Educating the Engineer of 2020: Adapting Engineering Education to the New Century

摘要

This report is the result of an initiative of the National Academy of Engineering that attempts to prepare for the future of engineering by asking the question, What will or should engineering education be like today, or in the near future, to prepare the next generation of students for effective engagement in the engineering profession in 2020. It accepts as a given that, first and foremost, engineering education must produce technically excellent and innovative graduates, but it does not attempt to define a core curriculum, recognizing that individual institutions need to design their own. It asks, rather, how to enrich and broaden engineering education so that those technically grounded graduates will be better prepared to work in a constantly changing global economy. It notes the importance of improving the recruitment and retention of students, and making the learning experience more meaningful to them. It discusses the value of considering changes in engi- neering education in the broader context of enhancing the status of the engineering profession and improving the public understanding of engineering.