UTEP | College of Engineering

UTEP Computer Science Professor Selected to Participate in NAE’s First Frontiers of Engineering Education Symposium

Dr. Eric Freudenthal

Dr. Eric Freudenthal, an Assistant Professor of Computer Science, was invited to participate in the National Academy of Engineering’s (NAE) first Frontiers of Engineering Education (FOEE) symposium to be held November 15-18 2009 in Herndon, Virginia. The symposium will examine innovative approaches to teaching engineering fundamentals.

"The Frontiers of Engineering Education program will create a unique venue for engineering faculty members to share and explore interesting and effective innovations in teaching and learning,” said NAE President Charles M. Vest. “We intend for FOEE to become a major force in identifying, recognizing, and promulgating advances and innovations in order to build a strong intellectual infrastructure and commitment to 21st-century engineering education.” Dr. Freudenthal is one of forty-nine researchers selected through a competitive process to contribute to and participate in this symposium.

Dr. Freudenthal’s invitation was based on the innovative teaching methodologies he developed for a course for entering college students interested in studying STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) disciplines entitled Computational Computer-Science Zero (CCS0). Like language immersion techniques, students in CCS0 begin to converse with the programming language to achieve engaging results from the first day of class.

Students construct a series of simulation programs that apply arithmetic operations they fully understand to model and illuminate the mathematical foundations of familiar physical phenomena, such as ballistics and resonance. By building insights upon fully understood concepts rather than complex equations that students are not prepared to understand, they realize that “…engineering school differs from Hogwarts – since engineers’ power comes from their understandings of processes rather than the rote memorization of magical spells.

For more information:
Dr. Freudenthal
Computational CS-Zero
National Academy of Engineering