The enhanced global perspectives brought on by exploding information technologies have precipitated dramatic changes in industry. Recognizing that suppliers and customers are stakeholders in the product realization process and bringing them onto the production team has resulted in significant improvement in quality and efficiency.Engineering education would do well to follow this model. Communication and cooperation between colleges of engineering and those who hire our graduates are expanding everywhere. Now we must give greater attention to our suppliers. We can no longer afford to allow our K-12 suppliers to "throw high school graduates over-the-wall" to colleges of engineering resulting in high rejection and dropout rates.Utah's Governor has recently called for a doubling of graduates from Utah's colleges of engineering within five years and tripling in eight. This paper describes some of the initiatives underway at Utah State University to motivate, guide, and help create a more seamless experience for students who could potentially do well in engineering.

This paper describes a novel process for curriculum planning, assessment, and improvement. The process is quantitative but allows faculty freedom to innovate. The review process is sufficiently flexible that it can be applied to many engineering programs. The curricular review process is split into cycles corresponding to the various programmatic levels, i.e., validating courses, assessing outcomes, appraising attributes, and evaluating objectives, each with its own review cycle period. The review process provides a formal way of closing the feedback loops at all programmatic levels from the course level to the objective level. The review results are easily documented and can be used to ensure continuous improvement. Results are tabulated in three systems of matrices. Importance matrices are used to show the relative importance of goals at each programmatic level. Measurement matrices document the level of performance at each programmatic level relative to a set of benchmarks. Correlation matrices are used to correlate the goals from one programmatic level to the next. While other assessment methods may use something similar to our measurement matrices, the use of correlation matrices is unique to this curricular review process. The correlation matrices are used to see if the goals of each level are correct. The matrices are used in the corrective action process to adjust the relative importance of goals and to insert or delete possible new goals. Examples of implementation of the curricular review process are provided.

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This paper describes the impacts a SME MEP Grant has had on Manufacturing Education at Utah State University. Accomplishments are summarized and obstacles described.Prior to the grant period, industrial partnering was minimal and no departmental student or industrial advisory boards existed. The curriculum did not adequately address the 14 competency gaps identified in SME's Manufacturing Education Plan: Phase I Report. The Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering offered an ABET accredited Manufacturing Engineering program, but did not grant a degree in Manufacturing Engineering.Direct presentations by national SME officers to the Governor of Utah, near the beginning of the grant period, increased statewide awareness of the manufacturing program at USU. The 14 competency gaps were addressed as part of an extensive curriculum reformation. Six new manufacturing courses were developed and taught. Manufacturing applications were developed and initiated in several core mechanical engineering courses. A unique and comprehensive curriculum assessment process was developed and implemented. Industrial and student advisory boards were created and empowered.A new Engineering Design Center was created and industrial partners more extensively participated in the design process. Student internships to manufacturing industries were facilitated. The MAE Department forged a greatly strengthened partnership with the USU College of Business.