James J. Duderstadt, President Emeritus and University Professor of Science and Engineering, The University of Michigan provides an extensive report on the state of engineering in the USA. The report focusing on engineering education and the role of engineering in the economy and society. Engineering for a Changing World - A Roadmap to the Future of Engineering Practice, Research, and Education. Recommended actions include:

• Engineering professional and disciplinary societies, working with engineering leadership groups such as the National Academy of Engineering, ABET, the American Association of Engineering Societies, and the American Society for Engineering Education, should strive to create a guild-like culture in the engineering profession, similar to those characterizing other learned professions such as medicine and law that aim to shape rather than simply react to market pressures.
• The federal government, in close collaboration with industry and higher education, should launch a large number of Discovery Innovation Institutes at American universities…
• Undergraduate engineering should be reconfigured as an academic discipline, similar to other liberal arts disciplines in the sciences, arts, and humanities…
• In a world characterized by rapidly accelerating technologies and increasing complexity, it is essential that the engineering profession adopt a structured approach to lifelong learning for practicing engineers similar to those in medicine and law…

Related: The Future is Engineering - Science, Engineering and the Future of the American Economy - MIT task force report on the Undergraduate Educational Commons - Harvard Elevates Engineering Profile - Imperial outlines vision for new era in engineering education - Geeks and Chiefs: Engineering Education at MIT - Leah Jamieson on the Future of Engineering Education - Global Engineering Excellence Study - Educating the Engineer of 2020

This entry was posted on Friday, December 14th, 2007 at 12:04 am and is filed under Education, Society, The Economy, The National Interest. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.