Considerable attention is currently being paid to the development of innovative curricula that are responsive to today's demands on students, faculty, and resources, and are attentive to the needs of graduates. In engineering, these curricula are under several external constraints such as ABET standards, industrial advisory board recommendations, number of faculty, diversity of faculty effort, number of students, available resources, etc. The development of a modern curriculum requires the optimization of course offerings (and other elements of the curriculum) within the imposed constraints.A method, based on a scheme for innovation and continuous improvementjor the development of an engineering curriculum and an example case of its application (mechanical engineering) are described. The method was specifically intended to be useful in the context of engineering departments having busy faculty who are being subjected to numerous competing demands for time and energy. It also had to be applied in academic units that are subject to the due process of faculty governance, remain compatible with the ideals of academic freedom, and be conceptually simple and convenient to implement, regardless of existing administrative structures. Further, to overcome the "not-invented-here" syndrome, any curriculum renewal process must not become an issue in its own right, and it must not threaten any of the particular interests that might exist within a faculty.The process that resulted identifies key elements of the curriculum and helps integrate them through a four year program. This integration is based on a rationally defined distribution of curriculum elements. These elements consist of (ⅰ) fundamentals (ⅱ) defining elements, (ⅲ) complementary elements, and (ⅳ) integrating experiences. Each was defined based on faculty consensus. A distribution of credit hours among the elements was determined so as to yield a logical progression from the fundamentals to the defining elements and complementary elements, all coupled with integrating experiences in several different forms. Based onthis credit hour distribution, a series of possible courses was determined to form a concept curriculum. The topical coverage of these courses, at this point, is left for development. The concept curriculum courses are constrained by content of the curriculum elements and level of mastery for those elements. They must also satisfy any externally imposed constraints from ABET, etc. The concept curriculum assists in planning for the flow and integration of key elements and to maintain a proper balance of the various curriculum elements.The final step in the curriculum development is the identification of specific courses and the topical coverage of each. This is an iterative process that is best achieved using a coordinating committee and faculty subgroups reporting back to the faculty as a whole. The subgroups for individual courses develop topical coverage in detail. Subgroups discuss with the faculty as a whole, course coverage, distribution of topics, and expected student mastery of topics. This procedure provides a method for continuous improvements as changing demands and constraints are imposed and new challenges to the educational mission are presented.
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