Teaching the Grand Tradition of Modern Engineering through Introductory Courses for Engineering Students and for all Other Students in Higher Education

通过面向工科学生和所有其他高等教育学生的入门课程教授现代工程的伟大传统

• 批准号: 0308549
• 负责人: David Billington
• 金额: $ 30.5万
• 依托单位: Princeton University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2003
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2003-07-01 至 2008-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0308549&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Teaching; Grand; Tradition; Modern; Engineering

Over a quarter century of research and teaching, the PI and his colleagues have developed an approach to engineering education at the introductory level that reconnects engineering to the liberal arts and attracts new groups of students to engineering. The core of the approach is the idea that efficiency, economy, and ethical and aesthetic choice are all intrinsic to engineering design, not separate considerations superimposed from without. Students come to understand that engineering is not mere technical work but is a creative activity that combines discipline, imagination, and responsible choice. While other approaches that try to link engineering and the humanities have engineering students take more liberal arts courses, the approach that the PI and his colleagues have developed brings out the humanistic potential in engineering itself. Teaching in introductory courses is reinforced through visual understanding, numerical work, and expository writing.The aim of this project is to disseminate this work nationally through scholarly publication, a structured series of symposia, public lectures, and traveling exhibitions.The NSF Award, along with other grants, is enabling the basic scholarly foundation of the courses to be completed. A textbook is being written that completes a three-volume series on the historical development of major American engineering innovations from 1776 to the present. An important article-length work on the transfer of foreign technology to the United States in the twentieth century is also being written, as is the second of two books on the great public works of the twentieth century United States.The NSF Award is also supporting an annual symposium and exhibition that will bring about thirty faculty from other colleges and universities to Princeton each spring. During this project, the PI plans to lecture at schools and in professional gatherings, such as the annual meeting of the American Society for Engineering Education, as a plenary speaker.The broad goal of the project is to help other schools attract non-traditional students to the engineering profession and to improve the engineering education of all students by teaching its modern tradition of outstanding works.

经过四分之一世纪的研究和教学，PI和他的同事们已经开发出一种入门级的工程教育方法，将工程学与文科重新联系起来，并吸引了新的学生群体进入工程学。这种方法的核心是这样一种思想，即效率、经济、道德和美学选择都是工程设计所固有的，而不是从外部叠加的单独考虑。学生们开始明白，工程不仅仅是技术工作，而是一种结合纪律，想象力和负责任的选择的创造性活动。虽然其他试图将工程学和人文学科联系起来的方法让工程专业的学生学习更多的文科课程，但PI和他的同事们开发的方法却带来了工程学本身的人文潜力。通过视觉理解、数字工作和简要写作来加强入门课程的教学。本项目的目的是通过学术出版物、一系列结构化的专题讨论会、公开讲座和巡回展览在全国范围内传播这项工作。NSF奖，沿着其他赠款，使课程的基本学术基础得以完成。一本教科书正在编写，完成了一个三卷系列的历史发展的主要美国工程创新，从1776年到现在。此外，还有一部关于20世纪世纪外国技术向美国转移的重要著作正在撰写中，这也是关于20世纪世纪美国伟大公共工程的两本书中的第二本。国家科学基金会奖还将资助一个年度研讨会和展览，每年春天将有大约30名来自其他学院和大学的教师来到普林斯顿。在该项目中，PI计划在学校和专业聚会上发表演讲，如美国工程教育学会年会，作为全体演讲者。该项目的总体目标是帮助其他学校吸引非传统学生进入工程专业，并通过教授其优秀作品的现代传统来改善所有学生的工程教育。