Engineering Management-a personal perspective

Based on my experience as an engineer and educator, I believe that "engineering leadership" rather than "engineering management" should be the goal of engineers in key roles and the focus of their management education. I would also like to see programs in technical organizations led by engineering leaders rather than nontechnical managers. I believe that it is more beneficial to enhance the leadership potential of an engineer than to educate the nontechnical manager in technology.     

Continuing education around the world

Continuing education programs in socialist countries, developing countries, and under French Law 575, with respect to engineering, are discussed. The design of programs depends on cultural, economic, and political pressures. Post-secondary education in socialist countries was influenced by the need to meet demands for trained personnel, by the assumption that it is cheaper to educate the employed, and by continuing education's ability to mix practice with theory. Continuing education in the socialist countries is available through full-time study, part-time study, and independent study with or without supervision. Under French Law 575 continuing education is funded through the State and the employer, with the employer contributing 1 percent of total wages, creating a 5700 million franc fund in 1975. Developing countries have a different emphasis, centering on rural technologies, technician rather than engineer education, and teacher education. The role of the individual, universities, governments, and firms in financing and sponsoring continuing education is placed in worldwide perspective. Lectures in their various formats, correspondence courses, satellite communications, and audiovisual media instructional utility are reviewed. The success or failure of continuing education programs in one country cannot be easily translated into what will happen in another country. All in all, continuing education is more highly regarded worldwide at this point in time than ever before.     

“航空航天供电系统”的课程改革研究

航空航天供电系统是航空类电气工程与自动化本科专业的特色专业课程。航空供电系统包括发电、电能变换和配电等多个重要环节,该课程最突出特点是系统性强。在实际的教学中,应从系统基本功能需求分析和可靠性要求等方面突出系统性的概念,而不局限于部件的性能分析;应联系实际科研情况,阐明未来的发展方向。     

Toward a unified systems engineering education

Systems engineering education is analyzed. The root of systems engineering is system theory, and both are given a brief overview. The methodology of systems engineering is used to design an educational concept. Four alternative approaches, and their merits are tested and evaluated against the requirements defined for education. The conclusion, for the benefit both of engineering education in general and systems engineering in particular, is an integration of systems engineering principles into the education of all branches of engineering, rooted as they are in system theory and design practice already. This approach means a rationalization of the present engineering education, and meets the requirements from industry to a wider spread use of systems engineering principles and practices     

Systems engineering education

The article discusses some basic principles underlying systems engineering, and the translation of these principles to practices such as to enable the engineering of trustworthy systems of all types that meet client needs. The article is concerned with systems engineering education. Thus, it is inherently also concerned with systems engineering, as this provides a major component of the material that is important for systems engineering education. After setting forth some of the necessary ingredients for success in systems engineering, we devote some comments to objectives for and needs in systems engineering education     

德岛大学电气电子工学科本科生课程体系（下）

本文介绍日本德岛大学电气电子工学科的本科生专业基础科目、专业科目和实验科目的设置情况,并与国内高校电气工程学科本科生的专业课程设置进行了比较。了解国外电气工程学科的专业课程体系对于我国相关专业的本科生专业课程设置及其内容改革具有重要参考意义。     

Proven skills: the new yardstick for schools

Under its new rules, the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology's (ABET) Engineering Criteria 2000 (EC 2000) will focus on the results of an engineering education, rather than on the curriculum. As of September 2001, when the document becomes mandatory, EC 2000 will emphasize instead the learned abilities an engineer should possess upon entering into professional practice. With this simple, yet radical, change in focus from input to outcome, EC 2000 aims to get faculties to overhaul their teaching methods and curricula. The criteria are even sparking international educational reform. Many non-US institutions want their programs awarded the status of “substantial equivalency” to US programs, so their graduates can more realistically aspire to jobs anywhere in the world. In formulating the novel criteria, ABET, a nonprofit organization, based in Baltimore, Md., did not go it alone. It had the cooperation of academia, industry, and 29 professional engineering societies, including the IEEE     

The major problems facing engineering education

Engineering education has been much studied during the past fifty years. One of the first major studies, known as the Wickenden Report in its trial version recommended that engineering education be at the graduate level. However, this was later amended to say that engineering education should be an undergraduate study, but should be followed by an internship in which one's further education would be guided by the engineering colleges, industry, and the engineering societies working together. The dilemma of engineering education has been that we have tried to combine a broad general education with some engineering in a sort of liberal science education, instead of offering professional education with a very strong technological stem. Since we have chosen the former path, we find ourselves confronted by other unresolved questions. Should we teach science or engineering practice? How much emphasis should there be on design and how much on theory and analysis? How broad should the curriculum be and how much of the humanities should it contain? How much should we depend on graduate work to train an engineer? Now in addition to these dilemmas we find ourselves confronted with the problem of finding sufficient time to cover the material considered necessary. It is obvious that many of our constraints, schedules, credits, fifty-minute periods, lectures, laboratories, and lock-step methods must be replaced by new methods and systems designed to teach more efficiently. This offers an opportunity for cooperation among industry, the colleges, and the professional societies.     

Launching the Space Shuttle Challenger: disciplinary deficienciesin the analysis of engineering data

Published and archival testimony of participants in the decision to launch the Challenger Space Shuttle and new lessons from the decision process for engineering training and engineering managers are analyzed. Examination of interview testimony, published hearings, and tabular data examined by the decision participants at the time of the Challenger launch shows that analysis of data and reasoning were flawed and that the flaws are attributable in large measure not to personal or even organizational failings but rather to a professional weakness shared by all participants. The professional weakness is either curricular or instructional: a gap in the education of engineers. Simple analysis of field data available to both Morton-Thiokol and NASA at launch time and months before the Challenger launch are presented to show that the arguments against launching at cold temperatures could have been quantified, but were not quantified, to the point of predicting degrees of component failure beyond those held by decision participants to be safe     

Engineering education in Europe

The characteristics of engineering education in Europe in general are presented and compared to engineering education in the United Kingdom. Issues relating to the type of engineers required for an integrated Europe, the comparison of the technicians and engineers in Europe, and the importance of enterprise in the initial formation and continuing education are discussed. The importance of international cooperation and industrial links for improving engineering education in an integrated Europe is outlined     

Individual-centered education: An any one, any time, any whereapproach to engineering education

Engineering education is beset by many of the same challenges that have affected American industry. Much has been recommended and implemented to improve engineering education. However, the traditional structure of engineering education remains, even though current exigencies require a fundamental restructuring. In an earlier paper, the author proposed a para/professional model as an alternative to the traditional engineering degree structure (J.M. Tien, 1999). At a more detailed level, the paper proposes to restructure the very nature of how higher education is delivered: from a group-centered activity to an individual-centered approach that would allow any one to access educational material or multimedia courseware at any time and from any where. Fortunately, the enabling technologies for such an individual-centered approach are, for the most, available. Nevertheless, several challenges must be addressed before individual-centered education can become a reality     

The impact of digital technology on electrical engineering education

Digital technology has revolutionized electrical engineering education. Students entering engineering schools have a strong background in discrete mathematics that is often augmented by a knowledge of programming and of microcomputers. The electrical engineering curriculum has changed to include digital techniques in all major fields. Computer science and engineering, a discipline that may be taught in either computer science or electrical engineering departments, continues to grow. Software engineering is gaining increasing stature. Digital technology has affected instruction in electrical engineering and other university-level subjects less than it has affected curriculum, but significant computer-assisted or computer-managed instruction can be found. The practice of elecltrical engineering has changed with its acceptance of the computer as a design tool and the advent of the microprocessor.     

Rover reaps the benefits of EDM [engineering data management]

When Rover introduced document management in early 1994, it justified the project simply on the basis of providing an engineering drawing database. The system was designed to allow the print room to scan engineering drawings so that users could access them from the desktop rather than having to request hard copy prints. One enhancement, an improved document management release process, was initiated by a request to export CAD files from Rover's engineering data management (EDM) system into the document management system to avoid scanning of CAD drawings. This presented a problem which made the process an ideal candidate for re-engineering using document management to create a new process. This process is described and the benefits gained by Rover are outlined     

理工科课程思政探索与实践

理工科课程的课程思政是近些年的研究热门问题,结合我们近三年的在“嵌入式电子系统设计”课程所进行的课程思政实践,对理工科课程思政的思政总体建设目标、教学实践、课程评价、课程特色与创新等方面做一个简要的总结,希望对理工科课程思政的参与者起到一个抛砖引玉的作用,共同把理工科课程思政这一大工程做好。     

Educating microwave engineers in the United States

Three knowledge areas in which a microwave engineer needs to be educated are reviewed, and implementation means discussed. It is shown that microwave engineering education in the US occurs primarily after receipt of the first (bachelor's) engineering degree. The inevitability of specialized academic education within the field of microwave engineering is pointed out. Overall results from a broadly based survey of US electrical engineering departments' microwave engineering programs are presented. They include information on master's and doctorate degrees awarded, faculty, and sources and level of research funding. Additional reference sources which contain information on US microwave engineering are identified. Opportunities for making educational improvements on the graduate level of this multifaceted engineering specialization, which is not centrally regulated, are pointed out and illustrated by a specific example     

电子信息类应用型本科实践教学改革探索

设计性实践环节在应用型本科工程教育中对学生工程能力的培养起着非常重要的作用。本文在分析应用型本科工程能力教育目标和设计性实践环节存在问题的基础上,探讨了如何将大学生电子设计竞赛对学生工程能力培养的理念引入设计性实践教学过程中,并进一步提出了具体实施方案,经过多年的实践学生的工程能力明显提高。     

国外高等工程教育改革趋势综述

根据参加电气与电子工程师协会（IEEE）举办的“教育的前沿”（FIE）国际研讨会所收集的资料，概括了国外高等工程教育，特别是电气电子类高等教育在人才培养目标、课程设置、学习模式和教育观念等方面深入进行改革的发展趋势。     

基于CDIO 模式的复杂工程问题能力培养实践

单片机原理及应用是电子信息类专业的重要实践课程,在培养学生的解决复杂工程问题能力和创新能力方面发挥着重要作用。针对单片机原理及应用课程传统教学过程中存在重知识轻工程的问题,提出基于 CDIO 模式的工程教育理念,回归工程教育。本文以实际加油机工程项目为教学案例,学生通过构思、设计、实践、运行等环节,完成复杂工程项目。实践表明,基于CDIO的工程教育模式可以激发学生的学习兴趣,有助于提高学生的创新思维能力以及解决实际复杂工程问题的能力。     

Asynchronous learning networks: an information-technology-basedinfrastructure for engineering education

This paper describes the state of the art in the field of asynchronous learning networks (ALNs). Widespread adoption of ALN methods is expected to transform the way engineering education is conducted. Information-technology-enabled communication and dissemination capabilities are likely to impact the economics of engineering education, access to engineering education,the roles of faculty and students, timing and methods of education, the development of students' technical and communication skills, and the ways that traditional engineering students and lifelong learners interact with industry and alumni     

Microwave engineering education in Canada

The author points out that microwave engineering education, as part of the Canadian engineering education system, is evolving in response to rapid changes in engineering practice that result from the explosion of knowledge, technological developments, national and international competition, globalization, and pressing infrastructure renewal. The present system of Canadian engineering education is reviewed in general, and microwave engineering, in particular, is described. Issues and challenges are presented, and future developments and recommended actions are discussed