At Purdue, engineering looks to future
by Leah Jamieson, Dean of Engineering at Purdue University
A recent report from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching suggests that U.S. engineering schools need to change their curricula and teaching methods from an emphasis on theory to one that prepares students for a changing world filled with new and far-reaching challenges.
At Purdue University’s College of Engineering, we not only agree but are aggressively altering our engineering education format to address this very issue and share our model with others. The new model emphasizes problem-solving and teamwork across a wide range of expertise, from that of builders and designers to sociologists and communicators.
The importance of forward-looking training of engineers cannot be overestimated. These women and men will incorporate cutting-edge technology into products we depend on every day, from food to computers. They will build our roads and bridges. They will help design the cars and trucks we drive and help develop the energy sources that power them.
In November, we presented a new strategic plan to the university’s trustees that has as its No.1 goal producing engineers who are prepared to take leadership roles in responding to the global, technological, economic and societal challenges of the 21st century.
To accomplish that, we are revamping much of how we teach our future engineers, beginning with our first-year students during their first weeks on campus.
Last fall our School of Engineering Education opened the Ideas to Innovations Learning Laboratory, which takes first-year students out of a massive lecture hall and immerses them in the entire engineering design process. The five lab spaces — Design Studio, Innovation Studio, Rapid-Prototyping Studio, Fabrication and Artisan Laboratories, and Demonstration Studio — allow the students to take a problem from concept to completion.
Faculty work with students in the state-of-the-art lab designed specifically to promote critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork and a multidisciplinary approach. This lab is a role model for one of the keystones of Purdue President France Córdova’s plans for student success: transforming huge, beginning lecture classes into more exciting learning experiences.
But the lab is just the start. The students who complete the first-year program will have a good foundation and an understanding of what is expected of them as engineers, what it means to be an engineer in the 21st century.
That base will help them as they discover how engineering relates to other disciplines, learn the ethics and accountability of their chosen profession, and consider how they can help deal with the societal challenges facing engineers.
As one example, our School of Biomedical Engineering, located in Purdue’s innovative Discovery Park, turns multidisciplinary research into workable products and procedures. Much of the work of biomedical engineering is done in collaboration with the medical disciplines at Indiana University. Again, it’s a way of teaching our young engineers to think outside their discipline.
All of this builds on a long-standing co-op program that lets students incorporate industry experience into their engineering education.
In 2008, Purdue University graduates ranked as the No. 1 target of aerospace and defense industry recruiters, according to an Aviation Week and Space Technology survey. A primary reason our engineering grads are so attractive to these industries is that they have learned not only how to design and build, but also how to lead.
Leadership is one of the important outgrowths of our Engineering Projects in Community Service program, founded at Purdue in 1995. Teams of undergraduates earn academic credit for multiyear, multidisciplinary projects that solve engineering and technology-based problems for community and educational organizations.
A recent example: A group of engineering students is working with Habitat for Humanity to design and build a “green” house. The special challenge is that students will have to come up with a design than can be built by a volunteer work force.
We also are determined to produce engineers with a global background. Our study-abroad programs have grown from less than 20 students 10 years ago to nearly 200 during the 2007-2008 academic year. These are students who spread the word about Purdue and its engineering program around the world. But more importantly, they are working on projects to help solve global problems, often for our planet’s neediest people.
Whatever engineering was in the past, it is now a profession with a laser-like focus on solving society’s problems, thinking with a global perspective, and bringing passion to its theories and techniques.
As educators, we must instill these values in those who will practice our profession long into the future. That means rethinking our teaching methods, resizing our classes, and reworking our curricula from the very beginning. We our squarely on that path, and we won’t stray from it.
Related: Engineering for a Changing World – Leah Jamieson on the Future of Engineering Education – Duderstadt Urges Revolution in Engineering Education – Geoffrey Orsak on Engineering Education