Page 132 - Educating the Engineer of 2020: Adapting Engineering Education to the New Century

Educating the Engineer of 2020: Adapting Engineering Education to the New Century
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11338.html

HISTORY OF ENGINEERING EDUCATION REFORM 115

American Institute of Chemical Engineers), and executives in the firms,
businesses, and corporations that employ engineers have revolved
around a few basic issues. Considering the enormous changes that have
taken place in technology and in society at large since 1875, this conti-
nuity is striking. The intent of this brief essay is to identify the main
currents in various reform movements.
The dominant issue has involved the content of engineering cur-
ricula, including the relationship between theory and practice, the
length of engineering education, and the nature and structure of general
education courses. Issues that reflect influences from society at large
touch on the general goals and social expectations for engineering and
on who should be an engineer.

THE CONTENT OF ENGINEERING CURRICULA

It is a truism that engineering education is a product of history. Yet,
it is worth taking a moment to remember that until the end of the
nineteenth century, the primary means by which a young man became
an engineer was through a hands-on apprenticeship in a machine shop,
at a drawing board, behind a transit, or on a construction site. Although
educational institutions played a larger role than is often recognized by
providing courses and certificates, and a handful of institutions devel-
oped full-blown curricula and degree programs, it was not until after
the Civil War, when the Morrill Act led to the establishment of land-
grant schools, that the dominant pattern of engineering education
shifted from shop floors to classrooms (Reynolds, 1992). The formation
of the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education at the
World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 ratified this devel-
opment (Reynolds and Seely, 1993).
A variety of factors influenced this transition. A major factor was
the steady emergence of new technologies that defied commonsense,
hands-on approaches to development and operation. Electrical and
chemical technologies increasingly required that engineers be grounded
in basic science—and in the case of alternating current, have a knowl-
edge of mathematics—to develop and improve devices and systems in
these fields. Thomas Edison, despite his attempts to appear as a trial-
and-error inventor, maintained one of the best scientific libraries in the
United States and routinely employed Ph.D.-holding scientists from
Europe (Hughes, 1989). Similarly, the design and construction of the

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