Phase II: Educating the 2020 Engineer

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Phase II Educating the 2020 Engineer

• Phase II Adapting Engineering Education to the
  New Century

. . . NAE Summit of 100 current and emerging
leaders in engineering and engineering educators
to lay out what will or should engineering
education be like today, or in the near future to
prepare the next generation of students for
effective engagements in the engineering
profession in 2020
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Characteristics of the 2020 Engineer

• Technically proficient
• Innovative
• Broadly Educated
• Flexible
• Ethically grounded
• Prepared to work in a rapidly changing global
  economy

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Characteristics of the 2020 Engineer

• Prepared to contend with emerging advances such
  as biotechnology, nanotechnology, information and
  communications technology, material science,
  Photonics and other unanticipated technologies
• Possessing a systems perspective to enable
  collaboration with multidisciplinary teams of
  technical experts
• Able to communicate with technical and public
  audiences
• Able to communicate using technology and an
  understanding of the complexities associated with
  a global market and social context

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Guiding Strategies from the Phase II Summit

• Engage in a comprehensive examination of the
  system of systems of engineering education.
• Focus on levers for change.
• Pursue student-centered education.
• Develop engineering education research base.
• Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

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System of Systems Review

• The teaching, learning and assessment processes
  that move a student from one state of knowledge
  to another state
• Student and teacher/faculty as primary actors
  within the learning process
• Curriculum, laboratories, instructional
  technologies, and other tools for teaching and
  learning

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System of Systems Review

• Goals and objectives of teachers/faculty,
  departments, colleges, accreditors, employers,
  and other stakeholders of engineering education
• The external environment that shapes the overall
  demand for engineering education
• A process of revising goals and objectives as
  technological advances and other changes occur

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Focus on Levers for Change

• Professional Societies
• Engineering Faculty
• Students
• Others whose perspectives, imagination and
  energies can help in designing, implementing and
  assessing systems changes to create desired
  outcomes

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Pursue Student-Centered Education

• Address how students learn as well as what they
  learn in order to ensure that student learning
  outcomes focus on the performance characteristics
  needed in future engineers
• Better alignment of curriculum
• Better alignment of faculty skill set with those
  needed to deliver the desired curriculum in light
  of the different learning styles of students

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Develop Research Base

• Conduct research on how students learn
  engineering to address issues related to
  broadening participation, improving retention of
  majors, creating courses for non-majors and
  designing an alternative engineering degree for
  students interested in careers and public service
  opportunities outside traditional engineering
  employment

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Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

• To increase public awareness and understanding of
  engineering
• Its social context and how engineering makes
  contributions to our quality of life
• The values of engineering training for a variety
  of tasks/challenges
• Its breadth and depth and expanding options

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Selected Recommendations
Educating the Engineer of 2020 Adapting Engineeri
ng Education to the New Century
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Recommendation

• Whatever other creative approaches are taken in
  the 4-year engineering curriculum, the essence of
  engineering - the iterative process of
  designing, building, and testing - should be
  taught from the earliest stages of the
  curriculum, including the first year.

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First Year Engineering Projects
Source Knight, D. W., L. E. Carlson, and J. F.
Sullivan. 2003. Staying in engineering Impact of
a hands-on, team based, First-Year Projects
course on student retention. In Proceedings of
the 2003 American Society for Engineering
Education Annual Conference Exposition.
Washington, DC American Society for Engineering
Education.
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Recommendation

• The engineering education establishment should
  embrace research in engineering education as a
  valued activity for engineering faculty as a
  means to enhance and personalize the connection
  to undergraduate students, to understand how they
  learn and to appreciate the pedagogical
  approaches that excite them.

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Recommendation

• Four-year engineering schools must accept it as
  their responsibility to work with their local
  community colleges to ensure effective
  articulation, as seamless as possible, with their
  two-year programs.

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Recommendations

• The engineering education establishment should
  participate in a coordinated national effort to
  promote public understanding of engineering and
  technology literacy of the public.
• Engineering schools and employers of engineers
  should lend their energies to a national effort
  to improving math, science, and engineering
  education at the K-12 level.

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Recommendations

• Though not addressed specifically in the report,
  the opportunity exists for engineers and
  engineering schools to enhance the ability of
  schools to prepare students for STEM disciplines
  by partnering with schools of education on
  in-service and pre-service education and training
  programs and by engaging in outreach activities
  in the community.

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Guideposts for the Future

• Collaborations
• NSF Funded Coalitions
• Grand Challenges
• Programs sparked by industry, foundations and/or
  professional societies

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Guideposts for the Future

• Technologies for Collaborations
• Electronic technologies that enable sharing of
  ideas, materials, and other resources relating to
  the transformation of individual courses or labs,
  departments, programs or institutions

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Engineer of 2020 Initiative Purdue Univ.