Page 180 - 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

EDUCATING ENGINEERS FOR 2020 AND BEYOND 163

information technology and biotechnology, that is, brainpower and
innovation.
So, we must do two things: (1) discover new scientific knowledge
and technological potential through research; and (2) drive high-end,
sophisticated technology faster and better than anyone else. We must
make the new discoveries, innovate continually, and drive the most so-
phisticated industries. We must also continue to get new products and
services to market faster and better than anyone else. We must design,
produce, and deliver to serve world markets. And we must recognize
that there are natural global flows of industry and that the manufactur-
ing of many goods will inevitably move from country to country ac-
cording to their state of development. Manufacturing may start in the
United States, then move to Taiwan, then to Korea, and then to China
or India. These megashifts will occur faster and faster and will pose
enormous challenges to our nation.
Meeting these challenges will require an accelerated commitment
to engineering research and education. Research universities and their
engineering schools will have to do many things simultaneously: ad-
vance the frontiers of fundamental science and technology; advance in-
terdisciplinary work and learning; develop a new, broad approach to
engineering systems; focus on technologies that address the most im-
portant problems facing the world; and recognize the global nature of
all things technological.

SCALE AND COMPLEXITY

Now let’s think a bit about engineering frontiers and the content of
engineering education. There are two frontiers of engineering. Each of
them has to do with scale, and each is associated with increasing com-
plexity. One frontier has to do with smaller and smaller spatial scales
and faster and faster time scales, the world of so-called bio/nano/info.
This frontier has to do with the melding of the physical, life, and infor-
mation sciences, and it has stunning new, unexplored possibilities. Natu-
ral forces of this world are forcing faculty and students to work together
across traditional disciplinary boundaries. This frontier certainly meets
the criterion of inspiring and exciting students. And out of this world
will come new products and processes that will drive a new round of
entrepreneurship . . . based on things you can drop on your toe and
feel—real products that meet the real needs of real people.

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