The Engagement of Professional Engineering Societies in Undergraduate Engineering Education

在这个项目中，美国国家工程院将提请高层次，全国关注工程专业协会在支持本科工程教育的改进所发挥的重要作用。这些角色包括制定和维护专业标准，澄清那些在该领域实践所需的知识和技能基础，并作为雇主和工程学校之间的桥梁。然而，从经验的角度来看，对工程教育的社会工作的程度和影响知之甚少，这种信息的缺乏阻碍了政策制定者，工程教育机构，工程教育改革的资助者和雇主在自己的工作中有效地利用这些贡献的能力。为了开始填补这一知识空白，该项目将详细审查相关的出版文献，全面调查专业协会在这一领域的活动，并在一次国家讲习班上征求各协会的证词。讲习班和五次后续区域利益攸关方会议将为各学会之间以及各学会与其他利益攸关方，特别是工业界和高等教育界之间进行富有成效的沟通和合作提供机会。讲习班报告和区域会议摘要将分发给各利益攸关方，以鼓励今后的合作。这种沟通和合作，反过来，有可能提高社会的倡议的有效性，以及由国家科学基金会和其他资助者，支持工程教育改革的决策。

In this project, the National Academy of Engineering will draw high-level, national attention to the important roles played by engineering professional societies in supporting improvements in undergraduate engineering education. These roles include setting and maintaining professional standards, clarifying the knowledge and skill base needed by those practicing in the field, and serving as a bridge between employers and schools of engineering. Little is known from an empirical standpoint about the extent and impact of societies' work in engineering education, however, and this lack of information hinders the ability of policy makers, engineering education institutions, funders of engineering education reform, and employers to effectively leverage these contributions in their own work. To begin to address this knowledge gap, the project will conduct a detailed review of the relevant published literature, conduct a comprehensive survey of professional societies' activities in this area, and solicit testimony from the societies at a national workshop. The workshop and five follow-on regional stakeholder meetings will provide opportunity for productive communication and collaboration among the societies and between the societies and other stakeholders, particularly industry and higher education. The workshop report and regional meeting recaps will be disseminated to the various stakeholders in order to encourage future collaboration. This communication and collaboration, in turn, has the potential to enhance the effectiveness of societies' initiatives as well as inform decision making by National Science Foundation and other funders that support engineering education reform.