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Phase II: Educating the 2020 Engineer

• Phase II: Adapting Engineering Education to the New Century

. . . NAE Summit of 100+ current and emerging leaders in engineering and engineering educators to lay out what will or should engineering education be like today, or in the near future to prepare the next generation of students for effective engagements in the engineering profession in 2020

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Characteristics of the 2020 Engineer

– Technically proficient– Innovative– Broadly Educated– Flexible– Ethically grounded– Prepared to work in a rapidly changing global

economy

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Characteristics of the 2020 Engineer

• Prepared to contend with emerging advances such as biotechnology, nanotechnology, information and communications technology, material science, Photonics and other unanticipated technologies

• Possessing a systems perspective to enable collaboration with multidisciplinary teams of technical experts

• Able to communicate with technical and public audiences• Able to communicate using technology and an

understanding of the complexities associated with a global market and social context

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Guiding Strategies from the Phase II Summit

• Engage in a comprehensive examination of the “system of systems of engineering education”.

• Focus on levers for change.

• Pursue student-centered education.

• Develop engineering education research base.

• Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

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System of Systems Review

• The teaching, learning and assessment processes that move a student from one state of knowledge to another state

• Student and teacher/faculty as primary actors within the learning process

• Curriculum, laboratories, instructional technologies, and other tools for teaching and learning

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System of Systems Review

• Goals and objectives of teachers/faculty, departments, colleges, accreditors, employers, and other stakeholders of engineering education

• The external environment that shapes the overall demand for engineering education

• A process of revising goals and objectives as technological advances and other changes occur

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Focus on Levers for Change

• Professional Societies

• Engineering Faculty

• Students

• Others whose perspectives, imagination and energies can help in designing, implementing and assessing systems changes to create desired outcomes

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Pursue Student-Centered Education

• Address how students learn as well as what they learn in order to ensure that student learning outcomes focus on the performance characteristics needed in future engineers– Better alignment of curriculum– Better alignment of faculty skill set with those

needed to deliver the desired curriculum in light of the different learning styles of students

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Develop Research Base

• Conduct research on how students learn engineering to address issues related to broadening participation, improving retention of majors, creating courses for non-majors and designing an alternative engineering degree for students interested in careers and public service opportunities outside traditional engineering employment

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Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

• To increase public awareness and understanding of engineering– Its social context and how engineering makes

contributions to our quality of life– The values of engineering training for a variety

of tasks/challenges– Its breadth and depth and expanding options

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Selected Recommendations

Educating theEngineer of 2020:AdaptingEngineering Educationto the New Century

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• Whatever other creative approaches are taken in the 4-year engineering curriculum, the essence of engineering - the iterative process of designing, building, and testing - should be taught from the earliest stages of the curriculum, including the first year.

                                    

Recommendation

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First Year Engineering Projects

6462

54

77

50

44

73

79

61

74

68

59

82 79

86

58

73

70

60

90

44

68

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Third Fifth Seventh

Semester of Engineering

Retention (%)Caucasian Takers

Caucasian Non-Takers

Asian Takers

Asian Non-Takers

Latino Takers

Latino Non-Takers

African American Takers

African American Non-Takers

Source: Knight, D. W., L. E. Carlson, and J. F. Sullivan. 2003. Staying in engineering: Impact of a hands-on, team based, First-Year Projects course on student retention. In Proceedings of the 2003 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition. Washington, DC: American Society for Engineering Education.

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Recommendation

• Four-year engineering schools must accept it as their responsibility to work with their local community colleges to ensure effective articulation, as seamless as possible, with their two-year programs.

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Recommendations

• The engineering education establishment should participate in a coordinated national effort to promote public understanding of engineering and technology literacy of the public.

• Engineering schools and employers of engineers should lend their energies to a national effort to improving math, science, and engineering education at the K-12 level.

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Recommendations

• Though not addressed specifically in the report, the opportunity exists for engineers and engineering schools to enhance the ability of schools to prepare students for STEM disciplines by partnering with schools of education on in-service and pre-service education and training programs and by engaging in outreach activities in the community.

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Guideposts for the Future

• Collaborations– NSF Funded Coalitions– Grand Challenges– Programs sparked by industry, foundations

and/or professional societies

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Guideposts for the Future

• Technologies for Collaborations– Electronic technologies that enable sharing of ideas,

materials, and other resources relating to the transformation of individual courses or labs, departments, programs or institutions

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Engineer of 2020 Initiative – Purdue Univ.