Advances in the Engineering Education Prof. Dr. Muhammad Usman Ali Shah Chairman, & Head ETRG, Department of Electronic Engineering NED, UET, Karachi Engr. Raza Jafri Associate Professor & Coordinator Electronic Engineering Department of Electrical Engineering Usman Institute of Technology, Karachi 1
An intro. The global challenges that we are facing today revolve around four paradigms viz. economy, society, environment and technology. Technology obviously has an impact on the other three paradigms and it appears that it s the key role player when it comes to seeking the solutions for the challenges we are facing. Engineering in general and engineering design in particular forms the bases of technology in the modern world. 2
Grand engineering challenges as per the National Academy of Engineering 1) Make Solar Energy Economical; 2) Provide Energy from Fusion; 3) Develop Carbon Sequestration Methods; 4) Manage the Nitrogen Cycle; 5) Provide Access to Clean Water; 6) Engineer Better Medicines; 7) Advance Health Informatics; 8) Secure Cyberspace; 9) Prevent Nuclear Terror; 10) Restore and Improve Urban Infrastructure; 11) Reverse Engineer the Brain; Enhance Virtual Reality; 12) Advance Personalized Learning; 13) Engineer the Tools of Scientific Discovery. 3
Engineering & Society Great technologies over the years have created social revolution. Examine in the past hundred years or so the advancements in the automobile and the aviation industries or the role of computer or computing based machines in our lives! Haven t this created a paradigm shift in our society? 4
Society and Education of Engineers.. To understand how engineering responds to the needs of society, engineering education must have a proper influx of the society, the problems within the society and the prime infrastructure of the socio-economic conditions that exist in this domain. An important determinant of how engineering satisfies its social purpose is in fact the breadth of engineering. 5
Social needs and responsibilities Five guiding principles when working into the domain of social needs and responsibilities are: 1) Uphold the dignity of man. 2) Avoid dangerous and uncontrolled side effects and byproducts. 3) Make provision for consequences when technology fails. 4) Avoid buttressing social systems that perform poorly and are bound to be replaced. 5) Participate in formulating the why of technology. 6
Current Engineering Education and Research direction, vision, mission 1. Deliver engineering innovation domestically and to the global community. 2. Deliver specific engineering capabilities that will be needed in the future to improve health and safety, provide for a cleaner environment, and enable more sustainable development 3. Address areas in which advocacy by the engineering profession can lead to public policy development and directly contribute to quality of life. 4. Make educational enhancements/reforms that would cater to the needs of modern socio-economic culture. 7
What should be our approach? Pursue greater collaboration across disciplines and professions Increase engineers influence in policymaking Re-examine our accreditation process Transform engineering education and practice Encourage the greater participation of under represented groups Attract and retain women in much greater numbers 8
Engineering Education a brief background. 9
Most engineering graduates today would recall that their engineering curriculum was primarily focused around intense mathematical and theoretical studies. It wasn t the same, way back in the 40s. Then the curriculum was mostly practical oriented focusing on design rather than engineering science and mathematical theory. 10
The field and undergraduate programs changed dramatically after the World War II in the west. The prime reason was the increase in the government support and funding for the research based activities in the universities and institutes. 11
Engineering universities hired faculty to teach and conduct research actively. A consequence was that the universities got deprived of the industrial experienced faculty members in the academia. Eventually courses on advanced mathematics and theory replaced practical courses on machining, surveying and drawing. 12
Strong emphasis on the practical knowledge and resulting improvements in the defense related technologies ensured a smooth flow and paved the gap well between demand and supply of engineers during the post World War II era. But the 80s brought a new challenge. The shift from defense related technologies to commercial applications ended in a certain dissatisfaction level of the employers. 13
New engineering graduates, though technically well prepared, were not well versed with respect to the competitive consumer based market where newer innovative ideas and products were being demanded with a tough time to market boundaries. The fresh graduates were found lacking proper communications skills and they were unable to understand the non technical and socio economical impacts of the engineering solutions! 14
That was indeed an alarming situation! Several quarters mentioned these shortcomings in various reports in the USA recommending changes in the engineering education paradigm. It suffered an initial resistance by the academia and the academia blamed the accreditation bodies for not allowing them changing the curriculum in that direction due to curricular and credit hours limitations. 15
After much debate by both the sides, in 1996 the EC 2000 ( Engineering Criteria 2000) got approved in the USA. 16
EC-2000 DIRECTIONS FOR THE FUTURE ENGINEERING EDUCATION. 17
EC-2000 is based upon student learning outcomes and accountability and not on curricular specifications. To ensure accountability each program is supposed to opt for a structured, documented system for continuous improvement within all domains of engineering education portfolio like development, assessment and improvement. 18
Engineering Education then & now. 19
For evaluating, what changes in the end product EC-2000 has brought, an assessment study conducted at the Center for the Study of Higher Education at Pennsylvania State University. This assessment study was based upon two core points: 20
(1) the impact (if any)of EC2000 on engineering students preparation for entering their professions and (2) whether engineering programs had changed their organizational and educational policies and practices in ways consistent with the EC2000 spécifications. 21
The Conceptual model for EC-2000 22
EC-2000 learning objectives 23
Results of EC-2000 at a glance Domain of Education Emphasis in the Engg. Program before EC-2000 Emphasis in the Engg. Program after EC-2000 % increase 24
Changes in Student experiences. 25
The graduates after the implementation of the revised engineering education program reported: 1) more active engagement in their learning 2) more interaction with instructors 3) more faculty feedback on their work 4) more time spent studying abroad 5) more international travel 6) more involvement in engineering design competitions 7)more openness in their programs to new ideas and people. 26
Employers feedback 27
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Today s engineering education OUR EXPECTATIONS AND THEIR FULFILMENT 29
Today we need our engineering graduate to have: adequate analytical skills knowledge of the competitive engineering solutions ability to understand processes and equipment capability to learn, adapt and change an understanding of the socio economic impacts on engineering solutions a feel for the non-engineering and ethical issues in our society 30
What we got to do to achieve that? First and the foremost.motivate the students for not just learning but understanding! Engineers are packaged as problem solvers rather than creators and innovators addressing grand challenges! Lets build our students for solving problems! 31
Lets change the approach. We are facing a long-term challenge. The better our technology, the lesser the need for a engineering redesign! We must prepare our sons and daughters to be global engineering citizens of the world. 32
We must spend more time educating our graduates to be adaptable to the knowledge base that exists not locally but globally! We must spend more learning time on developing inquisitive minds that can bear down on the pros and cons of a concept rather than providing calculations for a specific facet of a project. 33
Lets make engineering more attractive Devise mechanisms to make engineering more lucrative, dynamic and interesting for our students. Without interest..nothing survives! 34
Future of engineering education what we have to focus upon? Challenges in developing secure and sustainable forms of resources, including energy and water. The need to develop more sustainable practices in all branches of engineering. Increased opportunities for technology to improve human health. Globalization and its impact on industrial supply chains, education, research and the human condition. 35
We must remember.. Scattered approaches to reforming engineering education have not resulted in systemic change. 36
Improvements must begin with faculty members, the people on the front lines of education. 37
The Three trump cards.. They must: (1) understand their students as intellectual-socialemotional beings. (2) understand basic principles of learning and (3) Understand the components of effective course design. 38
Building the intellectual capabilities of our students New knowledge is filtered through existing knowledge, whether or not it is accurate. Lets help our students with the existing knowledge and groom them to extract new knowledge from it. 39
Being a professor we must remember The childhood experiences of students differ markedly from those of their professors. Let the student share his experience with you, the more he would share, the more he would learn! 40
Indulge into successful course design The instruction design triangle 41
Prepare your students for. Adaptability so that they could work with ease in a constantly changing world! 42
Thank you 43
References 1. Teaching Engineeirng, by Matthew Baggetta.Published on February 4, 2016. http://blog.tophat.com/how-to-teach-engineering/ 2. Teaching Engineering All you need to know about engineering education but were afraid to ask Peter J Goodhew 2013 CTC Publications 3. LEARNING AND TEACHING STYLES IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION [Engr. Education, 78(7), 674 681 (1988)] Author s Preface June 2002 by Richard M. Felder 4. Approaches to Teaching Engineering Ethics by Tom Ricci, ASME.org 2015 5. The Bridge: Linking Engineering & Society, National Academy of Engineering, USA, March 2011 6. Future Trends in Engineering Education and Research by W.H. El Maraghy Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering, University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada 44