May 2007 ISSUE
education
Changing Demands for Graduates Trigger Engineering Education Summit
Massive projects, global context,
social awareness, ubiquitous computing, and entirely new fields involving multidisciplinary
innovation are changing the face of engineering.
On May 16, 100 faculty members from across the University of Calgary campus, students and professional engineers will be joined by North American leaders in engineering education for a day-long summit at the Schulich School of Engineering. The summit will begin a dialogue about changes required in engineering education.
In this question and answer session, Dr. Arin Sen, P.Eng., an assistant professor for the Schulich School of Engineering, backgrounds the shifts in engineering education.
Q. When did engineering become a “profession” that
required a formal education?
A. The roots of engineering education can be traced back to
the mid-18th century when the French started to formally educate individuals
in what would go on to become civil engineering. The Grande Écoles established
by Napoleon emphasized mathematics.
Meanwhile, in England, the onset of the industrial revolution spurred an apprenticeship approach to mechanical engineering. The two approaches filtered across the Atlantic in the early 19th century to shape the university engineering education system in North America.
Q. How would you describe the evolution of the North American
engineering education system?
A. It has always evolved in the context of cultural changes
on this continent. Initially, in the 1800s, there was primarily workshop instruction.
However, innovations in electricity and chemistry changed that because they required
an in–depth understanding of scientific theory.
This resulted in a shift towards classroom-based learning, symbolized by the formation of the American Society of Engineering Education in 1893, which created an engineering curriculum that emphasized mathematics. This was the predominant approach to teaching engineering for the next 60 years.
By the middle of the 20th century, scientific progress again changed the expectations around engineering. In 1957, when the Soviet Union beat the United States in the race to space with Sputnik, engineering schools revamped their curricula to emphasize science in addition to mathematics. This type of technical math and science–rich classroom-based curriculum is prevalent in educational institutions across North America today.
Q. Is there about to be another shift?
A.It looks like it. With the dawn of the computer age, the new
engineering graduate must be able to access and evaluate new information, translate
it into useful knowledge, and apply it to solve multidisciplinary problems. Thus,
in addition to a solid foundation in math and science, the engineer of tomorrow
has to be able to use the ever-expanding array of tools to innovate, communicate
and work in multinational teams.