As we move at an accelerated pace towards a global practice of engineering, it is imperative that a number of 'front line' issues are addressed. First and foremost, methods must be developed to attract the most talented students from the available pool in high schools and community colleges. The best faculty must be engaged to design an outstanding curriculum for the undergraduate engineering courses, and deliver it using a mix of advanced technological tools. The ABET 2000 criteria, emphasizing outcome assessment, will play an important role in this endeavor. As the students complete the baccalaureate program, they will be equipped with the best credentials to compete on the international scene.
In
practical terms, the goal for Engineering programs the world over is to
design and deliver laboratory-based Introduction to Engineering courses,
for both high schools and community colleges, that will capture in an
exciting way the essence of the engineering profession, with all of its
applied science characteristics. The students will elect the Engineering
courses in the same manner as they do natural science and math courses.
This approach will render an early 'taste' of this cutting-edge profession
and whet prospective students' appetites to major in an engineering field
whilst in college.
Concurrently, it will enhance recruiting and retention of underrepresented groups (minority and women) to the engineering education pipeline. Eventually, both an AP modality and Board Exams will be developed in conjunction with the Introduction to Engineering sequence, resulting in transfer of credits, via articulation, in lieú of the college based equivalent courses. Science teachers could pursue a plan of study of 4 courses, leading to an Engineering Teaching Certificate, providing credentials and license to teach in a High School Engineering curriculum. Most importantly, as part of the student recruiting strategy and in addition to the traditional professional engineering career path, an undergraduate engineering degree could also serve as a launching pad to other rewarding careers (medicine, business, law).
Curriculum innovation is a subject that has generated great interest in recent years and received considerable NSF funding (Engineering Education Coalitions, etc.), with the outcomes continuously being assessed, presented and discussed in many forums. This is a subject for a separate article mainly addressing retention issues. While on the issue of undergraduate curriculum, however, it must be noted that the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) Exam, the first step in the engineering licensing process, could be tied-in with the ABET accreditation process. In the Canadian model, for example, there is a strong correlation between graduating from an accredited school and passing the FE exam. To streamline the procedure, it would be advantageous to tie-in the first part of the licensing process (the FE exam) with completing the B.S. engineering degree in an ABET accredited program. The FE Exam could also constitute part of the admission criteria to the Master of Engineering program, described below.
Another major topic of discussion is that of a proposed Master of Engineering as a first professional degree. The objective is to start a dialog among engineers and industrial leaders, aimed at improving the status of the engineering profession in the U.S. Unlike many other parts of the world, U.S. engineers are at times treated by the industry as a commodity, and as a result, are being 'taken for granted' by society at large.
In a recent article in the New Yorker magazine, which highlighted the 100 most successful New Yorkers, there were no engineers included on the list. "This is the invisible profession," noted Harry Armen, a prominent engineer from Long Island, who promptly responded with a letter to the Editor.
New Yorkers should look around at the skyscrapers, the Brooklyn Bridge, the subway system, the electric power or the microchips running the computers on Wall Street and ask: who are the people who design, build, manufacture and maintain these 'marvels' of modern technology? And yet, engineers are 'invisible.' To reverse this trend, students must know that they should expect a successful, exciting and financially rewarding career with built-in job security (lifetime employability) and simultaneously strive to assume societal leadership. The engineering profession should regain the driver's seat in economic/political decision making.
A strategic plan should be forged between industry (the employers) and academic (the educators) with the goal of being full partners in the engineers education enterprise. While industrial involvement can be done at all levels (e.g. undergraduate senior design sponsorship, scholarships, fellowships, curriculum development, etc.), a most productive industry-academia interface occurs at the graduate-master level, furthering the education of engineering graduates who holds B.S. degrees, well grounded in a given discipline (depth), and needing an interdisciplinary dimension and the practical experience (including non-technical aspects) to function most productively in industry. The idea is to get engineers the extra edge, which the very 'compressed' undergraduate curriculum cannot provide - namely the 'horizontal' component that's largely missing: multi-disciplinary integrated teamwork experience and enhanced communication skills.
All this can happen in a real-world industrial environment, the next level 'laboratory', in which young engineers will function as they attain their professional, practice-oriented, Master's degree. Simultaneously, they could complete the 'experience' component of the licensing process, the PE exam, with state-specific requirements. Engineering societies such as ASME, IEEE, ASCE, AIChE, ACM, ASEE, etc., must provide strong leadership in this arena, with the main objective to restore the engineering profession to its well-deserved status in the society. The centerpiece of the Master's degree is an industrial internship resulting in a deliverable project (industrial thesis), with publishable (non-proprietary) results. Some projects might emphasize the business management aspects (like a techno-MBA case study). The industrial internship project is accomplished with dual advising: a supervisor from industry and a faculty from academia. An extra benefit from this industrial-academic interaction is a two-way technology transfer. Hiring and educating the world-class professionals, causing them to 'hit the ground running' and compete on the world scene would be a major benefit for industry.
As we move towards the international practice of engineering, we should facilitate the exchange of licensing, credentials and reciprocity between engineers crossing national borders or state jurisdictions. There are some agreements to the effect in the NAFTA arena, like between Texas and Mexico, and Canada and a number of U.S. states. These are just initial steps, and there is a long way to go. Practicing engineering in the European Union countries, for example, becomes seamless and it should no longer be the case that U.S. engineers are at a disadvantage, but rather are competitive in this new arena of global practice.
Author
Shlomo Carmi, Dean,
College of Engineering
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
