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An Approach to Undergraduate Engineering Education for the 21St Century

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An Approach to Undergraduate Engineering Education for the 21St Century Session S1H An Approach to Undergraduate Engineering Education for the 21st Century William E. Kastenberg, Gloria Hauser-Kastenberg and David Norris University of California at Berkeley, 4103 Etcheverry Hall Berkeley, California 94720-1730 [email protected] Abstract – The complexity inherent in the newest cultures" which C.P. Snow already commented on in 1956. technologies as well as the complexity inherent in the Rather, our proposed approach is based on three premises: (1) multiplicity and diversity of societal needs and technology shapes society as much as it is shaped by it, (2) the perspectives in relation to those technologies calls for a newest technologies (e.g., bio-, nano-, and information new approach to undergraduate engineering education. technology), because they can so dramatically impact the We believe this new approach requires a paradigmatic ecology of life and hence evoke debate from a number of shift from a linear reductionist mindset to a nonlinear societal stakeholders, require the engineer to have developed holistic mindset. To accomplish such a shift in social and emotional as well as technical intelligence, and (3) undergraduate engineering education we propose a new a new integrated culture needs to be generated for the context, new content and new pedagogy to reinforce the engineering profession rather than simply mixing elements context and content. The latter includes the concept of from the two existing cultures. To support this integration, we praxis, a set of personal, group and professional practices, also propose introducing the notion of "praxis", by which we which have the goals of internalizing knowledge, mean a set of personal, group and professional practices that enhancing self-awareness and embodying the values of a embody this proposed new culture. By engaging with these new integrated culture of engineering. We believe that the practices experientially, students ultimately would be program advocated in this paper can be implemented supported in developing a new relationship to themselves, within the constraints of the normal 4 year curriculum by their profession and their world. Our intention is to educate utilizing the ABET humanities and ethics requirements engineers to be able to integrate two kinds of complexity: the more effectively. complexity inherent in the newest technologies and the complexity inherent in the multiplicity and diversity of Index Terms – Undergraduate engineering education, context, societal needs and perspectives in relation to those content, pedagogy, paradigm shift. technologies. This paper describes three elements required for such an INTRODUCTION approach: (1) a new context for undergraduate engineering This paper advocates an approach to undergraduate education, (2) a set of five core competencies and a special engineering education based on a new paradigm in which interdisciplinary approach to the Capstone Design experience, engineering is practiced with social as well as technical both of which introduce new content into the curriculum and expertise. To produce engineers who are competent to (3) a new pedagogical approach for reinforcing the context participate in the development of 21st Century technology, we and supporting the delivery of the new content. The ideas believe that the role of an engineer must be redefined from advanced in this paper stem from both an upper division being a developer of technology for society to being a engineering ethics course that two of us (WEK and GH-K) participant in the societal process through which technology have been teaching during the past 5 years [1] as well as an shapes society. Such a redefinition will not only call for a NSF sponsored workshop that the three of us organized in different kind of education, but will also attract a greater April 2003 entitled, Ethics and the Impact of Technology on variety of students. Currently based almost entirely on Society [2]. Some of the ideas presented in this paper are new science, the engineering curriculum tends to attract primarily and some have already been incorporated into existing those students with science as their focus. The redefinition we programs at colleges and universities, both nationally and are proposing is based on an integration of science and the internationally. humanities and, as such, would attract students with a wider PRIOR CALLS FOR REFORM range of interests. We intend for our approach to go far beyond merely Recently, a number of prominent engineers have been calling adding a number of elective courses in the humanities, social for both a broadening and a strengthening of the engineering sciences and perhaps one or two courses on ethics. Simply curriculum. Joe Bordogna [3], Deputy Director at NSF and sending engineering students for short visits to the other side former Assistant Director of Engineering, writing in "The of the campus doesn't really bridge the gap between the "two Bridge", a publication of the National Academy of 1-4244-0257-3/06/$20.00 © 2006 IEEE October 28 – 31, 2006, San Diego, CA 36th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference S1H-23 Session S1H Engineering, proposed a new approach to engineering dams, etc.) in support of industrialization and a rapidly education. Referring to this new approach, he speaks of a growing population. Emerging from the war, the engineering "holistic undergraduate curriculum" that is congruent with the profession moved into new areas of activity that included complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity inherent in the space exploration, nuclear energy, jet aircraft, modern technologies currently being developed. In his view, telecommunications, computers and semi-conductor devices. engineering ethics and societal values should be included as To support this, a new paradigm emerged for engineering part of the design process itself. Furthermore, he says that education: the science based engineering curriculum. For the students will need to shift their focus from problem solving to last 50 years or so, most engineering programs in the United problem formulation and from avoiding chaos by seeking States have been based on this model. order to learning to live with ambiguity. In fact, with respect This science-based curriculum has served us well. We to the complex nature of technology and its relationship to have landed people on the moon; we have developed robotic society, Bill Wulf [4], president of the National Academy of assembly lines; we can communicate instantly at any time of Engineering, also writing in "The Bridge", stated that the most day or night with anyone anywhere in the world via the challenging issue facing the engineering profession in the 21st Internet or with cell phones; and we have produced hand-held Century, is how engineers will communicate to both the PDA's that have more memory and speed than the computers general public and to the relevant social institutions about the which were originally used to design our arsenal of nuclear costs (i.e. risks) of complex technology as well as its benefits. weapons! Moreover, in the United States technology has In addition to many articles, there have also been a contributed significantly to national security, to economic number of recent initiatives aimed at undergraduate growth, and to an assured food supply. We have created a engineering curriculum reform. Most notable among these technology-based military that is second to none along with an was the National Science Foundation's "Engineering enviable record of economic performance and prosperity Education Coalitions" Program. A recent evaluation of this driven by technological advancement. program [5] stated that, "The Coalitions Programs has had Our society is now entering a new period of scientific many important impacts during the first five years, but these achievement that brings with it not only new frontiers for cannot be said to be the comprehensive and systemic new technology, but also a new set of challenges for the models for engineering reform [which had been] anticipated." engineering education community. Recent scientific Furthermore, in a project called “Deep”—Deconstructing breakthroughs include the mapping of the Human Genome [8], Engineering Education Programs [6]—an extensive review of the development of Complexity Theory [9], the discovery of recent activities aimed at increasing diversity in the Supramolecular Chemistry and Self-Assembly [10], a new undergraduate student body of engineering schools was understanding of Ecology and Self-Similarity [11], the conducted and several significant conclusions were drawn: application of Plasma Physics to manufacturing processes "Essentially no attempts have been made to revise the [12], and new advances in Network Theory [13] and engineering curriculum itself so as to promote diversity, Nanoscale Science [14]. This has led to whole new fields of even though it is clear that the curriculum is central to engineering such as Biotechnology, Nanotechnology, and what defines an engineering education. Instead, most various aspects of Information and Nuclear Technology. diversity initiatives aimed at the undergraduate These breakthroughs have profound implications for our engineering student population have started with a society, not the least of which is the need for the next shift in curriculum which is known to be unattractive to women the paradigm of engineering education similar to the shift that and minorities, and have tried using 'add-ons' or minor occurred after World War II [15]. changes to rectify the
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