Modern engineering education

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Herbert Hoover (seated left) and Stanford Surveying Squad

• change from rule-of-thumb experience to formal science
• change from apprenticeship to formal education
• change from independent consultant to corporate employee
• Florman says (p. 173) that the status of the profession declined

How has engineering education changed as the profession has changed, to prepare people for their careers?

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In 1906 the University of Cincinnati pioneered co-op education--students did no practical work at school but learned it in their industrial work.  Initially they alternated weeks.

In 1918 the Mann report complained about overspecialization in engineering schools and called for more laboratory teaching of engineering.

In 1932 an organization was set up to set standards for engineering schools:  ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology).

• Engineering schools, in order to be accredited (as meeting standards for the graduates to be licensed) must follow standards set by ABET
• ABET sets general standards for the courses students must take: for example the requirement that students must take 3 distribution courses in one field or 2 in each of 2 fields comes from ABET
• it also sets standards for everything from student labs to graduate student offices

• technical/vocational education vs. liberal arts
• cultural literacy
• creativity--see for example the bridges of Christian Menn and the ideas of David Billington
  

• An MIT study of Exxon found that engineers and intermediate managers spend 30% of their time writing, while supervisors spend 40% of their time writing. ( Paradis, James, David Dobrin, and Richard Miller.  “Writing at Exxon ITD:  Notes on the Writing Environment of an  R&D Organization.”  Writing in Nonacademic Settings.  Ed.  Lee Odell and Dixie Goswami.  New York, NY:  Guilford Press, 1985.  281–307. )

• In Nazi Germany, engineers, chemists and other professionals were assigned the task of finding more efficient ways of killing people (see for example a biography of Eichmann or selections from an eyewitness account).   Most of them did so, even those who were not members of the Nazi party, treating the extermination of a people as simply another technical problem to be solved.  Engineers must see the big picture and be knowledgeable about contemporary affairs to prevent that ever happening again.

One solution would be a 5 year engineering degree or requiring a masters degree for licensing, as in almost all other professions.  But this idea has never gotten much support.

• By 1930 well over 90% of engineers were employed as technical workers or as managers in industry, rather than being independent professionals.
• In a study of 1884-1924 roughly 2/3 of engineers became managers within 15 years after college.
• Does engineering education prepare engineers to become managers?
• MIT re-emphasized the humanities in the early 20th century partly with the idea of preparing engineers to make the cocktail party conversation necessary to move up in management.
• if you work for a large corporation can you really be a professional who puts the public good first?

How has engineering changed as society has changed?

 Sputnik 1

impact of Sputnik (in 1957 the Russians launched the first artificial satellite--Americans were very upset about the Russians being ahead):

• National Defense Education Act of 1958
• a major effort to improve secondary school teaching with such things as "new math"
• "manpower" concerns--first efforts to encourage women to study engineering
• the following chart shows the percentage of engineering degrees going to women.  The top of the chart is 20%

How changes in technology have changed engineering and engineering education

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Modeling rather than hands-on testing

Computer Aided Design (CAD): the computer can do the drafting and calculations during the design process

Computer Aided Manufacturing and Computer Numerically-Controlled Machine Tools: A computerized system automatically sets up the manufacturing system or machine tool to produce the product called for by the CAD drawings.

Expert systems to replace engineers?

Teaching with technology

What else?

Because of the expense of these systems it has become harder for engineering schools to keep up with the technology being used in industry.

Engineering is a great profession. There is the satisfaction of watching a figment of the imagination emerge through the aid of science to a plan on paper. Then it moves to realisation in stone or metal or energy. Then it brings homes to men or women. Then it elevates the standard of living and adds to the comforts of life. This is the engineer's high privilege.

Herbert Hoover, US mining engineer & politician (1874 - 1964)