The future of engineering education
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Dave Franchino, president of the product development and innovation consultancy Design Concepts, takes a quick historic look at engineering education and the eight areas of focus necessary for educating tomorrow's engineers. The presentation was delivered on April 22, 2016, at the University of Wisconsin's Engineering Innovation Showcase.
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The future of engineering education
- 2. Prepared For: Contact: Client Contact: Project Number: Project Name:Project Name:Engineering Showcase April 22, 2016
- 3. Future of Engineering Education – Where to begin? DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 3
- 4. A brief (and highly suspect) history of engineering education DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 4 ECHOLE POLYTECHNIQUE – FRANCE 1774 US ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS 1802 US SCHOOLS BEGIN POLYTECHNIQUE MODEL 1850s MORRILL ACT 1862 “ “ …teach such branches of learning as are related to … the mechanic arts… in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes… Early engineering education was driven by weapons and defense Established Land Grant universities to … French Revolution, Napoleon’s military academy Formed as a military academy by Thomas Jefferson
- 5. Course of instruction 1866 DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 5 UW Madison was an early Land Grant university. Here’s the required course load for incoming freshmen circa 1866.
- 6. UW Engineering Course of instruction By 1880, engineering was established at UW Madison and you saw the underpinnings of mechanical, civil and a nascent electrical engineering department Blow Pipe Analysis Shop work Electrical Engineers Steam engines Masonry arches Testing of wires and cables Railway engineering Framed structures Stereotomy DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 6
- 7. A brief (and highly suspect) history of engineering education DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 7 CLASSROOM WORK BEGINS TO OVERTAKE LAB WORK 1880s FEDERAL FUNDING TO SUPPORT THEORETICAL ENGINEERING 1940s GI BILL – COLD WAR RESEARCH FUNDING 1950s COMPLEX MATHEMATICS BEGINS TO DOMINATE 1920s TIMOSHENKO – MECHANICS VON KARMEN - FLUIDS WESTERGARD – CIVIL ENGR
- 8. A brief (and highly suspect) history of engineering education DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 8 ENGINEERING SWINGS HEAVILY TOWARDS SCIENCE 1970s HANDS-ON SKILLS DROPPED 1980s SHIFT BACK FROM PURE SCIENCE TO MORE HANDS-ON AND APPLIED WORK 2000s THE FUTURE 2020s BASIC RESEARCH APPLIED RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT APPLICATION UTILITY “I can’t tell whether he’s an engineer or a scientist.” ─ Theodore Von Karman
- 9. A period of unprecedented challenges… DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 9 ?
- 10. What hasn’t changed? DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 10
- 11. What hasn’t changed? Engineering education reflecting the grand challenges and opportunities of the day Mechanization during Industrial Revolution Transportation, infrastructure Atomic energy, weapons during Cold War Power, energy in the 1970s Computing during Information Age DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 11
- 12. What hasn’t changed? Tension between engineering as a science and engineering as an applied art DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 12
- 13. What hasn’t changed? Tension between analytical and hands-on pedagogies There have always been voices clamoring for more core research and scientific inquiry – and voices arguing for hands on and pragmatic application DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 13
- 14. What hasn’t changed? Challenges of fitting in all of the relevant learning into a reasonable curriculum DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 14
- 15. What hasn’t changed? DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 15 “ “ The amount of work required in engineering is … more than that required in other college(s). Many students find it difficult… they devote an additional year to lighten the work or enable them to elect additional studies.
- 16. Engineering has always taken on the tough challenges DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 16 Engineering has always found opportunities. But today’s opportunities are new & different. Hard problems are not unique to today. But today’s problems are contextually unique. YESTERDAY FUTURE TODAY
- 17. What is different? DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 17
- 18. What is different? Higher education is a bit more expensive… DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 18
- 19. What is different? Highly integrated systems cross conventional disciplines with unprecedented complexity Few design challenges are limited to a single discipline and software-electro- mechanical- biological- materials challenges abound DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 19
- 20. What is different? Frictionless global development Resources, problems, competition and opportunities cross time zones and boundaries like never before DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 20
- 21. What is different? Radically different levels of early exposure & acumen DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 21
- 22. What is different? Unprecedented methods of gathering, learning & disseminating information DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 22
- 23. What is different? Unprecedented pace of innovation 1990: Paper dispenser design All mechanical 3- year development 6,500 man-hours 2006: Paper dispenser design Electro-mechanical 9-12 month development 2,500 man-hours DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 23
- 24. The future is here! DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 24
- 25. Our grand challenges DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 25 Stable Food Supply Access To Clean Water & Sanitation Personal Security & National Defense Equal Education Opportunities For All Access To & Progress In Healthcare Equity In Quality & Dignity Of Life Sustainable, Responsible Housing, Energy & Transportation Stewardship Of The Earth’s Resources
- 26. 8 areas of focus for educating tomorrow’s engineers DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 26
- 27. Areas of focus Teach the ability to conceptualize concrete solutions to abstract problems It’s hard to teach, evaluate and grade creativity DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 27
- 28. Areas of focus Engage and connect through team, project, and goal-based learning Students are clamoring for context. They want to see not just the what but the why. DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 28
- 29. Areas of focus Increase awareness, exposure and empathy with other disciplines and perspectives Engineering is a component in the larger ecosystem of society and commerce Innovation is a team sport DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 29
- 30. Areas of focus Reinvigorate hands-on learning The theoretical and analytical parts of our profession separate us from makers and hackers, but Engineering must keep a foot firmly planted in the real and the applied DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 30
- 31. Areas of focus Teach our engineers to become storytellers Engineers must be able to evocatively describe complex, technical things and a future that doesn’t exist yet to help people make the best decisions. DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 31
- 32. Future challenges Erode boundaries and blend between engineering disciplines Fostering curiosity and the desire to experiment are critical DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 32
- 33. Future challenges Inform and educate the ethical humanist engineer The engineer’s power to leverage expertise for societal, philanthropic, artistic and humanitarian purposes is clear DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 33
- 34. Future challenges Empower engineers as entrepreneurs Encourage leadership and exposure to business strategy DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 34
- 35. The 8 areas of focus for educating tomorrow’s engineers DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 35 ENGAGE AND CONNECT THROUGH PROJECT, TEAM AND PROBLEM BASED LEARNING INCREASE AWARENESS, EXPOSURE AND EMPATHY WITH OTHER DISCIPLINES AND PERSPECTIVES REINVIGORATE HANDS-ON LEARNING INFORM AND EDUCATE THE ETHICAL HUMANIST ENGINEER EMPOWER ENGINEERS AS ENTREPRENEURS TEACH THE ABILITY TO CONCEPTUALIZE CONCRETE SOLUTIONS TO ABSTRACT PROBLEMS ERODE BOUNDARIES AND BLEND BETWEEN ENGINEERING DISCIPLINES TEACH OUR ENGINEERS TO BECOME STORYTELLERS
- 36. It’s SIMPLE! Creativity & problem solving Project, team & problem based learning Empathy with other disciplines & perspectives Hands-on learning Cross engineering disciplines Inform & educate the ethical humanist engineer Empower engineers as entrepreneurs All while trying to teach complex, rigorous technical topics DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 36
- 37. I get it, it’s hard!!! DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 37
- 38. How do we do all this and stay sane? DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 38 Don’t have all the answers. Here are some thoughts: • Online learning to teach more rote skills leaving classroom time for deeper problem solving, synthesis and application. • Recognize students are coming in with deeper and more relevant skills. • Remove duplication across engineering and science courses.
- 39. How do we do all this and stay sane? DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 39 Don’t have all the answers. Here are some thoughts: • Students must understand core principles and theory, but technology can release them from some of the laborious aspects of application. • Reconsider some of our sacred cows in the light of new context and new challenges. Where is there a bit of Stereotomy in our courses that can be cut to make room for new learning?
- 40. Learning about learning DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 40 Worthy of effort Worthy of research Worthy of publishing Can help put Madison in the forefront
- 41. Wrapping it up DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 41
- 42. Change is the only constant DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 42 Students no longer learn about steam engines and stereotomy … as knowledge and society progresses, education changes Engineering has shifted between theoretical & applied focus to meet the needs We are now facing “wicked” problems that require engineers to work in a larger context than before It’s a great time to be and educate engineers
- 43. DESIGN CONCEPTS, INC. 43
- 44. Prepared By: 5301 Buttonwood Dr. Madison, WI 53718 260 Shipley St. San Francisco, CA 94107 Thank You Contact Us: design-concepts.com Prepared By: Dave Franchino dave.franchino@design-concepts.com
Hinweis der Redaktion
- Of course, when I agreed to speak on this topic last year it was a complete abstraction – and as the date approached I realized I didn’t have much of a perspective on the topic. So I thought I’d begin by trying to take a look at where we’ve been.
- Dig into the history of engineering education and it’s intrinsically linked with the military. Like it or not, it’s historically driven not by industry or society – but by weapons and defense. The Polytechnique military academy under Napoleon I in 1804. It still runs under the supervision of the French ministry of Defense. In the US - United States Army Corps of Engineers was formed in 1802 by President Thomas Jefferson But things really got going with the Morrill Act, which donated public lands to the several States and Territories to establish colleges. Interestingly enough, the stated objectives of the Land Grant universities was Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts.
- UW Madison was one of the early Land Grand universities – and if you’re curious what it was like to study here in 1866, here is the required course load for incoming freshman. It’s bit different than the courses I remember taking as an incoming freshman. Then again maybe I just slept through Xenophone’s Anabasis.
- By 1880, engineering was pretty much established at UW Madison and you saw the underpinnings of mechanical, civil and a nascent electrical engineering department. No sign, of course, of fluid mechanics, structures, bio engineering, nuclear engineering, problem solving or using computer tools.
- Early engineering class almost entirely applied. Lab and shop work – really more of a technical apprenticeship. But by the turn of the century, you began to see the formation of engineering as we see it today. 1880s – classroom work began to overtake shop and lab work as technical and analytical rigour In the 1920s, complex mathematics began to dominate with giants such as Timosheknko in Mechanics, Von Karmen in fluids and Westergard in civil structures applying rigorous analysis. By the 1940s, the war effort and in particular the rush to develop atomic weapons lead to dramatic increased in federal funding – primarily to support highly theoretical research – the effects of which are still present today. In the 1950s, the GI provided a huge influx of highly motivated and mature engineering talent – and the cold war provided the motivation for deeper and more scientific research.
- By the 1970s, engineering research had swung heavily towards science – so much so that some of the original luminaries in the field were deeply troubled. Further distancing engineers from applied and hands on occurred in the 80’s. I recall this being the time when my high school dropped their manual arts program. My father went to the board meeting and listened to the head of the school board say there was no need to teach these skills anymore because in the future everything would be made by computers. Von Karman was quoted as saying: I can’t tell whether he’s an engineer or a scientist – The scientist describes what is; the engineer creates what never was. More recently we’ve seen a bit of a shift back from pure research to more balanced, hands on and applied work. Engineers have grappled with their place on the research arc – realizing that our
- This is the point in today’s talk when, according to common wisdom and convention, I’m about to tell you that we are facing deeper, more dire and more pressing problems than ever before. And that it’s an unprecedented era of opportunity, promise and potential. And why wouldn’t I say that? It’s a great setup for why we think engineering needs to change. It tends to slip right through like a linguistic trick. The problem is, I don’t think it’s true. To claim it is both disingenuous and somewhat naive, and misses what a glimpse of the past can show us. “Society's needs in the decades ahead will call for engineering talent on a scale never before seen in the United States or elsewhere; the engineer of the future will be called upon to play an increasing role in the solution of complex social problems; and the future engineer will need greater technical competence to cope with the complexities of technological endeavors.” Engineering Education Report in 1968 – almost 50 years ago.
- Engineering education has always reflected and influenced the challenges and opportunities of the day. Engineering students in L’echole Polytechnique fought to defend Paris during the War of the Sixth Coalition. From mechanization during the industrial revolutions, transportation and infrastructure during the intrawar period, atomic energy and weaponry during the Cold War, power and energy during the 1970s, to computing and the launch the Information Age – engineers have always been grounded in base sciences but pivoted their application to meet the needs of the day.
- Another constant is the push and pull engineers have faced between engineering education as a science and engineering education as an applied art. Engineering Is Not Science And confusing the two keeps us from solving the problems of the world By Henry Petroski Throughout history, a full scientific understanding has been neither necessary nor sufficient for great technological advances: The era of the steam engine, notably, was well into its second century before a fully formed science of thermodynamics had been developed. Indeed, sometimes science has impeded progress. Had Marconi believed his physicist contemporaries, he would have "known" that wireless telegraphy signals could not be sent across the ocean, around Earth's curvature. Engineers welcome any and all available scientific knowledge, but they needn't wait for scientists to give them the go-ahead to invent, design or develop the machinery to advance technology or to check it when it runs out of control.
- That being the inherent tension between analytical pedagogies and hands on. In 1880, the College of Mechanical Engineering bragged about it’s machine shop – calling it the latest and most approved practice. Students were required to spend 10 hours a week in the shop. By 1980 when I was in school, the closest I got to a machine shop that I recall was fitting strain gages to a planar tool post to measure cutting force and compare it to my calculations. The fact that I had no idea what a planar did – or what one would really use it for – seemed to be lost both on me and my instructors. But as near as I can tell, there have always been voices clamoring for more core research and scientific inquiry – and voices arguing for hands-on and pragmatic application
- Somewhat surprisingly, one other thing that doesn’t seem to have ever changed is the struggle to jam everything we need to know into four years. We tend to think that’s a modern problem and why wouldn’t it be? Older engineers didn’t have to learn Java and Matlab and Arduinos or computational fluid dynamics and finite element analysis.
- But if you look back into the UW’s bulletin of 1901, you find a surprisingly similar refrain. I found this thing called “A Five Year Scheme for Engineering” The amount of work required in engineering is … more than that required in other college(s). Many students find it difficult… they devote an additional year to lighten the work or enable them to elect additional studies.
- I don’t in any way mean to diminish the problems we experience today. The problems facing engineers today are indeed deeply complicated and troubling. Nor do I mean to diminish the potential and opportunity facing today’s graduating engineers. But these problems are contextually unique. And because of these problems, the intellectual tools and methods we give our students needs to be different as well.
- In-state tuition was FREE! Out of state $15/ semester. In case you’re wondering - and I was – that’s $430 in today’s dollars Also interesting to note that there was an engineering periodical fee of $1 / semester and a lab fee of $1.50 / semester – perhaps the first evidence of differential tuition.
- But one thing I truly believe is different and unique is that our problems and our systems are more integrated and interwoven than ever before. I can tell you in my business there are very few design challenges that are limited to as single discipline and software-electro-mechanical- biological- materials challenges abound.
- Likewise, the world has shrunk in ways that would have been hard to imagine and predict. This means that resources, problems, competition and opportunities cross time zones and boundaries like never before.
- Another new development in my mind are the radically different levels of acumen and exposure to technology and engineering principles. In 1860 engineers started with Geometry as freshman. It’s not uncommon to find high schoolers who have completed a few semesters of calculus, programmed a Raspberry Pi, and participated in robot competition since they were in elementary school. Sadly, there’s a tremendous range in exposure and experiences, creating even bigger gaps between the haves and have-nots in our K12 education system.
- Another thing that’s unique to today are the unprecedented methods of gathering, learning & disseminating information. My daughters leaned calculus from a guy named Kahn and he’s pretty brilliant.
- The pace of innovation is also accelerating. For example, here’s a paper dispenser my company designed in 1990. It’s all mechanical. It had a three-year development period, using 6,500 man-hours. In contrast, the paper dispenser we designed in 2006 was electro-mechanical, took about nine months to a year to develop, using 2,500 man-hours.
- So the context is different and the environment is different. We might not be currently dealing with the Cold War, or rural electrification, or domestic sanitation, but the challenges and opportunities for engineers range from the mundane to the truly wicked. What do we need to prepare our students to address our grand challenges?
- So with these challenges as a backdrop, I’d like to suggest eight areas for focus when educating the engineers of tomorrow. Ways in which I believe our courses, our curriculum, our tools and our methods need to be influenced along with developing and delivering technical and analytical excellence in our young engineers. These are based on what we look for in our young engineers when hiring at Design Concepts and what our clients look for in their engineers. What skills and traits engineers are most likely to be lacking coming out of school? And what can separate the world-class engineers at UW Madison?
- We historically do a great job of teaching engineers how to generate concrete answers to concrete problems. And that’s vital – but increasingly that’s table stakes. What is increasingly needed is to teach engineers how to apply technical tools and methods to highly abstracted problems – ones where the constraints are ambiguous and there are not necessarily right or wrong answers. This is critical – but it increasingly reflects the types of problems our engineers are asked to solve. Why is this hard? Because it’s hard to teach creativity. We get understandably squeamish assigning, evaluating and ultimately grading creativity. But we can do a much better job of teaching robust synthesis and problem solving skills. And we need to.
- Again, we’re historically good at individualized problem-based curriculum. It’s vital. But it doesn’t accurately reflect how problems present themselves or the manner in which they are solved. Teams leverage the power of group and provide invaluable experience at collaboration, which is a great proxy for professional environments. Presenting technical topics in terms of projects and goals provides perspective, context and a framework to make engineering come alive. Why is this hard? So many reasons. Teams are great in theory but hard in execution working in a system that relies and thrives on hierarchical ranking. And projects and goals sound great but at times complex technical topics in a context can be overwhelming. Sometimes learning is best accomplished through rote memorization, repetition, absorption. Still project and teamwork is vital. In practice, our projects will fail more often from failed intrapersonal dynamics and botched collaboration than technical missteps. We know our students are clamoring for context. They want to see not just the what but the why. It makes it real and it makes it matter. Because again – it’s a reflection of the very nature of work and the types of problems and situations where our students will be thrust after graduation.
- Not just other technical disciplines – but all sorts of disciplines, cultures, people and backgrounds. Engineering is only valuable as a component in the larger ecosystem of society and commerce. A diverse society brings us its problems and a diverse society judges our solutions. And while I’m intensely proud of my degree and my profession, I have learned that we are no more vital than all the other people who are required to bring innovation forward. Business, sales, marketing, finance, law, the arts, the humanities, psycology, medicine. Innovation is a team sport and sometimes we’re on a team that has nothing but wide receivers. Why is it hard? Engineering curriculum is incredibly dense and hard – without adding in the need for empathy. But I think most engineering managers will tell you that the most challenging aspects of running an engineering team have much more to do with interpersonal dynamics, empathy and collaboration than pure technical excellence. And somehow we need to find a way to give our engineers this type of learning, attitude and exposure.
- As mentioned earlier, inherent tensions in our profession exist between the theoretical science and applied art Cannot lose the theoretical and analytical parts of our profession. Separates us from makers and hackers. But Engineering has to keep a foot firmly planted in the real and the applied. And there’s not better way to do that than through practical, hands on, applied learning. It makes engineering fun and engaging and real. It binds us to our objectives as engineers. But most of all, a blend between the analytical and a hands on approach makes for better engineering and better engineers. As good as our analytical tools have become, because our solutions need to work in the real world, we need to work in the real world to develop our solutions. It’s hard – judgement to decide between analytical and experiential. it requires resources that are expensive, perishable and sometimes dangerous. It takes space and a different skill. But its vital to training engineers to can efficiently and effectively solve problems.
- As near as I can figure, people have always recognized the need for solid communication skills in our engineers. That’s not new. The need to clearly, accurately and succinctly communicate. But as engineers move further into the fore in creative problem solving, the need to tell stories becomes paramount – to be able to evocatively describe things and a future that doesn’t exist yet. To parse and distill complex technical topics to a point where a diverse audience can be persuaded to make the right decisions. Innovation is incredibly fragile and the ability of engineers to paint a vivid picture of the future can be the difference between a game changing development or a great idea withering away due to lack of funding or bureaucratic gridlock.
- I’d like you to meet Jack. Jack is a mechanical engineer who works for our company. He joined us a few years ago from UW Madison. Right now Jack is working on a really cool device for deep brain surgery. And he’s using a lot of traditional mechanical engineering skills. Analysis. Design. In our office, when we have clients for meetings in we often provide the snacks – cookies,. After the meeting, if there are snacks left over our admin puts them out on a cart, wheels them into the break room and sends our and email to the staff saying to come and get it. Jack built an accelerometer driven sensor that he clamped to the underside of the cart. And when the cart begins to move, the accelerometer triggers, and a Raspberry Pi sends a text message to Jack’s smartphone through an app he developed. Jack is first to the cookie cart. Later on, Jack worked with one of our clients to combat fogging on the optics for a medical device. Then he designed and built an environmental test chamber and developed a software algorithm for digitally capturing and measuring fogging levels. Jack is brilliant. Jack inspires me. My company needs more Jacks. How can we create more Jacks?
- History has shown that engineering has huge potential in commerce and the military – and those will no doubt continue to be important aspects for our profession. But increasingly, the power of the engineer to leverage their expertise to for societal, philanthropic, artistic and humanitarian purposes is becoming clear. Society needs it – and our students crave it. We need to learn how to educate for it. Beyond this, as we move further up the innovation food chain, engineers face complex ethical dilemmas. As a young engineer with Saturn, I was presented with helping determine the metal gage and number of welds for structural elements for the Saturn vehicle. Making parts thicker and adding welds increased the performance in a crash. They also made the car heavier, more expensive and reduced mileage – making it less likely that consumers would choose to purchase our car – and making it even harder for us to compete with the overseas entry-level vehicles. And I vividly remember lying awake in bed trying to reconcile this and feeling very overwhelmed. My daughter’s boyfriend is a manufacturing engineer at a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant and feels one of the technicians isn’t paying enough attention to safety protocols. But his supervisor is telling him it’s not a big deal. What are we doing to give our young engineers the perspective, tools, training and instincts to maximize the value of their skills to society and mankind?
- Finally – as much as it hurts me to say this – I don’t think it’s in the best interest of society or the UW to teach all of our best and brightest to go to work for people like me.
- So here they are – my eight areas of focus for engineering education. And my challenge to each of you is not how can someone else cover this – but how can we all work to preserve the history and technical rigor that a degree from UW stands for while embracing the level of change and evolution necessary to give our young students these skills.
- I don’t have the answers – but lots of exciting progress being made. Developments such as the Grainger maker space. Online and individualized learning can increasingly carry the load for rote skills leaving classroom time for deeper problem solving, core research and application. Our students are coming in with deeper and more relevant skills. We know we can remove duplication of material across engineering and science courses.
- Controversially, technology is providing solutions to analysis and meaning our students need to understand core principles and theory but be released from some of the laborious application. Have the courage to reconsider some of our sacred cows in the light of new context and new challenges. What are today’s stereotomy? Or where is there a bit of Stereotomy in all our courses that can be slid out to make room for new learning?
- I’ll also say this. I will venture that if you share this list of eight focus areas with engineering managers – nine out of 10 will vigorously nod their heads And one of the things that make it so very, very hard to change is that there is not a more inherently siloed place on the face of the planet than a research university. In commerce we have it easy. We need to reinvent or we become irrelevant. We need to collaborate across disciplines to head for a common goal. Historically, these things have not necessarily been looked at with great respect and appreciation in engineering academics. They seem somehow soft, ephemeral and insubstantial. They don’t lend themselves to differential equations or NSA Grants. Perhaps one of the most vexing and exciting nuts left to crack is how to blend a culture and environment of cutting edge, core research with one that can educate brilliant young minds and smooth the path from that research into everyday application. Collaboration, methods, problem solving are worthy of research and experimentation and, yes, even publishing.
- We know that change is the only constant Students no longer learn about steam engines and stereotomy … as knowledge and society progresses, education changes Engineering has and will always shift between theoretical & applied- between hands-on and analytical focus to meet the needs Today’s problems are contextually unique. Today’s opportunities are inspiring. We need to lift our minds and have the creativity, intellect and courage to find ways to tailor our education processes to prepare our students to meet those needs and take advantage of those opportunities. I know that Wisconsin will do that – it always has. It’s a great time to be and educate engineers.
- On Wisconsin!