Transforming Undergraduate Education in Engineering-- Phase 1: Mobilizing the Community for Change

American Society For Engineering Education, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

The "Transforming Undergraduate Education in Engineering-- Phase 1: Mobilizing the Community for Change" project run by the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) is initiating a process to identify the critical components of engineering curricula, pedagogy, and educational culture to support the education of engineers over the next several decades. The explosion of technology over the 20th century, epitomized by advancing from the first flight in 1903, to landing a man on the moon in 1969 has radically changed the world we live in. Engineers, scientists, mathematicians and technologists have been central to the development. Technology has transformed the typical engineering workplace and practice; where drafting boards were commonplace, now laptop computers have increased the precision and work volume of engineers. Pencil and paper calculation performed with a pocket calculator has given way to sophisticated computer simulations. Practicing engineers working today have little need for many of the facts and methodologies that were essential just a decade ago and now have skills and knowledge that was difficult to anticipate. Unfortunately engineering education, if measured by the amount of sustained change over the past several decades, has not kept pace. In fact, some would say engineering education is not even in the race. If it is natural for education to follow a changing society then this project is perfectly timely. If education should lead society, then this project is even more critical. Content, pedagogy, and university culture has remained relatively static for 50 years and although there have been minor changes; the most common engineering classroom is still passive lecture. Content, although modernized in many ways, still clings to the time honored traditional prerequisite materials of science and highly sophisticated mathematics. Students have also changed. Today traditional students are so accustomed to technology that they have radically different ways to interact with the world and society. Students find more information via the Internet than the library. They stay in touch with each other more than previous generations even when distantly separated, or in the car. Use of technology feels natural and comfortable, unlike most engineering educators and practitioners who have had much of the technology thrust upon them and adapted. Because of these radically different behaviors, it seems obvious to expect that future students will have an equally radical view of what is important and makes sense. This project is studying many questions. Is there value in dropping some time honored content? Are such areas all critically important to engineering practice today or were they critically important to the way engineering was performed in 1980? Is it critical for students to solve equations by hand with pencil, paper and a calculator or can they understand them even when a computer solves the equations? Is it possible to understand a square root without being able to compute it to six decimal points? Or can students grasp the big picture of problem formulation and solution while delegating the tedious work to technology? Are future students likely to understand material in radically different ways from existing engineering practitioners? How can these different ways of thinking be harnessed to create the ideal engineering graduate? If the engineering education culture feeds the strengths of students, can engineering be transformed into an exciting program of study that will draw students in rather than requiring massive recruitment and retention programs? This project is bringing together a key group of engineering education experts in designing a large-scale change effort to address important questions on the future of engineering education in the United States. American Society for Engineering Education staff are collecting and synthesizing ideas from the attendees in advance of the workshop, ensuring that face-to-face meeting time is optimized. The results of this initial planning process are being used to develop a full-scale plan for effecting change across all engineering disciplines in cooperation with a wide range of stakeholders from industry, education and government.