Page 64 - 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

GUIDEPOSTS TO THE FUTURE 47

the technological age—preparing students for careers in manufactur-
14
ing, management, finance, or government. Other institutions, for ex-
ample, Columbia University in New York, have created “3/2 Plans” that
combine three years of study in the liberal arts and two years of engi-
neering study that result in students earning two degrees (a B.A. in
liberal arts and a B.S. in engineering). 15
Downey and Lucena (1998) contend that there can be multiple
engineering tracks that serve different end purposes for different stu-
dents. For example, there can be an engineering sciences track, an engi-
neering management track, a public policy track, and an engineering
design track. These multiple tracks could serve as a recruiting tool and
strengthen the baccalaureate engineering degree into what Carmi and
Aung (1993) refer to as the “optimum launch pad to challenging and
rewarding professions—engineering first and foremost, but also medi-
cine, law and business.”
We recognize that not every institution with an engineering pro-
gram will be able to or will want to create these different tracks; how-
ever, graduates from such programs could provide an infusion of engi-
neering awareness and habits of mind that would serve to strengthen
technological literacy in both the public and private sectors.

Faculty Development

The examples described above cannot be successfully adapted and
adopted (nor, for that matter, will new approaches be developed) if fu-
ture faculty are not exposed to the challenges of teaching during their
postgraduate studies, or if current faculty are not actively encouraged
and supported to develop their skills as teachers. There has been sub-
stantial activity in faculty development in areas of pedagogy and assess-
ment, such as in NSF’s Preparing Future Faculty program that funded
work by the Council of Graduate Schools and the AAC&U. The goal of
these programs is to better prepare graduate students for the role of
educator that they will be expected to fill following their advanced de-
gree. NSF and other agencies also fund a variety of faculty development

14 See http://www.lafayette.edu/admissions/majors/ba_engineering.html#course.
15 See http://www.engineering.columbia.edu/admissions/cp/.

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