THE FUTURE OF ENGINEERING EDUCATION II. TEACHING METHODS THAT WORK

Deficiencies in engineering education have been exhaustively enumerated in recent years. Engineering schools and professors have been told by countless panels and blue-ribbon commissions and, in the United States, by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology that we must strengthen our coverage of fundamentals; teach more about “real-world” engineering design and operations, including quality management; cover more material in frontier areas of engineering; offer more and better instruction in both oral and written communication skills and teamwork skills; provide training in critical and creative thinking skills and problem-solving methods; produce graduates who are conversant with engineering ethics and the connections between technology and society; and reduce the number of hours in the engineering curriculum so that the average student can complete it in four years.