REVERSE ENGINEERING MODERN ENGINEERING EDUCATION AND ITS SCIENTIFIC APPROACH: WHAT WOULD STEPHEN TIMOSHENKO SAY ABOUT THE CURRENT ENGINEERING EDUCATION?

摘要

One of the most profound transformations in engineering education may have occurred after World War II, especially in the U.S. According to Jorgensen, in the post war period, engineering education shifted from "encyclopedia stages," focused on national and industrial infrastructure development, to "scientific stages" characterized by achievements such as semiconductor, electronics, and computing. Hence, where instructors were once mainly practitioners, since the 1970s the majority of faculty are academic scientists. Along with this shift, the first concerns about the lack of professional skills of the new graduates appeared in public opinion, concerns that have strongly increased during the 1990s. Sciences, in particular physical sciences and engineering sciences, have become the essential component of the engineering curriculum, giving a higher status to analytical courses than intuitive and practical-oriented courses. This predominance of sciences in engineering seems to be a barrier to developing the new set of skills that new engineers need, now that industry has become the main employer and an important supporter of engineering schools, more so than federal funds. A further challenge resulting from this shifts is that globalization has generated a global and open market of engineers, resulting the creation of multicultural engineering workplaces around the world and requiring a new set of professional competencies. In the current era, the design of new products and systems for new markets has become the context of engineers, requiring skills such as teamwork, creativity, social context understanding environmental awareness, and competence in foreign languages. Therefore, the scientific and technical approach to engineering education now conflicts with the current predominance of the "market world" and the new skills required for many professions. Thus, nowadays, when the scientific approach seems to be in question, a closer historical analysis of the transformations prompted by Stephen P. Timoshenko, an engineer who was called "the father of engineering mechanics in the United State", might illuminate the current discussion and lead to better appreciation of modern engineering education.