1. 1 survey of research automation specialty
The application scope of automation technology involves many fields such as industry, agriculture, transportation, energy, national defense and so on, and it has broad development prospects. At present, there are 239 colleges and universities in China offering automation undergraduate majors, among which 29 colleges and universities have graduate schools and one or more doctoral programs in two disciplines. These 29 universities are called research-oriented universities of automation discipline here. In this survey, * * * collected 17 materials on the current situation of automation discipline in colleges and universities. These universities include key universities directly under the Ministry of Education, key universities under the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense and key universities under other ministries and commissions. Geographically, it has spread all over China.
In 17 research universities, there are national key disciplines or provincial key disciplines, provincial key laboratories or national engineering centers, which can build high-quality undergraduate education from the perspective of discipline construction and integrated training of doctoral, master and undergraduate students. Research universities take it as their responsibility to cultivate high-quality talents, take "comprehensive, research-oriented, open and international" as their school-running mode, take "high-quality, wide-caliber, innovative and applied" as their training goal, set up a high-level scientific and technological research-teaching research base and build a "domestic first-class, internationally renowned" research university.
1.2 Training objectives and orientation of "research-oriented" automation specialty
Automation major is a wide-caliber major based on general education. Automation majors acquire, process and use information from various artificial systems and natural objects, with special emphasis on the interference and control of their behaviors in order to achieve people's expected goals. "Research-oriented" automation specialty adapts to the development trend of digitalization, integration and intelligence, and cultivates specialized technical talents in the fields of automatic control, electrical engineering, mechatronics and information technology. And cultivate automation related fields such as electrician, electronic technology, motion control, process control, control theory, intelligent control theory, pattern recognition and intelligent robot, automatic detection and instrumentation, computer technology and application, information engineering/network technology, etc. Engaged in system analysis. Make use of the cross advantages of computer, network communication, electricity and electronics to train students to engage in design, research, development, operation and management in a wide range of fields such as automation system, computer and network technology, advanced manufacturing technology and system engineering.
Graduates majoring in "research-oriented" automation should have the following knowledge and abilities:
(1) has a solid foundation in natural science and a good foundation in humanities and social sciences.
(2) Master the extensive technical basic theoretical knowledge necessary in this professional field, mainly including circuit theory, electronic technology, control theory, information processing, computer software and hardware foundation and application, etc.
(3) Have a good knowledge of motion control, process control, automation instrument, power electronics technology, computer application and information processing, modeling and simulation of complex systems, and have professional knowledge and skills in this professional field 1 ~ 2, and have a deeper understanding of the frontier and development trend of this discipline and the overall situation of engineering application.
(4) Get good engineering practice training in system analysis, system design and system development.
(5) Have certain scientific literacy in this major and similar professional fields.
(6) Have the basic ability to independently acquire knowledge, ask questions, analyze and solve problems, have a strong sense of innovation and spirit, have certain social activities, have the viewpoint of environmental protection and engineering economy, and have received preliminary training in engineering design methods and scientific research methods.
(7) Master a foreign language, be proficient in reading foreign language books and periodicals of this major, and have preliminary foreign language communication skills.
1.3 Current situation of "research-oriented" undergraduate education and teaching in automation specialty
Among the 17 research-oriented automation schools, six colleges and universities have passed the excellent evaluation of undergraduate teaching by the Ministry of Education. Therefore, from the overall level, the research-oriented automation specialty has a good foundation in terms of teachers, teaching materials, laboratories, practice bases, teaching funds and so on.
1.3. 1 Teaching Status of Theoretical Teaching System
According to the basic principles of "wide specialty, thick foundation, high quality" and the basic requirements of "wide foundation, weak specialty, strong practice, teaching students in accordance with their aptitude and classified training", the research-oriented undergraduate automation specialty has formulated a training scheme suitable for the credit system. We should combine the cultivation of ideological and political quality, cultural quality, professional quality and physical and mental quality, and combine imparting knowledge, cultivating ability and improving quality to cultivate high-quality and high-quality talents with solid foundation, wide knowledge and innovative consciousness and spirit.
The curriculum knowledge system can be divided into six modules: natural science course, humanities and social science course, subject foundation and professional foundation course, professional elective course, scientific practice and social practice, and public elective course of the whole school. Natural science courses account for about 20%, humanities and social sciences courses account for about 23%, discipline foundation and professional foundation courses account for about 25%, professional elective courses account for about 5%, scientific practice and social practice account for about 22%, and public elective courses account for about 5% of the whole school. The total credits are about 200 points and the total hours are about 2500 hours. General education courses account for about 50% of the total hours/credits.
The main subjects are control science and engineering, electrical engineering, computer science and technology. The main professional basic courses are: circuit principle (circuit analysis foundation), electronic technology foundation, microcomputer principle and application (microcomputer principle and interface technology), automatic control principle, signal analysis and processing, software engineering, computer network and communication, etc. Specialized courses and characteristic courses mainly include: modern control theory, robot control technology, motion control, computer control technology, electric drive control foundation, fluid control system, automatic control components and so on.
In terms of teaching material construction, research-oriented automation specialty pays more attention to teaching material construction, emphasizes the updating rate of teaching materials, emphasizes the advanced nature of teaching materials, advocates bilingual teaching, and emphasizes that teaching is in line with international standards. At present, the average proportion of self-made teaching materials for basic and specialized courses of automation technology is 32.4%, and the rest are advanced teaching materials at home and abroad, of which the average proportion of advanced teaching materials abroad is 8.87%. The number/proportion of self-made teaching materials for research-oriented automation specialty is also very different. For schools with a large number of self-made textbooks, such as Tsinghua University, the proportion of self-made textbooks is 83.3%; In schools with a small number of self-made textbooks, the proportion of self-made textbooks is less than 10%.
Table 1 construction and use of technical basis and professional teaching materials for research-oriented automation specialty
type
Self-compiled teaching materials
Select domestic advanced teaching materials
Select foreign advanced teaching materials.
proportion
32.4%
59.06%
8.54%
1.3.2 Teaching Status of Practice Teaching System
In practice teaching, research-oriented automation specialty relies on the advantages of sufficient funds for discipline construction, numerous scientific research achievements and sufficient teaching funds, advanced experimental equipment and diverse methods.
In the past five years, universities leading in automation major have invested a lot in practical teaching of automation major. According to the data provided by 13 schools, the construction funds of experimental conditions are basically more than 2 million yuan, with an average construction fund of 4.92 million yuan, and there are 7 schools with construction funds of more than 5 million yuan. The highest funding for the construction of experimental conditions is12.6 million yuan, and the lowest is12 million yuan.
In the teaching experiments offered by various schools, the research-oriented automation specialty pays attention to the comprehensiveness of the number of electronic experiments, basic control experiments and professional experiments, and the average comprehensive experiments can reach 50% ~ 70%, which really improves students' practical ability, innovation ability and engineering ability through experiments. Curriculum design, comprehensive professional experiments and production practice are rich and varied, so that students can get comprehensive training and exercise. Some schools have tried independent production practice to fully mobilize students' autonomy and enthusiasm, so that production practice is full of content and tasks, so that students can not only apply what they have learned, but also cultivate their comprehensive quality. However, in recent years, there have been some problems in independent production practice, such as difficulty in contacting production practice units, irregular management of units, and great influence of postgraduate entrance examination on production practice. The average situation of practical teaching of research-oriented automation specialty is shown in Table 2.
Table 2 Practical Teaching of Research-oriented Automation Specialty
project
Electronic comprehensive experiment (%)
Basic experiment of integrated control (%)
Comprehensive professional experiment (%)
Average number of weeks of machining practice
Average number of weeks of comprehensive experiments in curriculum design and specialty
Average weeks of production practice
Average weeks of graduation design
general run of things
52.39%
69. 15%
55.3%
3.6
10.27
3.3 1
16.24
The graduation design of research-oriented automation major draws on a wide range of materials, and the combination of school and enterprise with discipline construction/scientific research projects is adopted to improve the level and practicability of undergraduate graduation design and improve students' innovative ability, practical ability and engineering practice ability in all directions.
1.3.3 Current situation of quality and ability education
Research-oriented automation specialty focuses on cultivating talents with academic research and technical application in automation, and cultivating high-level talents with academic research and application in engineering practice. The undergraduate course of research automation major is a professional education based on general education.
Research-oriented automation majors generally attach importance to quality and ability education, and attach importance to the cultivation of innovative and entrepreneurial awareness and comprehensive quality, especially the cultivation of humanistic quality and engineering practice ability. Implement the education mode of "learning, researching and doing", cultivate students' practical ability, research ability, cognitive ability, innovative consciousness and creativity, and improve their comprehensive quality.
Research-oriented automation majors focus on cultivating students' entrepreneurial quality and ability by establishing an entrepreneurial education base, establishing an open laboratory, guiding their design, production and debugging, and organizing students to participate in entrepreneurial practice. Widely organize students to carry out small inventions, small creations and small production activities in combination with their majors, organize students to participate in project development, promotion of scientific and technological achievements and social services, let students get in touch with new knowledge, master new technologies and explore new fields, encourage students to be civilized, innovative and practical, and strive to cultivate students' innovative spirit and ability.
Students are active in thinking, diligent in thinking and have strong hands-on ability during school. Students of this major actively participate in college students' physics and mathematics competitions, national college students' electronic design competitions, provincial and national college students' "Challenge Cup" extracurricular scientific and technological works competitions, various single-chip microcomputer design and application competitions, and computer program competitions at home and abroad.
Research-oriented automation specialty pays attention to teaching students in accordance with their aptitude and keeps pace with the times. For example, in the joint class of electricity offered by South Institute of Technology, outstanding students majoring in electricity are selected to participate in the postgraduate entrance examination for three years, and more than 10 students majoring in automation enter the joint class every year. In addition, it provides 3+2 (3 years of original major and 2 years of trade or management major, and you can get a double degree after graduation), and about 10 students enter this major every year. The "2+3+X" training mode currently being discussed and tried out by Xi Jiaotong University is a broader mode of teaching students in accordance with their aptitude.
Although the research-oriented automation major has the advantages of large national investment and strong teachers, at present, most research-oriented automation majors are still limited by educational resources, so it is impossible to teach students in accordance with their aptitude on a large scale, especially in practical training, and it is impossible to ensure that all students have enough time and equipment to carry out independent innovation experiments or scientific and technological innovation activities. Because most research-oriented automation majors recommend graduate students not to take the exam at around 10%, most students will take the postgraduate entrance examination, which has a great impact on the quality of production practice, undergraduate graduation design and other teaching links, and can not fully realize the integration of undergraduate-graduate students and undergraduate-doctoral students.
1.3.4 Current situation of teacher structure
In the teaching team of research-oriented automation specialty, the professor is the dominant, the associate professor is the backbone and the lecturer is the foundation; Professors are responsible for the construction of most courses, while associate professors and lecturers undertake the teaching of most courses. At present, among the research-oriented automation teachers, the proportion of professors is 29.76%, the proportion of associate professors is 4 1.34%, the proportion of teachers with doctoral degrees is 40.58%, and the proportion of teachers with master's degrees is 40.26%. It can be seen from the data that the number of professors is less than that of associate professors at present, but due to the large number of teachers with doctoral degrees, the number of professors will increase in recent years and tend to be younger. The average situation of teachers majoring in research automation is shown in Table 3.
At present, the average student-teacher ratio of automation majors in these 17 universities is 13.5438+05: 1, which is still relatively good. However, considering the development trend of these universities to vigorously develop postgraduate education in the future, the data of undergraduate teacher ratio 13. 15: 1 is still unsatisfactory, and it is necessary to further strengthen the construction of teaching staff. At present, the undergraduate enrollment scale of these universities is basically unchanged, maintaining the current level. By 2005, the number of students in a few schools will increase slightly, and the number of students in a few schools will decrease.
Table 3 Research-oriented Teachers in Automation Major
project
Professor ratio
Associate professor ratio
Lecturer ratio
Assistant ratio
Proportion of doctoral teachers
Master's degree teacher ratio
Proportion of teaching inspectors
Student-teacher ratio
Average
29.76%
4 1.34%
24. 13%
12.23%
40.58%
40.26%
20.89%
13. 15: 1
1.3.5 Employment status
Graduates majoring in automation can engage in technical and management work in a wide range of fields, such as electronic information, bioengineering, communication, computer, e-commerce, electric power, transportation, finance, machinery, textiles and so on. Graduates can pursue further studies in other related disciplines, such as computer, electronic information, communication, instrumentation, management, biomedical engineering, etc. In addition, I also studied for a master's degree in this major, which was well received by the training unit.
According to the online job-hunting information recently released by the Ministry of Personnel, the number of computer job seekers ranks first, while the overall demand of automation and related majors ranks within 10 on average, but the average number of job seekers ranks after 10. This shows that the supply of automation and related majors is slightly less than the demand for the time being. As far as the employment rate is concerned, taking 2000 as an example, according to China Youth Daily, the initial employment rate of automation major in China in 2000 was as high as 92%. The latest information shows that the employment rate of automation major still maintains a fairly good upward trend.
17 provides the employment rate of automation undergraduate in the past three years among the universities with leading automation majors. Among them, there are 10 schools with an undergraduate employment rate of 96% ~ 100%, accounting for 66.67% of 15 schools; There are 3 schools with a primary employment rate between 90% and 95%, accounting for 20% of 15 schools; There are two schools with the primary employment rate between 85% and 89%, accounting for 13.33% of the five schools. Among the automation majors in these schools, there are 10 schools, accounting for 66.67% of the total number of schools, and this major is considered to be better than other majors in our school. Compared with other majors in our school, there are 5 schools with higher than average undergraduate employment rate, accounting for 33.33% of the total number of schools. The survey data is consistent with the above opinions of the Ministry of Personnel.
Table 4 Initial Employment Rate of Undergraduate Graduates Majoring in Research Automation
employment rate
96%~ 100%
90%~95%
85%~89%
Below 84%
Number of schools
10
three
2
Percentage of schools
66.67%
20%
13.33%
Note: Central South University and Xi Jiaotong University are not included in the statistics (there is no data in the table).
Table 5 Comparison of the employment situation of undergraduate graduates majoring in research automation and other majors in our university
Employment rate level
okay
Upper middle
Midsummer
poor
Number of schools
10
five
Percentage of schools
66.67%
33.33%
Note: Data of Central South University, Xi Jiaotong University and Dalian University of Technology are missing.
The destinations of undergraduate students majoring in research automation are generally distributed in graduate students, large and medium-sized state-owned enterprises, governments, military organs, scientific research institutes, private enterprises, self-employed individuals, and studying abroad. However, the proportion of all kinds of graduates in different schools is quite different, which also shows that there is a big gap between universities with leading automation majors. Take the ratio of undergraduate students to graduate students as an example, the highest is Tsinghua University, with a graduate rate of 74.5%; There are 3 schools with a postgraduate enrollment rate between 40% and 50%; There are 0 schools with a postgraduate enrollment rate between 30% and 40%; There are 6 schools with a postgraduate enrollment rate between 20% and 30%; There are 4 schools with graduation rate 10% ~ 20%.
See Table 6 for the whereabouts of undergraduate graduates majoring in research automation. As can be seen from the data in the table, most undergraduate graduates majoring in automation in research universities flow to graduate schools, large and medium-sized state-owned enterprises and scientific research institutes, accounting for more than 2/3. The average proportion of graduate students is above 30%, which also reflects the characteristics of this kind of university.
From the above data, we can draw a conclusion that automation specialty is a basic engineering specialty that spans many applied disciplines and has demand in the vast industrial fields. At the same time, because the research-oriented automation major has a good social reputation, the employment of students in this major is ideal.
Table 6 2006 54 38+0-2003 Employment Destinations of Research Automation Graduates
Employment type
postgraduate
Large and medium-sized state-owned enterprises
Government and military institutions
Research institute (college)
Private management
enterprise
Individual entrepreneurs/businessmen
go abroad
study
Waiting service
Average proportion
30.38%
20.99%
4.7 1%
17.2 1%
17%
0.28%
4.77%
4.66%
1.4 Current situation of professional characteristics
The history of automation has always had a strong practical background. The demand of aerospace, aviation, transportation, electric power, manufacturing and other industries is the main driving force for the birth and development of automation discipline. Therefore, the development of this discipline must adhere to demand traction. At present, "promoting industrialization by informationization" and "transforming traditional industries by informationization" have become the basic national policies of our country. Automation technology is an important interface and breakthrough point for the application of information technology in traditional industries, and automation discipline should and can play an important role in realizing the national strategic goal and the leap-forward development of the national economy.
Compared with similar disciplines in China, the research-oriented automation discipline has obvious research characteristics, high level of theory and experimental technology, and has formed distinct characteristics and advantages in the research directions of intelligent control theory and application technology, pattern recognition and intelligent information fusion processing, intelligent instruments and multi-sensor information processing, with outstanding research results. Each school has a strong scientific research team and outstanding academic leaders, active academic thinking and excellent academic quality, and enjoys a high academic status in China. Many people serve as consultants and editors of important international and domestic academic journals. In terms of personnel training, a series of doctoral, master's and bachelor's degree and non-degree education systems have been formed, and a large number of outstanding engineering and technical personnel in automation specialty have been trained. Graduates with high quality are welcomed by employers. For many years, the employment rate of students has been at the forefront of related majors.
Research-oriented automation discipline always adheres to the principle of "thick foundation, wide caliber, heavy ability and high quality" in undergraduate training, emphasizing wide caliber school running, strong basic theory teaching, paying attention to quality education, strengthening practical links, and highlighting the cultivation of innovation ability and computer system development and application ability; Pay attention to giving full play to the advantages of disciplines, teaching, scientific research and discipline construction penetrate each other, pay attention to the transformation of scientific research results into teaching experimental devices, and link undergraduate education with postgraduate training.
Research-oriented automation disciplines include industrial (enterprise) automation, building automation, electrical machinery and appliances, power system and its automation, flight control and other professional directions. Students receive basic engineering training in electrical and electronic engineering, information control and computer technology application. Mainly based on electricity, integrating mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, control and computer, highlighting the characteristics of analysis and calculation, combining strong and weak electricity, combining systems and components, and combining software and hardware, so that students have the ability to solve professional engineering and technical problems in their professional fields.
The automation disciplines in research universities have certain industry characteristics, such as weapons, metallurgy, aerospace, aviation, transportation, energy and electricity, manufacturing and so on. Therefore, the professional training programs and curriculum of each university also reflect their own training characteristics. The foundations of natural science, humanities and social sciences, professional basic courses and practical links in colleges and universities are basically the same, while the courses in professional direction reflect the characteristics of colleges and universities. Featured courses include: industrial automation network technology, electrical lighting, CNC machine tools, computer simulation, introduction to CIMS system, fluid transmission and control, flight control, navigation system, thermal equipment, fluid mechanics, pumps and fans, and theoretical basis of thermal engineering.
1.5 investigation conclusion
Through the investigation and analysis of the training objectives, professional orientation, theoretical teaching system, practical teaching system, quality and ability education, teaching staff structure, students' employment situation and professional characteristics of automation specialty in 17 key universities, we can draw the following conclusions:
(1) The training goal is clear, the positioning starting point is high, and it is our responsibility to train high-level automation professionals with strong foundation, wide caliber, high quality and creativity.
(2) Organizing teaching in a comprehensive, research-oriented, applied, open and international mode; The goal is to build a "domestic first-class and internationally renowned research-oriented automation specialty".
(3) Theory teaching, practice teaching and quality education are unified, the proportion of various courses and knowledge structure is set reasonably, and the knowledge system and curriculum system reflect the obvious characteristics and unique school-running mode of automation specialty. Theoretical teaching fully embodies the thick foundation and wide caliber; Practice teaching has obvious characteristics of emphasizing application and innovative training; Quality and ability education runs through all stages of training and teaching of automation specialty.
(4) There are many famous teachers majoring in research automation, and the teachers are strong. In recent years, the proportion of doctoral degree teachers has increased year by year, and the age of teachers has decreased year by year, basically showing a highly educated and younger direction.
(5) Over the years, compared with other majors, the employment of undergraduate students majoring in research automation is at the upper-middle level in all schools, and keeps a good upward trend. More than 1/3 of them go to graduate school for further study. The employment destinations are graduate students, large and medium-sized state-owned enterprises, government departments, military organs, scientific research institutes, private enterprises, self-employed individuals, and studying abroad. Among them, the proportion of graduate students and those who enter large and medium-sized state-owned enterprises and scientific research institutes exceeds two-thirds, which fully embodies the advantages and characteristics of research-oriented automation specialty.
(6) Automation discipline has formed a complete theoretical system and broad practical application background. It has rich theoretical support and wide application fields when dealing with natural objects and various man-made systems for information acquisition, information processing and information utilization, especially in the process of "informatization driving industrialization" and "informatization transforming traditional industries", automation will play an irreplaceable role as a bridge. In terms of personnel training, a series of bachelor's, master's and doctor's degree education systems have been formed. In the undergraduate education stage, in order to further develop students' potential and teach students in accordance with their aptitude, some colleges and universities have implemented three-year joint classes of electrical engineering, three-year specialty of automation and two-year re-education of trade or management on the basis of teaching reform classes. At present, the "2+3+X" training mode integrating undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral students is being explored, which will give full play to the potential of students and the resource advantages of research universities in a wider scope. Carry out inter-school, provincial and national "Electronic Design Competition", "Challenge Cup Competition" and "Extracurricular Science and Technology Works Competition" to stimulate students' interest in learning and cultivate their scientific creativity.
The research-oriented automation specialty has obvious advantages and outstanding characteristics, but there are also some shortcomings and aspects worthy of improvement.
(1) Influenced by factors such as postgraduate entrance examination, employment and evaluation criteria, students' practical links and graduation design are greatly reduced, and their practical ability, especially the cultivation of practical ability, is weakened.
(2) Due to the influence of funds, teaching conditions and assessment standards, there is a tendency to pay more attention to software than hardware training, which leads to the decline of students' actual hardware ability.
(3) The citation ratio of foreign advanced textbooks is low, there are few domestic textbooks with high level and outstanding characteristics, and the school-running mode is single, lacking its own characteristics and diversified styles.
(4) Due to the low rate of elective courses and poor flexibility in course selection, students have less opportunities to accept the course content that reflects new technologies, new methods and new theories.