Challenges of the freshman engineering curriculum
- 1967: how to make 1st year exciting, communicate what engineers do, understand business processes, think about ethics and social responsibility
- 2008: all these things, plus nano/bio/info, large complex systems, new life-science base, computation/storage capabilities, globalization, innovation, leadership, teamwork across disciplines/fields/nations/cultures, experiential learning (conceive/design/implement/operate), entrepreneurship, product development/manufacturing, sustainable development
- Technically adept, broadly knowledgeable, innovative and entrepreneurial, commercially savvy, multilingual, culturally aware, able to understand world markets, professionally flexible and mobile
- 20th century: physics, electronics, high-speed communications and transportation
- 21st century: biology and information, energy, water, food, sustainability
- Payoff from bridging the frontiers: bio-based materials, biomemetics, personalized/predictive medicine, synthetic biology, biofuels, etc.
- U.S. declined: domestic R&D, scientific publications, S&E BS degrees, new U.S. patents, scientific researchers, new S&E PhDs
- “Venture capital is the search for smart engineers” – venture capitalist friend
- “Open innovation” – borrow best ideas from anywhere (Henry Chesbrough, Harvard Business School)
- Employment growth driven by small and medium companies
- Based on what works
- Engineers are creative problem solvers
- Engineering is not static – 21st century science/engineering/medicine interdependent, blending in new ways
- Engineering is about systems: nanobio devices to (aging) largescale infrstructure to (adapting to warming) earth itself
- Engineering is essential to our health, happiness and safety
- Doable in next few decades
- "Advance Personalized Learning"
- After 17 years at MIT, I’ve learned: Making exciting, creative, adventurous, rigorous, demanding, empowering environments = more important than curricular details
- Innovation: CDIO (conceive, design, innovate, operate), UROP/UPOPP (professional opportunity in small companies), WebLab (run real experiments from dorm room), new schools like Olin College, Second Life, mega multi-player games, business plan competitions (how to communicate clearly), studio learning, computer-assisted learning, projects, experiential learning
- Digital resources for education: cyberinfrastructure, inexpensive/limitless memory, digital archives (JSTOR, ARTstor, Ithaka, PLOS, Google Library, etc.)
- Learning isn’t just sitting in front of a box and listening; role of IT is multidimensional; role of neural/cognitive science – more than putting books on the shelf, even more amazing things to do with IT – very fast, can be modified
- Rest of world is focused on engineering education as practical subject – U.S. has clear and unrecognized advantage within our universities that mix together arts, humanities, social sciences – adds component to thinking
- National Academies halfway through “America’s Energy Future” study
- One uniform document with technical and economic facts for each technology with likelihood of being major players – generation, distribution, conservation
- Pursued huge range of funding – no one asked us to do this – didn’t want to be accused of bias based on funder
- Taking on another study on global change, asked by Congress – state of science, adaptation strategies
- Everything may be okay now, but it won’t be in the future if we don’t work on it now – America Competes Act
- #1: Urge you to talk to Congresspeople to keep K-12 education on the front burner
- #2: Local action on energy and sustainability issues in health and security context; get young people involved
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