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OCR for page R1
ENGINEERING EDUCATION AND
PRACTICE IN THE UNITED STATES
, ~ . .
nglneermg
Undergraduate
c.ucatlon
Panel on Undergraduate Engineering Education
Committee on the Education and Utilization
of the Engineer
Commission on Engineering and
Technical Systems
National Research Council
NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS
Washington, D.C. 1986
OCR for page R2
NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS · 2101 ConstitutionAve., NW · Washington, DC 20418
NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Goveming
Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of
the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Insti-
tute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen
for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
This report has been reviewed by a group other than the authors according to procedures
approved by a Report Review Committee consisting of members of the National Academy
of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.
The National Research Council was established by the National Academy of Sciences
in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy's
purposes of furthering knowledge and of advising the federal government. The Council
operates in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy under the
authority of its congressional charter of 1863, which establishes the academy as a private,
nonprofit, self-governing membership corporation. The Council has become the princi-
pal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy
of Engineering in the conduct of their services to the government, the public, and the
scientific and engineering communities. It is administered jointly by both Academies and
the Institute of Medicine. The Natior~al Academy of Engineering and the Institute of
Medicine were established in 1964 and 1970, respectively, under the charter of the
National Academy of Sciences.
Support for this work has been provided by the National Science Foundation, the
Department of the Air Force, the Department of the Army, the Department of Energy, the
Department of the Navy, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Addi-
tionally, assistance has been provided through grants from the Eastman Kodak Company,
Exxon Corporation, the General Electric Company, the IBM Corporation, the Lockheed
Corporation, the Monsanto Company, and the Sloan Foundation.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 85-63485
ISBN 0-309-03642-9
Printed in the United States of America
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Preface
This report of the Panel on Undergraduate Engineering Education is
one in a set of companion reports that formed the basis of the overall
study by the Committee on the Education and Utilization of the Engi-
neer, performed under the auspices of the National Research Council.
The work of this panel occurred during a period in which the engi-
neering educational resources of the nation were subject to severe
stress, primarily as a result of forces outside the control of the engineer-
ing educational community. First-year enrollments doubled in a rela-
tively short period of time, acute faculty shortages developed in several
important disciplines, and fluctuating economic conditions influenced
the support structure of engineering education. These factors, com-
bined with the relatively rapid changes in technology, created an aware-
ness that there were limits to the viability of our system of engineering
education.
Consequently, the direction of the panel's work was influenced by
these factors, and its scope included topics that bear on the viability o
the system. Hence, the quality, size, and diversity of the prefreshman
pool was included, as well as consideration of those factors most impor-
tant in the effective utilization of faculty resources. Because of the
strong influence of graduate study and research on undergraduate engi-
neering education, the panel examined the forces that have led to the
creation of a two-tiered system of engineering programs {i.e., in
research institutions versus low-research institutions) and the conse-
quences of this system.
. . .
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1V
PREFACE
Although the panel considered the overall forces that have shaped
and constrained engineering curricula, no attempt was made to con-
duct a detailed review and assessment of the various curricula. Matters
of curricular development and possible reform were not central to the
purpose of the overall committee effort, and such a review and assess-
ment are most properly within the domain of the individual disciplines
and those organizations responsible for maintaining standards.
The material in this report provides the comprehensive substantive
background for the work of the full committee pertaining to undergrad-
uate education. The panel is pleased to see that many of its most signifi-
cant findings, conclusions, and recommendations are included in
Chapter 4 of the full committee report, * and that its work is reflected
prominently in the recommendations which appear in the Executive
Summary of that report. This is evidence of the pivotal role of under-
graduate engineering education in the techno-economic future of our
nation.
This report results from the work of the panel members who so
generously contributed their time and professional expertise to this
major effort. I would like to thank them for their valuable contributions
and assistance. Finally, I wish to thank terrier A. Haddad for his stimu-
lating guidance to the entire committee effort and Vernon H. Miles
and William H. Michael, Tr., whose staff support was vital to the work
of the panel and to the production of this report.
Edmund T. Cranch
Chairman
* Engineering Education and Practice in the United States: Foundations of Our
Techno-Economic Future {Washington, D.C.: NationalAcademy Press, 1985~.
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Panel on Undergraduate
Engineering Education
EDMUND T. CRANCH, Chairman; President, Worcester Polytechnic
Institute j now President, Wang Institute of Graduate Studies)
EUGENE M. DELOATCH, Dean, School of Engineering, Morgan State
University, Baltimore, Maryland
DONALD G. GLOWER, Dean, College of Engineering, Ohio State
University
WILLIAM R. GROGAN, Dean, Undergraduate Studies, Worcester
Polytechnic Institute
CHARLES E. SCHAFFNER, Executive Vice-President, Syska &
Hennessy, New York, N.Y.
WILLIAM R. UPTHEGROVE, Regents Professor of Engineering, School
of Aerospace, Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, University
of Oklahoma
SHEILA E. WIDNALL, Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
DONALD TRITSCHLER, Consultant, Shrewsbury, Massachusetts
v
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Committee on the Education and
Utilization of the Engineer
iERRIERA. HADDAD, Chairman {IBM, Ret. ~
GEORGE S. ANSELL, Dean of Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute Now President, Colorado School of Mines)
JORDAN J. BARUCH, President, Jordan I. Baruch Associates
ERICH BLOCH, Vice-President, IBM Corporation Now Director,
National Science Foundation)
DENNIS CHAMOT, Associate Director, Department for Professional
Employees, AFL/CID
EDMUND T. CRANCH, President, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Now President, Wang Institute of Graduate Studies)
DANIEL C. DRUCKER, Dean of Engineering, University of Illinois at
Urbana [now Graduate Research Professor of Engineering Sciences,
University of Florida at Gainesville)
FRED W. GARRY, Vice-President, Corporate Engineering and
Manufacturing, General Electric Company
JOHN W. GEILS, Director of ~ES/ASEE Faculty Shortage Project
lAT&T, Ret. ~
AARON T. GELLMAN, President, Gellman Research Associates, Inc.
HELEN GOULDNER, Dean, College of Arts and Science, Professor of
Sociology, University of Delaware
JOHN D. KEMPER, Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering,
University of California at Davis
EDWARD T. KIRKPATRICK, President, Wentworth Institute of
Technology
V1
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COMMITTEE MEMBERS
. .
V11
ERNEST S. KUH, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer
Science, University of California at Berkeley
W. EDWARD LEAR, Executive Director, American Society for
Engineering Education
LAWRENCE M. MEAD, OR., Senior Management Consultant ~ Senior
Vice-President, Ret. I, Grumman Aerospace Corporation
M. EUGENE MERCHANT, Principal Scientist, Manufacturing Research,
Cincinnati Milacron, Inc. Now Director, Advanced Manufacturing
Research, Metcut Research Associates, Inc. ~
RICHARD I. REDPATH, Vice-President, Ralston Purina Company
FRANCIS E. REESE, Senior Vice-President, Monsanto Now retired)
ROBERT M. SAUNDERS, Professor, School of Engineering, University
of California at Irvine {Chairman, Board of Governors, ACES, 1983
CHARLES E. SCHAFFNER, Executive Vice-President, Syska &
Hennessy
JUDITH A. SCHWAN, Assistant Director, Research Labs, Eastman
Kodak Company
HAROLD T. SHAPIRO, President, University of Michigan
MORRIS A. STEINBERG, Vice-President, Science, Lockheed
Corporation
DONALD G. WEINERT, Executive Director, National Society of
Professional Engineers
SHEILA E. WIDNALL, Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Staff
WILLIAM H. MICHAEL, JR., Executive Director
VERNON H. MILES, Staff Officer
AMY ~ANIK, Administrative Assistant
COURTLAND S. LEWIS, Consultant
Government Liaison
LEWIS G. MAYFIELD, Head, Office of Interdisciplinary Research,
National Science Foundation
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Contents
Executive Summary.
1. The Goals of Undergraduate Engineering Education
Curricular Change, 10
Faculty Role, 11
2. Undergraduate Students.........................
Demographic Forces, 12
Factors Affecting the Quality of High School Graduates, 17
The Increasing Role of Women in Engineering Education, 23
Co-op Education, 27
Factors Influencing Graduate Study, 32
The Role of Minorities: Present and Future, 34
3. Faculty
Student: Faculty Ratios, 44
Difficulties in Maintaining Faculty Versatility, 47
Obsolescence Among Faculty Members, 49
Faculty Development Programs, 51
Use of Part-Time or Adjunct Faculty, 52
Overenrollments in Electrical and Computer Engineering, 54
The Role of Women and Minorities, 5 6
Educational Technology in Teaching, 59
1X
9
. 12
. 44
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x
4. The Curriculum..........
A Record of Change, 70
Science Versus Engineering, 71
Curricular Compression, 72
The Four-Year Constraint, 73
Recent Proposals, 74
5. The Role of Laboratory Instruction.
Purposes of Laboratory Work, 77
Faculty in the Laboratory, 77
Experience for a Career, 79
The Industrial View, 79
Scientific Understanding, 80
Practicing Engineers Do Experiments, 81
A Lab Curriculum, 81
Impact of High Technology on Laboratory Equipment, 82
Keeping Current, 83
Characteristics of Future Laboratories, 83
6. The Two-Tiered System . . .
Effects of Federal Funding, 86
Industrial Support, 87
Graduate Centers The First Tier, 87
The Second Tier, 88
The Need for Balance, 88
CONTENTS
.. 70
. 76
. 86
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ENGINEERING EDUCATION AND
PRACTICE IN THE UNITED STATES
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