TIES Program Course Goals

The TIES program is intended to give students an extended experience with design as a start-to-finish process. The course will emphasize a number of skills that students will need in order to become successful professionals after graduation. Evaluation will include these aspects of the course, as well as the quality of the achievements in the student's technical area.

Communications: Each project will require written reports, oral proposal and progress presentations, oral communications with project partner and consultants, and intra-team communications.

Analytical thinking, organizational skills, and interdisciplinary experience: Because the scope and size of a project will be much larger than would be possible in traditional courses (where much time is spent covering course material), students will have to apply what they have learned to less well defined problems across a variety of disciplines. This experience should encourage the development of the students' analytical thinking and organizational skills.

Teamwork experience: Because projects are large, teamwork will be an essential component. Students are encouraged to sign up from all academic disciplines, and are not restricted to engineering. These students will learn that the outcome of their project depends on the efforts of every member of the team. They will have to learn how to divide up a large problem, assign and schedule sub-tasks, and integrate the pieces into a working solution. They will learn to work with team members from other departments and disciplines and how to value the contributions from diverse areas.

Resourcefulness: The multi-class projects should encourage students to pursue non-traditional educational resources. Projects will involve upper-class students in the process of guiding the less experienced students. Students will be encouraged to learn from each other, as well as from the project partner and academic consultants who have experience related to the projects.

Resource management: Each team will develop a proposal for the equipment and space requirements for the project, and will have to take into account the resources of the project partner. As a result, students should understand that practical as well as theoretical issues must be addressed throughout the design and development process.

Customer awareness: Projects are being drawn from local community service agencies. Customer satisfaction will be an important criterion for judging project success. Hence, the projects should increase the students' awareness of the importance of the customer in producing a high quality product.

Expanded awareness of the community: By dealing with people outside of the academic community, the students will be more aware of the world outside of UCSD that they are preparing to enter.

Professional ethics: Professional conduct, both in relation to the project partner and within the team itself, will be an essential component of successful projects. Students will have to maintain an awareness of ethical principles while meeting the demands of the project.