Downsizing the Curriculum: A Proposed Baccalaureate Program and Contextual Basis

Engineering education is confronted with two realities which call for a rethinking of the undergraduate curriculum: (a) the baccalaureate degree, as the terminal degree for practice, has received much criticism in both industry and academia, and (b) the typical undergraduate student generally requires more than nine semesters to complete a curriculum designed for eight. We propose that the current highly impacted curriculum must give way to a reduced program oriented toward engineering science, which can be completed in four years. Such a curriculum must be based on a limited set of core educational outcomes and would educate engineers within an integrated, liberal framework while preparing graduates for a wide variety of career options. Also included in this proposal is a formal role for the masters degree as the first professional degree and a restructuring of the professional registration process.     

A Cure for Bioengineering? A New Undergraduate Core Curriculum

Student interest, industry growth, and medical advances highlight a growing need for baccalaureate trained bioengineers. However, undergraduate bioengineering curricula have not kept pace with the recent rapid growth of biotechnology, bioinformatics, and cellular level bioengineering. It is the premise of this paper that a new baccalaureate core curriculum in cell and tissue engineering is needed to foster the full development of bioengineering as a core engineering discipline. Employment opportunities for baccalaureate Bioengineering graduates in the emerging biologically‐based engineering industry (e.g. bioinformatics, cell and tissue engineering, neural engineering) are increasing. We describe a new undergraduate B.S. bioengineering curriculum in cell and tissue engineering with an emphasis in interfacial molecular approaches. This curriculum is integrated with traditional bioengineering topics and has its technical emphasis in molecular biology, nanotechnology, and computational modeling. Thus, the future bioengineer can be expected to design, model, fabricate, and control living systems and their fundamental constituents at the same level of detail as an electrical engineer uses SPICE and CAD tools to develop a microelectronic or micro‐electro‐mechanical device. Such engineers would be expected to take their place in industry, graduate school, or medicine with a clear mastery of cell and tissue‐based bioengineering.     

In Pursuit of Excellence and Gender Equality: Engineering Education at Kuwait University

The multi‐dimensional effort in the pursuit of excellence in engineering education at Kuwait University is described. The engineering program curricula have continuously been modified to provide engineering students with an intellectual foundation that is broad, well‐rounded, and multi‐disciplinary. He pursuit of excellence in engineering education has earned the College ABET's “substantial equivalency” rating for six of its programs. Women constitute more than forty percent of the incoming engineering student body in recent years. A comprehensive questionnaire survey of the alumni of the College of Engineering was performed. Nearly all of engineering women alumnae are presently employed and a majority feel that the education and training, which they received from the engineering programs, were excellent and responsive to the needs of their jobs. A clear majority of women alumnae also feel equal (or even superior), to their male counterparts with regard to job‐related factors. The feeling of equality is positively and significantly correlated with GPA, field of specialization, and years of experience.     

探讨发展空间思维的现代工程图学教育

从认知心理学观点出发,对发展空间思维的工程图学教育研究进行了探讨。根据对解决空间几何问题时空间思维特征分析,强调指出大脑加工空间表象的技能性因素,对发展该思维有着重要作用。指出图学教育工作的意义不仅在于讲授图学概念、图示技能,还是一项开发学生的这种“非语言”智力的策划与实施工作。提出了几点教学法以促使有效提高学生的空间想象力。     

Conceptualizing Engagement: Contributions of Faculty to Student Engagement in Engineering

The concept of student engagement, now prominent in the engineering education and higher education communities, has a long intellectual history. Yet only recently has attention focused on the role that faculty play as designers of educational environments to support student engagement. Drawing from examples and data from the Engineering Change study (which evaluated the impact of the new EC2000 accreditation standards on engineering programs and student learning), the Academic Pathways Study of the Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education, and studies underway at the United States Air Force Academy, we explore the role of faculty, as the institutional agents who are most proximal to the student experience, in developing, facilitating, and sustaining high levels of student engagement.     

应用感性工学的儿童参与式智能产品设计方法

目的 针对儿童智能产品设计研究中儿童用户参与度低的问题,应用感性工学的设计方法进行探究,使儿童智能产品的设计更能满足儿童及其父母的需求。方法 将儿童智能产品和儿童用户进行相应的分类。以儿童为主要研究对象进行问卷调查,获取儿童和父母在选择不同儿童智能产品时的决策权重数据。结论 针对儿童参与式的儿童智能产品设计提出了设计流程,包括选择产品设计域、儿童数据获取及计算、感性数据获取方法、结合权重比的感性测量数据计算、定性定量分析及方案设计5个步骤。通过以学龄儿童为用户的儿童智能手表设计对设计方法进行验证。实践证明,应用该方法能够有效提高儿童在设计过程中的参与度和用户对产品的满意度。     

Managing design variety, process variety and engineering change: a case study of two capital good firms

Many capital good firms deliver products that are not strictly one-off, but instead share a certain degree of similarity with other deliveries. In the delivery of the product, they aim to balance stability and variety in their product design and processes. The issue of engineering change plays an important in how they manage to do so. Our aim is to gain more understanding into how capital good firms manage engineering change, design variety and process variety, and into the role of the product delivery strategies they thereby use. Product delivery strategies are defined as the type of engineering work that is done independent of an order and the specification freedom the customer has in the remaining part of the design. Based on the within-case and cross-case analysis of two capital good firms several mechanisms for managing engineering change, design variety and process variety are distilled. It was found that there exist different ways of (1) managing generic design information, (2) isolating large engineering changes, (3) managing process variety, (4) designing and executing engineering change processes. Together with different product delivery strategies these mechanisms can be placed within an archetypes framework of engineering change management. On one side of the spectrum capital good firms operate according to open product delivery strategies, have some practices in place to investigate design reuse potential, isolate discontinuous engineering changes into the first deliveries of the product, employ ‘probe and learn’ process management principles in order to allow evolving insights to be accurately executed and have informal engineering change processes. On the other side of the spectrum capital good firms operate according to a closed product delivery strategy, focus on prevention of engineering changes based on design standards, need no isolation mechanisms for discontinuous engineering changes, have formal process management practices in place and make use of closed and formal engineering change procedures. The framework should help managers to (1) analyze existing configurations of product delivery strategies, product and process designs and engineering change management and (2) reconfigure any of these elements according to a ‘misfit’ derived from the framework. Since this is one of the few in-depth empirical studies into engineering change management in the capital good sector, our work adds to the understanding on the various ways in which engineering change can be dealt with.     

China’s Engineering Education: Situation & Outlook

Since China's drive in 1978 to implement national reforms and open it up to the outside world,its higher education sectorhas made rapid progressin the field of engineering and has been able to achieverapid expansion of scale,Positive change in educational structure,more education investment, improved teaching quality, Educational reform and international cooperation. While praising the achievements,we need toacknowledgethat there are also some problems in China's engineering education, asimbalancebetweensupplyanddemand,homogeneity of goals and patterns, Lack of practice,curriculum system not aligned with the characteristics of engineering,insufficient importance attached to innovation and entrepreneurial education, Poor competence mix.In light of China's process of modernization and the Outline, we forecast that:competition between universities will intensify and the supply-demand imbalance will be alleviated, differentiation depends on the reform of engineer system and administrative university classification,quality of engineering education will be improved with a complete quality assurance system,industrial transformation will be conducive to joint talent development by universities and businesses,instructors will be the mainstay of educational reform,quality of students should be improved in many different ways. As China's modernization accelerates, the quality of its engineering education is getting better and better. We expect to work closely with foreign colleagues to improve the quality to turn out engineering talents meeting the demand of national development.     

Engineering design and intellectual property: where do they meet?

‘Someone else has patented this before’. This is the last thing you would want to hear after months of intensive engineering design work. Yet, this is not uncommon. There is a link between engineering design and intellectual property (IP). However, the boundary between them is not always well defined, especially on when and how IP infringement checks should be conducted during the engineering design process. Hence, this letter seeks to reach out to researchers in the engineering design community to come together and tackle this common design issue.     

Environmentally Smart Engineering Education: A Brief on a Paradigm in Progress

Sustainable development has become the dominant economic, environmental, and social issue of the 21^st century, yet its broad infusion within engineering education programs remains a challenge. This paper discusses the importance of environment and sustainable development considerations, the need for their widespread inclusion in engineering education, and the impediments to change. The roles of ABET and others in the evolution of these considerations in engineering education are presented; however, it is through the ABET engineering criteria that broad adoption of environment related considerations in engineering education will most likely occur. An effort to achieve this aim is described.     

Change in Engineering Education: One Myth,Two Scenarios,and Three Foci

Change is coming to engineering education, but many reform efforts have proceeded without explicitly examining the prime movers of change, the forces that resist change, or the facets or foci of the system that are most in need of change. This essay frames the current debate by seeing change as motivated by external competitive and technological forces. Resistance to change is viewed as being reinforced by the fundamental myth of engineering education that asserts the supremacy of basic research over all other engineering academic activities. After providing evidence that the myth resulted largely from an overestimation of the role of science and an underestimation of the role of engineering in World War II, the essay considers needed organizational, integrative, and programmatic changes. Among these are the creation of student-faculty teams responsible for delivering a quality education, bottom-up alliances with industrial clients, and a number of proposals aimed at helping the profession explore its human, philosophical, and historical underpinnings. The essay concludes by warning that times of great change risk making matters worse through the unintended consequences of reform. A principled methodology of reform is suggested that advocates distributed and competitive implementation together with a special appreciation for knowledge that is difficult to articulate.     

A future path for engineering education: educating engineers forEurope

The present period is one of rapid change in the political, economic and technological spheres. Europe is becoming disadvantaged in today's competitive world. Engineering education has a vital role in the task of keeping Europe in the premier league. The main factors of change and the influences these have on engineering education have been considered by academics and industrialists at several recent international seminars. In this article, the qualities required in engineering graduates are identified and ideas given for reform of curriculum content and teaching/learning strategies. The need for a close partnership between universities and industry is emphasised     

生物医学工程研究生培养新模式探索

生物医学工程是一门整合物理、数学、工程技术、生物医学科技与临床应用的跨领域工程科学,培养能够适应生物医学工程发展需要、熟悉国际规则和惯例、对生物医学产业发展具有影响力的国际化研究型、具有实践能力和创新精神的高素质复合型人才不仅符合生物医学工程专业的特点,对于满足就业市场的需求也具有十分重要的意义。研究以东北大学生物医学工程专业为例,通过生物医学工程专业研究生培养新模式的探索,找出优化的研究生培养规律和教育教学模式,在此过程中,揭示创新型人才培养的机制、方法,从而提高研究生教育的理论水平,提高教学质量和人才培养质量。     

Drexel's E4 Program: A Different Professional Experience for Engineering Students and Faculty

In 1988, Drexel began a project which involves a comprehensive restructuring of the lower division engineering curriculum. The program provides an early introduction to the central body of knowledge forming the fabric of engineering, the unifying rather than parochial aspects of engineering, experimental methods, the computer as a flexible, powerful professional and intellectual tool, the importance of personal communications skills, and the imperative for continuous, vigorous, life-long learning. The subject matter is organized in four major components replacing and/or integrating material in thirty-seven existing courses in the traditional curriculum. The theme of all activities is a central focus on the students as emerging professional engineers and the faculty as their mentors from the very beginning of their education. To date, 500 students and 50 faculty have participated in the project. Preliminary results of evaluations are encouraging. Retention rates and achievement levels are high. Performance tests indicate that most students develop excellent levels of computer and laboratory skills. Their written and oral presentations demonstrate achievement of superior levels of communication skills. Personal interviews and evaluations indicate that student response is quite positive and they place a high value on faculty participation in a team effort. Both faculty and students indicate that this different experience has given them an insight into the importance and scope of the engineering profession and a sense that its practice can be exciting, rewarding and enjoyable.     

On Belay: Peer‐Mentoring and Adventure Education for Women Faculty in Engineering

This paper reports on an intervention program designed to cultivate effective peer mentoring among a small group of women engineering faculty members from different academic institutions. Adventure education, comprised of linked intellectual and physical challenges in an outdoor setting, was chosen as the vehicle to transform the group into a highly functioning team. Based on a qualitative analysis of post‐workshop essays, the intervention resulted in informational, psychosocial, and instrumental mentoring benefits that could serve to support and enhance the participants' academic careers. This paper provides a blueprint for the design of similar workshops for groups that could benefit from additional peer‐mentoring and networking opportunities in the engineering academy.     

Assessment in Engineering Education: Evolution,Approaches and Future Collaborations

This article examines the current state of assessment in engineering education in the United States as reflected in the Journal of Engineering Education. We begin with a brief review of recent developments in the assessment of engineering education and the events that have inspired change. Next, we explore assessment methodologies that have been used repeatedly in the evaluation of engineering courses, curricula, and research investigations as well as some methods that have not been used extensively but are likely to be informative. We conclude with a discussion of the importance of establishing collaborations between researchers in engineering education and educational research. Throughout this paper we highlight examples of sound and rigorous assessments in engineering education.     

The View from the Top: Leaders' Perspectives on a Decade of Change in Engineering Education*

Researchers at The Pennsylvania State University's Center for the Study of Higher Education conducted 27 semi‐structured one‐hour interviews with the deans, chairs, faculty, industry leaders, and association officers who comprise the leadership of national engineering education societies and the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology. During the interviews, these leaders described what they believe are the two most significant changes in the in the field of engineering education during the last decade. This article discusses the sources and pervasiveness of each change, how each change has influenced policy or practice in engineering education, and the best ways to encourage faculty involvement in the change.     

Engineering change: an overview and perspective on the literature

Engineering change has grown steadily in prominence both as an important issue for industry and as an active academic research area. This paper provides a categorised overview and perspective on the published academic literature on engineering change. The aim is to give new researchers an understanding of the field’s breadth and depth, as well as pointers towards additional information, and established researchers a non-dogmatic summary perspective on the work accomplished in this area. Change is defined as an alteration made to parts, drawings or software that have already been released during the product design process and life cycle, regardless of the scale or the type of the change. A change may encompass any modification to the form, fit and/or function of the product as a whole or in part, and may alter the interactions and dependencies of the constituent elements of the product. Key aspects of the engineering change process are highlighted along with the tools and methods that are available to support the process. The nature of products (in terms of complexity, architecture and degree of innovation) and how that affects engineering change are covered. Important related areas such as organisational structure and employee attitudes are also highlighted. The paper concludes by discussing different strategies that have been proposed to cope with engineering change in today’s manufacturing environment.     

基于工程哲学的包装工程专业人才培养

工程哲学作为一种实践哲学,对加强工科大学生创新素质和实践能力的培养有重要的指导意义。基于工程哲学的包装人才培养理念要求高等教育适应国际包装业对包装人才培养需求的改变,体现“大包装工程观”,培养学生的工程实践能力与创新素质。湖南工业大学顺应这一潮流,提出了大包装工程教育观,经过10a教学实践,为包装工程专业人才的培养探索出了一条有效的途径。     

Engineering Education—A Century of Opportunity

Since the founding of ASEE one hundred years ago, engineering education has grown dramatically in scope and in enrollment. Yet, the principles which prompted the call for curriculum reform and for the full development of human potential by the founders of ASEE are as relevant to the situation in engineering education today as it was at that first meeting in 1893. While there has been considerable progress, expectations for fundamental change to achieve the goals articulated by our founders have never been greater.