The Engagement of Professional Engineering Societies in Undergraduate Engineering Education

在这个项目中，美国国家工程院将引起全国高层对工程专业学会在支持改善本科工程教育方面所发挥的重要作用的关注。这些角色包括制定和维护专业标准，澄清在该领域执业的人所需的知识和技能基础，以及充当雇主和工程学院之间的桥梁。然而，从经验的角度来看，人们对社会在工程教育方面的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利用这些贡献的能力。为着手解决这一知识鸿沟，该项目将对相关出版的文献进行详细审查，对专业协会在这一领域的活动进行全面调查，并在国家讲习班上征求专业协会的证词。讲习班和五次后续区域利益攸关方会议将为各协会之间以及各协会与其他利益攸关方之间，特别是工业和高等教育之间的富有成效的交流与合作提供机会。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。这种交流和合作反过来有可能提高社会倡议的有效性，并为国家科学基金会和其他支持工程教育改革的资助者的决策提供信息。

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.