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MSEE – The First Professional Degree. Presentation to the IEEE Educational Activities Board February 17, 2007. Bruce A. Eisenstein. The 19 th Century. Science advanced slowly Engineering changed hardly at all Science and engineering education was an apprenticeship.
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MSEE – The First Professional Degree Presentation to the IEEE Educational Activities Board February 17, 2007 Bruce A. Eisenstein
The 19th Century • Science advanced slowly • Engineering changed hardly at all • Science and engineering education was an apprenticeship
Early Part of the 20th Century • Changes in Science Accelerated • Atomic Physics, Quantum Mechanics, Relativity • Invention increased (Edison, Bell, etc.) • But engineering remained static
Mid-20th CenturyWorld War II • Engineers were inadequate for the needs of rapidly changing science • Radar, atomic bomb, guidance technologies were done by scientists • Engineering education had to change
Late 20th Century • Engineering sciences became the model for the curriculum • Engineers had to be well grounded in the basic sciences in order to keep up with the advances there • Engineering practice, however, did not change
Context of Engineering21st CenturyPaul Penfield, Jr. 1997 NEEDHA President We continue to educate our students as though the context in which engineering is done is static…By “context” is meant the cultural, political, industrial, social, and work environment in which an engineer practices. In other words, we recognize that science is dynamic, but we still think context is static.
We are wrong! Context is changing dynamically • Gender balance among engineers • Concern for the environment and sustainable resources • New countries, new players, new cultures • Teamwork • Shorter design cycles • Individually customized design paradigms • Better design tools • Globalization • And, most importantly….
Coping with changing science and changing context • Cannot be done in the 4-years of a BS • The changes in science alone cannot be accommodated forcing undergraduate programs to resort to “tracks” • BS graduates are not equipped to function in the new global work environment
What should we do? • Make the BS a technology/science-based liberal arts program • Emphasize creativity, design, economics, social constraints, environmental concerns, teamwork, exposure to other cultures, and aesthetics • MS program drills deep into selected technologies
Will it work? • The suggested change puts engineering education on par with medicine and law • The “new” MS graduates will have a solid liberal arts base to cope with the changing context, and a deep graduate-level understanding of the technology.
