Engineering Education and Practice in the United States: Engineering Undergraduate Education

摘要

The report of the Panel on Undergraduate Engineering Education is one in a set of companion reports that formed the basis of the overall study by the Committee on the Education and Utilization of the Engineer, performed under the auspices of the National Research Council. The work of this panel occurred during a period in which the engineering educational resources of the nation were subject to severe stress, primarily as a result of forces outside the control of the engineering educational community. First-year enrollments doubled in a relatively short period of time, acute faculty shortages developed in several important disciplines, and fluctuating economic conditions influenced the support structure of engineering education. These factors, combined with the relatively rapid changes in technology, created an awareness that there were limits to the viability of our system of engineering education. Consequently, the direction of the panel's work was influenced by these factors, and its scope included topics that bear on the viability of the system. Hence, the quality, size, and diversity of the prefreshman pool was included, as well as consideration of those factors most important in the effective utilization of faculty resources. Contents: The Goals of Undergraduate Engineering Education; Undergraduate Students; Faculty; The Curriculum; The Role of Laboratory Instruction; Th Two-Tiered System.