Phase II: Educating the 2020 Engineer

1. Phase II: Adapting Engineering Education to the New Century Phase II: Educating the 2020 Engineer . . . 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

2. Characteristics of the 2020 Engineer • Technically proficient • Innovative • Broadly Educated • Flexible • Ethically grounded • Prepared to work in a rapidly changing global economy

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. Selected Recommendations Educating the Engineer of 2020: Adapting Engineering Education to the New Century

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. 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.

17. Guideposts for the Future • Collaborations • NSF Funded Coalitions • Grand Challenges • Programs sparked by industry, foundations and/or professional societies

18. 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

19. Engineer of 2020 Initiative – Purdue Univ.