Thoughts on Engineering Education

Abstract

Engineering curricula are in a process of dynamic change as a result of the rapidly accelerating rate of advance technology. The rapid accumulation of knowledge leads to a selection process of the materials to be included in the curriculum. If the emphasis in engineering education is on the imparting of facts even facts about "fundamentals" the engineer will soon be wallowing in the wake of the advancing technology. Major emphasis in engineering education should be placed on developing in the student the open-minded attitudes and the critical approach to the solving of problems be they technical, economic, political, or social problems-that is implicit in the phrase "method of science."