UMN Undergrad Education Task Force

Kick-Off Meeting

2/27/09 4-5 PM

Agenda• Welcome

• Introductions

• Overview

• Brainstorming

Undergraduate Education

• Undergraduates are our most visible product

• Undergraduates are our most important product

Dept Mission Statement

The Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota offers undergraduate and graduate education of the highest quality in mechanical engineering, conducts significant basic and applied research in selected areas, and provides professional service to the appropriate constituencies of Minnesota’s land grant university.

Introductions

• Name

• Professional Passions

• What don’t we know about you?

Charge

• Identify strategic objectives that will have the greatest impact on our future success in educating undergraduates

• Develop plans to achieve those objectives

Think BIG!

• What skills will be of greatest benefit to the mechanical engineering graduate of 2020?

• What opportunities will place UMN ahead of the competition?

• We want YOUR IDEAS!

• We do not intend to identify the strategic objectives at today’s meeting

Think CREATIVE!

Introduced 1953; 60,000,000 Sold

UG Ed SWOT Chart

• Leading supplier of ME undergrads in MN

Strengths

• Student/faculty ratio

Weaknesses

Opportunities• National energy initiative

Threats• University funding cuts

SWOT Charts

Strengths

Weaknesses

Opportunities

Threats

Internal External

Utilizing the SWOT Analysis

• How can we leverage our strengths?(Match with opportunities?)

• How can we improve on our weaknesses?• How can we exploit our opportunities?• How can we mitigate the threats?

How should we restructure our UG curriculum?

Deliverables

Document:

• Strategic issues/grand challenges in ME undergraduate education

• SWOT analysis results

• Departmental objectives in UG education

• Proposed action plan

Timeline• Feb. 27: Kick-off event

• March-June: Task force meets

• April 22: ME day (Focus: UG Ed)

• July 1: Task force reports due

Next Steps

• How will we communicate?

• Next meeting?