Edward J Coyle

Co-Founder of the Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Program

The Vertically-Integrated Projects (VIP) Program at Purdue

Courses Associated with the VIP Program

Sustaining and accelerating the rapid pace of innovation in electrical and computer engineering will require a continuous stream of new graduates that have been educated and trained to understand how the processes of research, technology advancement, and applications development should be integrated to enable innovations. Current approaches to the education of undergraduates and graduate students are not up to this challenge: undergraduates are generally not provided with a deep exposure to any technology area; Master's students are often not involved in research or the development of new technology; and PhD students rarely see their breakthroughs implemented and tested in applications.

Prof. Coyle and Professors Jan Allebach and Ed Delp have thus developed a new curriculum that integrates education and research in Electrical and Computer Engineering: the Vertically-Integrated Projects (VIP) Program. It demonstrates that research and education can be integrated to better educate engineering students at all levels and to solve real-world problems. The VIP program creates and supports teams of faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students that work together on long-term, large-scale projects. The focus of each project team will be challenges in research, development, and applications that are of interest to federal funding agencies, industry, not-for-profit organizations. The curricular infrastructure is in place and six VIP projects are underway: Digital Publishing, e-Stadium, Wireless Transportation, Multimedia Applications, Sensor Networks, and Wireless Propagation.

VIP Team Structure and Operation:

• Leadership: ECE faculty members lead and are responsible for the success of the project.
• Focus: ECE projects that are of interest to the faculty members and the projects' partners.
• Members and Their Responsibilities:
  • The faculty members providing team leadership (1 to 3): (i) work with the team's partners - funding agencies, industry, etc. - to establish the goals of the project and assess progress; (ii) advise the team's PhD students on their research related to the project's goals; and (iii) work with the team's graduate students to supervise undergraduate team members as they develop applications and experiments that utilize or test the team's research results.
  • PhD students (1 to 3): (i) pursue fundamental research related to the faculty member's research in wireless systems; and (ii) mentor the Masters students and undergraduates that are assisting with this research.
  • Master's students (1 to 4): (i) assist the faculty members and the PhD students with their research; and (ii) serve as mentors to the undergraduate students as they explore and develop new applications based on the technology focus of the team.
  • Undergraduates (8 to 15): Earn academic credits each semester, for up to seven semesters, for their work with the team's faculty, graduate students, and project partners to prototype, deploy, and test new applications and systems.
  • Project Partners: Provide support for or participate in the project.