Page 30 - 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

2

The Past as Prologue

In presenting this document for review and use by the community,
we recognize that this is not the first time for serious discussions about
the character of engineering education in the United States. Some 50
years ago, such debate led to the introduction of the engineering science
model of engineering education. It produced engineers who “practiced”
differently, and that led to many new products and technologies that
were developed more rapidly and were of higher quality than those de-
veloped by the semi-empirical methods that were then the norm for
engineering practice. Today, the practice of engineering needs to change
further because of demands for technologies and products that exceed
existing knowledge bases and because of the changing professional envi-
ronment in which engineers need to operate. That change must be en-
couraged and facilitated by changes in engineering education, but in
contemplating such changes, we are sobered by two realities: first, that
scattered interventions across engineering education over the past
decade or so have not resulted in systemic change, but rather only in
isolated instances of success in individual programs, on individual cam-
puses; and second, that the disconnect between the system of engineer-
ing education and the practice of engineering appears to be accelerat-
ing. This is due to the explosion of knowledge, the growing complexity
and interdependence of societal problems, the worldwide reach of those
problems, and the need to operate in a global economy. However, we
are optimistic that the community of advocates recognizing the need for

13

Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.