MinerAlert
MinerAlert
We are diverse practitioners – inclusive faculty, staff and students – working together. We are a national center for research in engineering and technology education Innovating, Inspiring, Integrating and Impacting engineering and technology education:
Our Values — What We Believe: The needs of our students are our highest priority.
Our Mission — What We Do: Provide the best education possible for each student.
Our goal is delivering creativity in design and implementation that builds (both) breadth and depth in technical and professional competencies, integrating learning and practical lessons in and across academic core academic disciplines [liberal arts; business; computer science and (all fields of) engineering; biological, chemical, physical, health and social sciences; and law].
Our Vision — Where We Going: Inventing the future of engineering & technology education.
We advance UTEP’s vision and mission through our actions and efforts.
Our UTEP heritage is our legacy: Engineering is UTEP’s first incarnation; as the State School of Mines and Metallurgy which commenced teaching – the first engineering classes – in September 1914.
Our UTEP future is our focus, as we move UTEP engineering – in all its various forms – into our 110th year, we continue creating new paradigms for the Paso Del Norte region and the students we serve, through creating research-to-practice advances in methods and practices of engineering and technology education.
The constant in our 105-years is students’ learning being our primary interest; consistently inspiring, influencing and innovating learning and growing in all its various forms – the primary task of higher education. Through our teaching at UTEP we seek to prepare students to meet lifelong intellectual, ethical and career challenges and to be the leaders of the 21st Century.
We support students mastering a body of engineering and technology knowledge in specialty fields, to enable them to develop their dreams into actions and highly-valued outcomes.
CREaTE is a nationally renowned center for engineering and technology education: to encompass the full academic spectrum of instruction, research, scholarship, practice, and service. We have an enduring commitment to continuous improvement. We realize that learning happens when excitement meets fun!
Our goal is to creatively inspire, influence and innovate engineering education, embracing learning from across disciplines – the arts and humanities, business and industry, sciences and technology.
We began in 2000 by taking engineering into the community; teaching engineering beyond the university classroom for students in our community, inclusively encouraging and promoting opportunities for students in P-12 district schools, and 12-14 collegiate education. We realize that learning happens when excitement meets fun!
We act to provide value to the students in our university, city and region.
We visualize engineering in a holistic sense – artfully bringing about betterment for those we serve.
We work to provide great value to our immediate regional community, as well as contributing to advance the contribution of learning and practicing the profession of engineering education in our state, and across the nation.
We engage diverse partners to advance learning in and beyond engineering classrooms, learners, promotes the profession of engineering within a holistic leadership framework, and provides opportunities for growing success for all students – promoting unparalleled success to grow sustainable We inspire, influence, and innovate engineering education. to Since 2007 we have engaged in teaching with vigor and rigor; striving to continuously improve by designing engaging (active, cooperative, interdependent) learning styles and inverting (sometimes called flipping) the classrooms, and implementing experiential learning through challenge-, problem-, project-, and team- based learning.
CREaTE works in partnership with core partners UTEP Learning Environments, the Center for Faculty Leadership and Development and UTEP GEAR UP to foster, build and support student-centered learning of high quality. This leads us to scholarly teaching, and the scholarship of teaching (using research to guide continuous quality improvement of existing courses), as a framework for pedagogical innovations. Through “thinking rather than just doing” (what we might call reflective practice) we are, ultimately, building and implementing new frameworks and paradigms for engineering education. That is the ultimate opportunity and the big challenge!
Our goal is to make a difference for our students, our community and our region. Our impact locally radiates to us being a model for diverse institutions, collectively creating the future of engineering and technology education, across the US.
Demonstrative of these efforts (research guiding practice) our UTEP Colleges of Engineering, Education and Science, divisions of Learning Environments and Reach-Out Programs, now report annual expenditures of $10-million+ in the vein of engineering and technology education innovation. This makes engineering education one of the largest research disciplines at UTEP, exceeding many technical research arenas.
This is a notable achievement, and the result of 20-years of visionary engagement in a field that was hardly recognized when UTEP was designated a Model Institution for Excellence by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 1995.
From engineering arts to technologies and societies: Our increasing influence would not be possible without the support of the UTEP Colleges of Education and Engineering, UTEP UGLC and Learning Environments, UTEP Outreach, the Center for Faculty Leadership and Development, our Office of Innovation and Research, and the Office of Institutional Evaluation, Research and Planning, (CIERP) and Research Evaluation and Assessment Services (REAS) teams. We are grateful for the visionary sponsorship of ASEE, AT&T, Autodesk, Diane and Bob Malone, the Department of Education, the Halliburton Foundation, Lockheed Martin, the National Science Foundation, Raytheon, The School of Engineering Education at Purdue University the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, Virginia Tech., and The University of Texas System. We are grateful for their confidence and commitment to helping us change the future for all students in engineering and those who are as yet unseen in our classrooms but have a very bright future in engineering. Talent is everywhere and at UTEP we welcome students from all backgrounds, recognizing access to excellence is the appropriate framework to advance diversity in today’s higher education – and subsequently in the world of work beyond.
The overarching result is that we are succeeding wildly in creating a first-class educational institution that serves the nation as (what we now refer to) a national model for the 21st-Century demographic. The National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering has called UTEP “a model for other engineering institutions who say that today’s minority young people from low-income families can’t succeed in a rigorous math- or science-based discipline.” Hispanic Business ranks UTEP very highly, including being twice ranked UTEP as the number-one graduate engineering school for Hispanics. As aforementioned, UTEP first became an exemplary nationally-recognized innovator through the Model Institutions for Excellence program, a twelve-year effort by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) that aimed at substantially increasing the quality and quantity of under-represented minorities who earn science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) baccalaureate degrees and go on to pursue graduate degrees in these fields. UTEP was one of six minority-serving institutions selected nationwide to create new models for STEM education.
Today we are building on that capacity, and so you see us creating the future of engineering, including spawning a new and nationally groundbreaking undergraduate program in engineering innovation and leadership, while continuing to support research and graduate studies.
Summarily, we are creating the future: The Paso Del Norte region, the State of Texas, and the nation need our wonderful engineers to grow and share their talents – educating the next generations, in what we call the B-L (beginning through lifelong) learning careers in BE STEAM [business, entrepreneurship, science, technology engineering and mathematics] for the 21st Century.
The Center for Research in Engineering & Technology Education (CREaTE), established in 2011, is a cornerstone in supporting the Department of Engineering Education & Leadership's [EEL’s] commitment to innovative practices. Renowned for its bold and rigorous approach, the EEL department delivers world-class education in engineering, focusing on building the innovation and leadership engineering competencies: character, competency, and capacity.
The unique spiral curriculum, spanning four consecutive years with two courses per year, allows engineering innovation and leadership [E-LEAD] students to progressively build themes of critical inquiry, business acumen, entrepreneurship, and ethical professionalism. This honors-style ABET-accredited engineering program enhances core STEM competencies and offers concentrations in UTEP’s technical engineering majors.
The department's emphasis on experiential, vertically integrated project-based learning is propelled by continuous research and scholarship. This approach creates and refines deep learning environments, preparing students to graduate with leadership skills for diverse roles in the US industry.
CREaTE is dedicated to innovating engineering education, aiming to inspire the next generation of engineers. By integrating and leading in an advanced technological society, the center plays a crucial role in shaping the future of engineering education.
