Educating the Engineer of 2020:

Global Visions for the New Century Alice M. Agogino

NAE Engineer of 2020

Phase I The Engineer of 2020: Visions of Engineering in the New Century Phase II Educating the Engineer of 2020: Adapting Engineering Education to the New Century

Technology Drivers
Growing complexity, uncertainty, and interdisciplinary foundations of engineered systems The diminishing half-life of engineering knowledge in many fields The accelerating pace of technological advance:
Bioengineering, biotechnology & biomedical technology Miniaturization (MEMS, nanotechnology, advanced materials) Information Technology Complex and large-scale systems integration

Bioengineering, Biotechnology & Biomedical Technology

Advances in biotech have already significantly improved the quality of our lives More dramatic breakthroughs ahead Tissue engineering Regenerative medicine Drug delivery engineering Bio-inspired computing Protection from biological terrorism

Micro/Nanotechnology
Nanosciences & engineering will draw on multiple fields Genetic and molecular engineering Composites and engineered materials Quantum scale optical and electrical structures Quantum mechanical behavior

Powers of 10 - Drexler and Peterson

Grand Challenges in the National Nanotechnology Initiative

Time Frame Nano-2005 Strategic Challenges Pigments in paints Cutting tools and war resistant coatings Phamaceuticals and drugs Nanoscale particles and thin films in electronic devices Jewelry, optimal and semiconductor wafer polishing Biosensors, transducers and detectors Functional designer fluids, propellants, nozzles and valves Flame retardant additives Drug delivery, biomagnetic separation, and wound healing

Nano-2007

Nano-2012

Nano-optical/electronics & power sources High-end flexible displays NEMS-based devices Faster switches and ulta-sensitive sensors

Nanostructures have been proposed as:

Environmental cleaning agents Chemical detection agents Creation of biological (or artificial) organs Ultra-fast, ultra-dense, circuits A factory large enough to make over 10 million nanocomputers per day might fit on the edge one of todays integrated circuits.

Assembler with factory on a chip Drexler and Peterson

Materials Science & Photonics

Smart materials and structures, which have the capability of sensing, remembering & responding (e.g., to displacements caused by earthquakes and explosions; smart textiles provide cooling and heating). As the physical sizes of optical sources decrease, while their power and reliability continue to increase, photonics based technologies will become more significant in engineered products and systems. Applications: fiber optics, precision cutting, visioning and sensing; photochromic windows.

Information and Communication Technology

Today a 1 gigabit hard drive ships in a package 11 x 11 x 1/8 inches; soon that will be a 10 gigabit drive and computers small enough to fit into trouser pockets will be able to contain information that would fill a modern library (Feldman, 2001) The speed and computing power in future desktop machines and software will enable design and simulation capabilities that will make them routine activities of contemporary engineers obsolete, thus freeing them for more creative tasks.

Example of Information Explosion in Healthcare

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Socio-Technological Challenges
Physical infrastructures in urban settings Information and communications infrastructures Technology for an aging population The environment & sustainable engineering Managing complex interdisciplinary problems Managing globalization Consumers will demand more and more: higher quality, mass customization, personalization, etc. Socio-political tensions around the world Growing diversity of the workforce

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The Changing Roles of Engineers

Globalization of industry and engineering practice The shift of engineering employment from large companies to small and medium-sized companies, and the growing emphasis on entrepreneurialism The growing share of engineering employment in nontraditional, less-technical engineering work (e.g., management, finance, marketing, policy) The shift to a knowledge-based services economy Increasing opportunity for using technology in the education and work of the engineer

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Engineers in the Global Economy

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Successful Attributes for Engineering in 2020

Possess strong analytical skills Ability to frame problems, putting them in a sociotechnical and operational context Exhibit practical ingenuity; posses creativity Good communication skills with multiple stakeholders Business and management skills; Leadership abilities High ethical standards and a strong sense of professionalism Dynamic/agile/resilient/flexible Lifelong learners

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Problems Engineers Will be Solving in 2020

Environmental and energy related problems Bioengineering problems (including medical) Ultra-nanoscale, miniaturization Problems related to population growth Managing globalization Maintaining technical currency & life long learning
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The Environment
Three quarters of the US population resides in areas with unhealthy air. [American Lung Association] In 2020, California will need 40% more electrical capacity, 40% more gasoline, and 20% more natural gas than in 2000. 50% of the worlds original forest cover has been depleted [Worldwatch Institute] and global per capita forest area is projected to fall to 1/3 its 1990 value by 2020. [Haque, 2000]. 48 countries (2.8 billion people) face freshwater shortages in 2025 [Henrichsen, 1997] The wealthiest 16% of the world consumes 80% of the worlds natural resources. By the year 2020, there will be 8 billion people who will further depleting the environment and fuel political instability if the inequity of these resources continues. [CIA 2001].

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Results from a Survey of NAE Frontiers of Engineering Alumni

Frontiers of Engineering participants
Carefully selected as future leaders in engineering Mostly young 30 to 45, (will be active in 2020) 61 respondents from academia, 44 from industry Respondents on average have worked in field (industry/academia) for over 10 years Involved in cutting edge engineering topics

Intent was not to make recommendations on curricula but to assess how well their education had prepared them for the issues they will face in engineering practice out to 2020
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% Responses
Inte Con rdiscip. text Com m/W ritin g Syst Eng ems inee ring Biol ogy Man agem ent Tech . Po licy Ethi cs 2 nd L angu age

Q4. Which topics should receive increased coverage in the undergraduate engineering curriculum?

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The Nations New Majority

Women and under-represented groups make up a 1/2 to 2/3 of the population of the United States and comprise the nations New Majority. If the US is to maintain economic leadership and be able to sustain its share of high technology jobs, it must draw on all of the talents in our population . . . Innovation is the key.

Shirley Jackson, President of RPI

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The Nations New Majority

Science and Engineering Workforce

U.S. Workforce
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2020?

Science and Engineering Workforce 2000

2020 U.S. Workforce

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Themes from Woman & Minority Focus Group

A change in the culture of engineering (practice) is desired
Less unrewardingly competition, more collaboration Changes in the types of problems we decide to solve Diversity and quality are seen as complementary Greater value placed on family issues (women) More equitable access to engineering careers (minority)

Strategies to get there

Radical change in the power structure (as it relates to who decides what problems are important) Decision-makers represent a more diverse group New strategies for assessment; more equitable K-12 preparation; allow alternative paths into the profession
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The World Population (CIA, 2001)

Distribution of World Population in 2020 In a Mix of 100 People:
5% 7% 3%
Western Hemisphere (4 from US) Africa (13-Sub-Sahara)

Asia (19-China; 17-India)

A mix of 100 people in 2020 would look like the following:

56 would be from Asia, including 19 Chinese and 17 Indians 13 would be from the western hemisphere, including 4 from the United States 16 would be from Africa, including 13 from Sub-Saharan Africa 3 would be from the Middle East 7 would be from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union 5 would be from Western Europe

16% 56%

Middle East

Eastern Europe & Former Soviet Union Western Europe

13%

In contrast to the aging of the US, Europe and Japan, the most politically instable parts of the world will experience a youth bulge.

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Workforce Vulnerability
A quarter of the current science and engineering workforce whose research and innovation generated the economic boom in the 1990s is more than 50 years old and will retire by 2020. 21% decline in U.S. student population Student populations in engineering and physical sciences are static or declining 15% decline in foreign-born doctoral students since 1997

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Rising Above the Gathering Storm

Energizing and Employing America For a Brighter Economic Future Frightening Statistics Powerful Recommendations

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Recommendations
1. The baccalaureate degree should be recognized as the preengineering degree (BA or BS), depending on the course content and reflecting the career aspirations of the student.

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Recommendations
2. ABET should allow accreditation of engineering programs of the same name at the baccalaureate and graduate levels in the same department to recognize that education through a professional masters degree produces an AME, an accredited master engineer. Engineering schools should more vigorously exploit the flexibility inherent in the outcomes-based accreditation approach to experiment with novel models for baccalaureate education. ABET should ensure that evaluators look for innovation and experimentation in the curriculum and not just hold institutions to a strict interpretation of the guidelines as they see them.
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3.

Recommendations
4. The essence of engineering the iterative process of designing, predicting performance, building, and testing should be taught from the earliest stages of the curriculum, including the first year. The engineering education establishment should endorse research in engineering education as a valued and rewarded activity for engineering faculty as a means to enhance and personalize the connection to undergraduate students, to understand how they learn, in appreciate the pedagogical approaches that excite them.

5.

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Student Retention
Universal agreement that the process of designing, building and testing should be taught from the earliest stages of curriculum, including the first year. Student learning outcomes and retention increases.

Knight, Carlson, & Sullivan, Staying in Engineering, 2003 (available at www.needs.org)

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Recommendations
6. Colleges and universities should develop new standards for faculty qualifications, appointment, and expectation, for example to require experience as a practicing engineer, and should create or adapt development programs to support the professional grown of engineering faculty. 7. As well as delivering content, engineering schools must teach engineering students how to learn, and must play a continuing role along with professional organizations in facilitating lifelong learning, perhaps through offering executive technical degrees similar to executive MBAs.
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Recommendations
8. Engineering schools introduce interdisciplinary learning in the undergraduate environment, rather than having it as an exclusive feature of the graduate program. 9. Engineering educators should explore the development of case studies of engineering successes and failures and the appropriate use of case-studies approach in undergraduate and graduate curricula. 10. Four-year engineering schools must accept it as their responsibility to work with their local community colleges to ensure effective articulation, as seamless as possible, with their two-year program.
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Scenarios
The next scientific revolution The natural world interrupts the technology cycle Global conflict or globalization? The biotechnology revolution in a societal context

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Recommendations
11. U.S. engineering schools must develop programs to encourage/reward domestic engineering students to aspire to the M.S. and/or ph.D. degree. 12. Engineering schools should lend their energies to national effort to improve math, science, and engineering education at the K-12 level. 13. The engineering education establishment should participate in a coordinated national effort to promote public understanding of engineering and technology literacy of the public.

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Recommendations
14. NSF should collect and/or fund collections, perhaps through ASEE or Engineering Workforce Commission, of comprehensive data by engineering department/school on program philosophy and student outcomes such as, but not exclusively, student retention rates by gender and ethnicity, common reasons why students leave, where they go, percent of engineering freshman that graduate time to degree, and information on jobs and admission to graduate school.

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