Transforming Undergraduate Education in Engineering-- Phase 1: Mobilizing the Community for Change

由美国工程教育学会(ASEE)运营的“改造工程本科教育--第一阶段：动员社会变革”项目正在启动一项进程，以确定工程课程、教学方法和教育文化的关键组成部分，以支持未来几十年的工程师教育。从1903年的第一次飞行，到1969年人类登上月球，20世纪技术的爆炸性发展从根本上改变了我们生活的世界。工程师、科学家、数学家和技术专家一直是这一发展的核心。技术已经改变了典型的工程工作场所和实践；在绘图板司空见惯的地方，现在笔记本电脑提高了工程师的精度和工作量。用袖珍计算器进行的纸笔计算已经被复杂的计算机模拟所取代。今天工作的实践工程师几乎不需要十年前必不可少的许多事实和方法，现在拥有很难预测的技能和知识。不幸的是，如果以过去几十年持续变化的数量来衡量，工程教育并没有跟上步伐。事实上，有些人会说，工程教育甚至不在竞争中。如果教育顺应不断变化的社会是很自然的，那么这个项目是非常及时的。如果说教育应该引领社会，那么这个项目就更加关键。内容、教学方法和大学文化50年来一直保持相对静止，虽然有一些微小的变化，但最常见的工程课堂仍然是被动授课。内容虽然在许多方面现代化了，但仍然依附于历史悠久的传统科学必备材料和高度复杂的数学。学生们也发生了变化。如今，传统学生对技术已经习以为常，他们与世界和社会互动的方式截然不同。学生通过互联网比通过图书馆找到更多的信息。他们比前几代人保持更多的联系，即使相距遥远，或者在车里也是如此。与大多数工程教育者和实践者不同，使用技术感觉自然和舒适，大多数技术被强加给他们并进行调整。由于这些截然不同的行为，似乎很明显，未来的学生对什么是重要的，什么是有意义的，会有同样激进的看法。这个项目正在研究许多问题。放弃一些历史悠久的内容有价值吗？这些领域对今天的工程实践来说都是至关重要的吗？还是对1980年的工程执行方式至关重要？对于学生来说，用铅笔、纸和计算器手算方程式是很重要的，还是即使计算机解了方程式，他们也能理解？在不能计算到六个小数点的情况下，有可能理解平方根吗？或者，学生能够在将繁琐的工作委托给技术的同时，掌握问题制定和解决的大局吗？未来的学生可能会以与现有工程从业者截然不同的方式理解材料吗？如何利用这些不同的思维方式来培养理想的工科毕业生？如果工程教育文化促进了学生的力量，那么工程能否转变为一个令人兴奋的学习项目，吸引学生，而不是需要大规模的招生和保留计划？这个项目正在召集一个关键的工程教育专家团队，设计一项大规模的变革努力，以解决有关美国工程教育未来的重要问题。美国工程教育学会的工作人员在研讨会前收集和综合与会者的想法，确保面对面的会议时间得到优化。这一初步规划过程的结果正被用于与工业、教育和政府等广泛的利益攸关方合作，制定一项全面计划，以实现所有工程学科的变革。

The "Transforming Undergraduate Education in Engineering-- Phase 1: Mobilizing the Community for Change" project run by the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) is initiating a process to identify the critical components of engineering curricula, pedagogy, and educational culture to support the education of engineers over the next several decades. The explosion of technology over the 20th century, epitomized by advancing from the first flight in 1903, to landing a man on the moon in 1969 has radically changed the world we live in. Engineers, scientists, mathematicians and technologists have been central to the development. Technology has transformed the typical engineering workplace and practice; where drafting boards were commonplace, now laptop computers have increased the precision and work volume of engineers. Pencil and paper calculation performed with a pocket calculator has given way to sophisticated computer simulations. Practicing engineers working today have little need for many of the facts and methodologies that were essential just a decade ago and now have skills and knowledge that was difficult to anticipate. Unfortunately engineering education, if measured by the amount of sustained change over the past several decades, has not kept pace. In fact, some would say engineering education is not even in the race. If it is natural for education to follow a changing society then this project is perfectly timely. If education should lead society, then this project is even more critical. Content, pedagogy, and university culture has remained relatively static for 50 years and although there have been minor changes; the most common engineering classroom is still passive lecture. Content, although modernized in many ways, still clings to the time honored traditional prerequisite materials of science and highly sophisticated mathematics. Students have also changed. Today traditional students are so accustomed to technology that they have radically different ways to interact with the world and society. Students find more information via the Internet than the library. They stay in touch with each other more than previous generations even when distantly separated, or in the car. Use of technology feels natural and comfortable, unlike most engineering educators and practitioners who have had much of the technology thrust upon them and adapted. Because of these radically different behaviors, it seems obvious to expect that future students will have an equally radical view of what is important and makes sense. This project is studying many questions. Is there value in dropping some time honored content? Are such areas all critically important to engineering practice today or were they critically important to the way engineering was performed in 1980? Is it critical for students to solve equations by hand with pencil, paper and a calculator or can they understand them even when a computer solves the equations? Is it possible to understand a square root without being able to compute it to six decimal points? Or can students grasp the big picture of problem formulation and solution while delegating the tedious work to technology? Are future students likely to understand material in radically different ways from existing engineering practitioners? How can these different ways of thinking be harnessed to create the ideal engineering graduate? If the engineering education culture feeds the strengths of students, can engineering be transformed into an exciting program of study that will draw students in rather than requiring massive recruitment and retention programs?This project is bringing together a key group of engineering education experts in designing a large-scale change effort to address important questions on the future of engineering education in the United States. American Society for Engineering Education staff are collecting and synthesizing ideas from the attendees in advance of the workshop, ensuring that face-to-face meeting time is optimized. The results of this initial planning process are being used to develop a full-scale plan for effecting change across all engineering disciplines in cooperation with a wide range of stakeholders from industry, education and government.