courses.
2. Take an ECE Elective
IF any of the four required TLP courses from the 2nd or 3rd year are already required for your major (which is true for Systems Engineering and Mechanical Engineering), then you also need to take an ECE elecive. The ECE elective is fulfilled by taking either ECE 2630 Fundamentals I or ECE/CD 2330 Digital Logic Design
For SYS students, the best term for this is likely fall of second year. For ME students, take these whenever works best, but do note that you will have one fewer class to take than your ME peers in spring of your third year (because you will take mechatronics in fall of your third year).
3. Enroll in the TLP Learning Community
Students will take SYS 2055 Technology Leaders Colloquium for 5 of the 6 terms that they are in the TLP.
For the remaining sixth term (can be taken at any point), students will enroll in SYS 2056 Technology Leaders Internship Colloquium. SYS 2056 is the same as SYS 2055 with an additional assignment being to prepare a short report about their TLP internship experience. Students can choose to take SYS 2056 for any one term as long as it is after they had a TLP-related internship.
More about the Learning Community.
4. Interdisciplinary Capstone
The entire fourth year is for the capstone project. Depending on your major you will have different requirements for using your TLP capstone for satisfying your major design experience.
Systems Engineering students enroll in:
- Fall: SYS4053 Systems Design I and SYS4055 Systems Engineering Design Colloquium II
- Spring: SYS4054 Systems Design II
Computer Engineering students enroll in:
- Fall: SYS 4053 AND submit a document describing how their TLP capstone will meet the project requirements for their CpE major design experience (with approval from Harry Powell, this course counts for your MDE)
- Spring: SYS4054 Systems Design II (counts as unrestricted elective unless you meet with Harry Powell and he agrees that your second term of capstone contains enough EE to count as an ECE elective)
Electrical Engineering students enroll in:
- Fall: SYS 4053 AND submit a document describing how their TLP capstone will meet the project requirements for their EE major design experience (with approval from Harry Powell, this course counts for your MDE)
- Spring: SYS4054 Systems Design II (counts as unrestricted elective unless you meet with Harry Powell and he agrees that your second term of capstone contains enough EE to count as an ECE elective)
Mechanical Engineering students enroll in the following two classes
- Fall: SYS4053 Systems Design I (counts as Design I Elective)
- Spring: SYS4054 Systems Design II (counts as Design II Elective)
Civil Engineering students enroll in:
- Fall: CE 4990 - but are placed on a TLP project
- Spring: SYS4054 Systems Design II (intended to count as a CE elective)
- Note: Civil TLP students still need to take CE 4991 in Spring of their 4th year
Technology Leaders Program Learning Community
The Community
The TLP Learning Community (the TLC) meets every other week and has many aims. More specifically, we use the TLC to build a sense of identity and community among the TLP students, develop leadership skills, learn about electrical and computer systems integration in industry, and focus on career-oriented issues.
TLC meetings have included speakers from TLP industry partners, mentoring by upperclassmen, faculty speakers focusing on integrating topics from multiple TLP courses, field trips, and teambuilding activities. See the current schedule of meeting topics on the calendar.
Logistically, the TLC is a 0.5 credit class that TLP students take every semester starting in their second year. See more about how it fits into the curriculum.
TLP Internships
TLP students are required to complete at least one internship or summer research experience focused on issues related to integrating electrical and computer components into integrated systems. Students are responsible for finding an internship or research experience on their own, but we do a lot to help this process.
With respect to summer research experiences, which would be a good match for TLP students looking to go to graduate school, talk to any of the TLP faculty about how to get involved. In addition, TLP students should look at the National Science Foundation’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) programs. These programs are designed for undergraduates to gain research experience during the summer and typically provide a housing allowance and a stipend. NSF has a good search page for REU programs. Many REU programs would be good fits for TLP students, so check these out.
Technology Leaders Program Capstone Project
A capstone is a project taken on by engineers at the university during their fourth year. These projects are usually sponsored by an outside client and provide a final integrated, real-world, hands-on experience relating to students’ fields of study.
The Systems and Information Engineering Department (SIE) helped pioneer capstone projects in the United States and has a strong record of externally-supported capstone projects dating back to the late 1980’s. SIE alumni invariably site the capstone as the most important part of their undergraduate education. A great thing about the TLP is that the SIE capstone model is becoming interdisciplinary by including students in the TLP from electrical and computer engineering.
The Technology Leaders program focuses on preparing engineers to solve multilevel problems by using both technology-focused and systems level thinking. This is done through group projects that include the involvement of systems, electrical, and computer engineers, and require teamwork where all three expertise areas are necessary. The projects will resemble that of the professional setting where people of many backgrounds come together to solve problems.
Projects will be solicited and arranged by faculty before each fall semester starts. TLP students from both ESE and ECE will vote on which projects they want to work on and teams will be formed based on their preferences and the disciplinary needs of the projects. Each project will be mentored by an engineering faculty member, but TLP faculty will be available to provide input to the teams as necessary.
Most students use the capstone as part of their thesis. You can use your collaboratively authored capstone report as the “Technical Report” part of your thesis. You will write your “STS Research Paper,” in which you explore a social, and/or ethical issue related to your capstone project, as part of STS 4600.
Examples
- 3D-printed UGV for operation in indoor spaces
- Using machine learning to analyze image data from manufacturing processes
- Design of an autonomous soil monitoring robot
- Autonomous robot for electric vehicle charging
- Researching solutions for more flood resilient cities
While it does not include actual capstone projects, the TLP project blog (linked below) has many examples of the types of projects that TLP students may work on during their capstone: