2008 Woodie Awards
Babbio 5th unites SE/EM department
Regina Pynn
Issue date: 1/26/07 Section: Campus News
Despite the Babbio Center's many construction setbacks, the building has taken another step towards full functionality. In late December, Stevens filled the fifth floor of the Babbio Center with the Systems Engineering/Engineering Management Department (SE/EM).
SE/EM is a relatively new program at Stevens. Created in Fall 2000, the department consists of the undergraduate and graduate Engineering Management programs as well as the Systems Engineering program. Since SE/EM's conception, the department has experienced rapid growth, doubling enrollment each year. This increase lead to difficulties, including a severe lack of space and unity for the department. SE/EM found its personnel split between second floor Carnegie and fourth floor Burchard, according to Dr. Michael Pennotti, Director of the System Design and Operational Effectiveness program.
For the most part, the SE/EM department will not put classrooms in its Babbio space; most of its students are not on the Stevens campus or even in New Jersey, Pennotti said. In addition to offering online classes, the SE/EM graduate program does "suitcase" classes: physically bringing the professor and the teaching material to the students. In this teaching method, an organization schedules on-site classes for its personnel. Classes consist of one 40-hour workweek that provides all of the information that would make up a semester long course. The students then complete an eight to ten week project before they receive credit. This innovative method of learning has attracted the notice of organizations such as the National Security Agency, NASA, Lockheed Martin, IBM, the FAA and Sandia National Labs, Pennotti added.
An important goal for SE/EM during the Babbio move was to bring together the widely dispersed graduate classes, Pennotti said. To achieve this goal, the department constructed a Systems Engineering laboratory with space for conducting research and full teleconferencing capabilities. Eric Hole, who works for SE/EM, says that holding large lectures "has been a problem until now…but we can bring guest speakers [to the new laboratory]." The lectures can be shown all over the world and unify their students. A grant from the Armament Research, Development, and Engineering Center funded the construction of the lab. The lab will host its first lecture on Monday.
SE/EM is a relatively new program at Stevens. Created in Fall 2000, the department consists of the undergraduate and graduate Engineering Management programs as well as the Systems Engineering program. Since SE/EM's conception, the department has experienced rapid growth, doubling enrollment each year. This increase lead to difficulties, including a severe lack of space and unity for the department. SE/EM found its personnel split between second floor Carnegie and fourth floor Burchard, according to Dr. Michael Pennotti, Director of the System Design and Operational Effectiveness program.
For the most part, the SE/EM department will not put classrooms in its Babbio space; most of its students are not on the Stevens campus or even in New Jersey, Pennotti said. In addition to offering online classes, the SE/EM graduate program does "suitcase" classes: physically bringing the professor and the teaching material to the students. In this teaching method, an organization schedules on-site classes for its personnel. Classes consist of one 40-hour workweek that provides all of the information that would make up a semester long course. The students then complete an eight to ten week project before they receive credit. This innovative method of learning has attracted the notice of organizations such as the National Security Agency, NASA, Lockheed Martin, IBM, the FAA and Sandia National Labs, Pennotti added.
An important goal for SE/EM during the Babbio move was to bring together the widely dispersed graduate classes, Pennotti said. To achieve this goal, the department constructed a Systems Engineering laboratory with space for conducting research and full teleconferencing capabilities. Eric Hole, who works for SE/EM, says that holding large lectures "has been a problem until now…but we can bring guest speakers [to the new laboratory]." The lectures can be shown all over the world and unify their students. A grant from the Armament Research, Development, and Engineering Center funded the construction of the lab. The lab will host its first lecture on Monday.
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