Problems in Engineering and Science Education
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Engineering and Science Education
Why Do We Have a Weakness in Materials Synthesis and Processing? Thomas W. Eagar Introduction A 1989 report by the National Research Council (NRC) entitled, Materials Science and Engineering in the 1990s: Maintaining Competitiveness in the Age of Materials, strongly emphasizes that the United States as a nation has devoted insufficient resources to materials synthesis and processing, yet it fails to suggest why. If we are to correct such an imbalance, it is essential that we understand the cause so we can effect a solution. In my opinion, the cause of our failure to place sufficient emphasis on synthesis and processing is more fundamental than the study of materials science and engineering alone; it is symptomatic of the way we teach all science and engineering. We have failed to instill balanced attitudes of inquiry within our students. They have emulated our academic approach to defining and solving problems, an approach that works very well in academia but unfortunately is not always effective in the world of business and manufacturing. As a result, to be successful in the commercial sector, the young engineer or scientist must "unlearn" much of what has been taught in the universities. Problems in Engineering Education Many feel that we have reached a new crisis in engineering education. Regarding the need for practical engineering at all levels, one report states the following: "In the last decades, an enormous increase in the number and complexity of problems facing engineers has resulted in a corresponding increase in the number 36
and complexity of mathematical techniques which are used by engineers and taught in engineering schools. "The result has been that engineering curricula have been crowded to the point where it is now patently impossible to put more than a fraction of this material into a course of study of any reasonable length. "Two aspects of this change have been increase in the mathematical content of engineering subjects and displacement of subjects centered around devices by subjects centered around physical principles and mathematical techniques. Thus, the study of engineering analysis is being expanded at the expense of subjects entitled 'design' and involving synthesis
The engineer must be willing and able to determine a course of action in the face of incomplete and often contradictory information. "Recent engineering graduates were criticized for unwillingness and inability to consider a complete problem such as a design problem. Instead they showed a desire to seek a fully specified problem which could be answered by analytical
methods. It was stated that engineers with advanced degrees were even more prone to avoid a complete problem. When they did tackle a whole problem, they tended to struggle to analyze it with all generality rather than to break it down into manageable pieces. [Engineers] trained at second-rate schools were often found to be more willing to attempt the solution of a whole problem than those trained at first-class schools. In s
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