Page 133 - Educating the Engineer of 2020: Adapting Engineering Education to the New Century

Educating the Engineer of 2020: Adapting Engineering Education to the New Century
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116 EDUCATING THE ENGINEER OF 2020

alternating-current generators for the hydroelectric complex at Niagara
Falls in the 1890s owed much to European engineers because most
Americans did not have sufficient background in physics and math-
ematics to design these devices (Hunter, 1979; Kline, 1984). Charles
Steinmetz—a European immigrant working at General Electric in those
years—was one who spoke out for educational changes to keep up with
new technologies (Kline, 1992).
Another factor that influenced the shift to college education was
the emerging patterns of middle-class America. Engineering was only
one of the professions taking shape at this time; others included medi-
cine, law, economics, and even history. These professional groups had
several beliefs in common: that scientific knowledge was essential to the
improvement of the nation; that people with scientific expertise should
be given political and moral authority, as well as the social status that
comes with that authority; and finally that the best way to gain expertise
was through a university education.
The leaders of the engineering profession in the last quarter of the
nineteenth century had an acute sensitivity to their lack of social posi-
tion—at times to the point of an inferiority complex. Engineers fre-
quently asked when they would get the respect they deserved for design-
ing, operating, and maintaining the large systems on which Americans
increasingly depended, ranging from water and power systems in cities
to massive bridges and railroad networks. Eager to acquire the same
prestige as other professions, engineers embraced college classrooms as
the best approach to education, a decision that the demands of tech-
nologies reinforced (Calvert, 1967; Jackson, 1939a; Layton, 1971; Stine,
1984–1985).
But determining the nature, shape, and content of the classroom
experience proved a contentious issue that took time to resolve (and is
still being debated). A number of complex issues were involved, of which
the most delicate seemed to be finding a balance between hands-on
knowledge of devices and systems and a theoretical and scientific grasp
of nature and mathematics (Seely, 1999). Over time, more emphasis
was placed on an analytical style of engineering that emphasized sci-
ence, especially mathematical expression (usually labeled engineering
science) and less on the hands-on, empirical approach that stressed en-
gineering design. But early debates were loud and prolonged, despite
calls for changes as early as the 1880s by leading engineers, such as
Robert Thurston of Cornell. The most famous study of engineering

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