Page 20 - 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

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3

ing in the undergraduate curriculum and explore the use of
case studies of engineering successes and failures as a learning
tool.
• Four-year schools should accept the responsibility of working
with local community colleges to achieve workable articula-
1
tion with their two-year engineering programs.
• Institutions should encourage domestic students to obtain M.S.
and/or Ph.D. degrees.
• The engineering education establishment should participate in
efforts to improve public understanding of engineering and the
technology literacy of the public and efforts to improve math,
science, and engineering education at the K-12 level.
• The National Science Foundation should collect or assist col-
lection of data on program approach and student outcomes for
engineering departments/schools so that prospective freshman
can better understand the “marketplace” of available engineer-
ing baccalaureate programs.

The report is grounded by the observations, questions, and conclu-
sions presented by the Phase I report, The Engineer of 2020: Visions of
Engineering in the New Century. That report begins with a review of the
likely technological changes and challenges that will impact the world
and the engineering profession. It notes that a dramatic expansion of
knowledge is expected that offers exciting opportunities for engineering
to develop new technologies to address the problems faced by society. It
addresses the societal, geopolitical, and professional context within
which engineering and its new technologies will exist. It notes that the
coming era will be characterized by rapid population growth, which will
contain internal dynamics that may affect world stability as well as the
types of problems engineers will face. Growth will be concentrated in
less developed countries where a “youth bulge” will occur, whereas in
advanced countries the population will age. Issues related to improving
quality of life through advanced technologies in some countries will be

1 Articulation agreements establish rules that govern transfer credits that students earn
at one institution (typically the community college) and are recognized and accepted by the
partner institution (typically a four-year institution) for particular major courses of study.

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