# Presentation: 171043

## Enabling 21st Century Engineers

- Joseph Bordogna
- National Science Foundation
**http:// www.nsf.gov/**
**Keynote Address**
**3rd Government - Industry - University Roundtable**
**on**
**Enhancing Engineering Education**
**Gaithersburg, MD**
**November 13, 1996**

## Solutions Have a Finite Lifetime

**Today’s problems come from yesterday’s solutions.**
*	**	**	****Peter M. Senge, “The Fifth Discipline”***

## A 21st Century World

**Cognitive****Revolution**

**Diverse**
**Workforce**

**Defense****Reinvestment**

**Information**
**Explosion**

**Demographic****Shifts**

**Environmental****Sustainability**

**Finite****Resources**

**International****Competition**

**Global****Economy**

**Dual****Use**

**Shared****Wealth**

## Challenges for 21st Century Academe

**Increasing pace of technological innovation**
**Post-cold war international politics**
**New kinds of military conflicts and economic partnerships**
**Shift from defense development to commercial competition; merging of defense and commercial industrial base**
**Vastly improved global communications, intelligent information technology, and low-cost computing power**
**Increasing number and strength of U. S. trading partners **
**Changing demographics, expanding social infrastructure**
**Environmental concerns increasingly important**

## Composition of Federal Outlays

**Composition of Federal Outlays**

- %

**	****	****      ****	**_**1940**__**	**__**	**__**1965**__**	**__**	**__**1996**_
**Total, $ Billion****	**** ****	****  9.5****	****	**** 118****	****	****1,600**

- Payments for Individuals

- All Other

- Net Interest

- National Defense

## The Federal Budget DollarWhere it goes....

**FY 1996 Budget:  $ 1.6 Trillion**
**U. S. Economy:  $ 6 Trillion**
**National Debt:  $ 5 Trillion**

## U. S. R&D Funding

**U. S. R&D Funding**

**Source:  FY 1997 U. S. Budget**

**41%**

**59%**

**$70 B**

**$102 B**

**Private **
**Sector**

**Federal **
**Government**

**Long-Term**
**10%**

**Short-Term**
**90%**

**Non-**
**Defense**
**47%**

**Defense**
**53%**

## Innovation System

**Innovation**
**Wealth Creation**
**Sustainable Development**

**Analysis**
**Reduction**

**Discovery of**
**  ****New Knowledge**
**  ****& Basic Laws**

**Societal Needs **
**The Public Good **
**Natural Capital**

**Devices **
**Processes**
**Systems**

**Ideas**
**Information**

**Capital Formation **
**& Investment**

**Synthesis**
**Integration**

**Design**
**Manufacture**
**Maintenance**

**Science**

**Policy Context**

**Engineering**

**Economic Context**

## The source of wealth is something specifically human:  KNOWLEDGE

**Knowledge applied to tasks we already know how to do is *****PRODUCTIVITY***
**Knowledge applied to tasks that are new and different is *****INNOVATION***

***Managing for the Future:  The 1990s and Beyond***
**Peter F. Drucker, 1992**

## Role of Industry:  Wealth Creation

**The interaction of technological innovation with the competitive marketplace is the fundamental driving force in capitalist industrial progress.**

***Joseph A. Schumpeter, 1942***

**Capitalism is a process of Creative Transformation**

## Innovation Infrastructure

**A healthy, educated public**
**Job creation, economic health and security**
**World leadership in science, engineering, mathematics and technology**
**Improved environmental quality and sustainable development**
**Harnessed information technology**
**Enhanced national security**

**Goals of Federal government investment:**

**Innovation Infrastructure**

## Role of Academe:  Building Capacity for Learning and Innovation

**Resource**
**Investment**

**Continuous**
**Learning and**
**Innovation**

**Knowledge**
**Integration**

**Knowledge**
**Creation**

**Knowledge**
**Transfer**

## Evolution of Engineering Education in the USA 

**1749****	****“Mechaniks ... to be informed of the Principles of that Art by which ****	****weak Men perform such Wonders, Labour is saved, Manufactures **
**	****expedited ...”  “Balance useful knowledge with general knowledge ****	****to serve mankind.” Benjamin Franklin on curriculum for educating ****	****youth**
**1776****	****“Wealth of Nations” -- Making and Moving Things -- Adam Smith**
**1794****	****West Point Engineering School, New York -- George Washington**
**1817****	****First civil engineering curriculum at West Point modeled after Ecole ****	****Polytechnic**
**1821****	****First Civilian engineering course in U. S. at Norwich Academy, Vermont**
**1835****	****First engineering degrees, Rensselear Polytechnic Institute.  Based on 18th ****	****century focus on engineering as a blend of the arts, with creation of ****	****artifacts and systems to serve society.  Laid foundation for liberality in ****	****engineering education that has blossomed in latter half of 20th century.**

## Evolution of Engineering Education in the USA 

**(continued)**

## Evolution of Engineering Education in the USA 

**(continued)**

**Past:****	****Curriculum in response to workforce needs for **
**	****a new technology**
**Future:****	****Technology needs change quickly -- education must**
**	****be more than a response**
**	****Expertise in a single discipline is no longer enough**
**	****Ability to contribute and thrive through change**
**	****Engineering graduate:  commodity or wealth creator?**

**What are the fundamentals?**

## Hardening of the Categories

**“****There is no graver threat to the process of discovery than that dread disease, ‘hardening of the categories’.”**
- 						***Bob Miller***
***	******	******	******	******	******	******Science Artist***
***	******	******	******	******	******	******San Francisco***

## The Complex Whole

**Stuart Kauffman**
_**At Home in the Universe**_**, 1994**

**The Complex Whole**

## How to do 

- Develop contextual skill for enhancing immediate productivity
**How to think and create**
- Develop conceptual skill for
- thinking beyond the prevailing paradigm

**Training**
**Education**

## Attributes of an Attractive Engineering Graduate (Boeing Corporation, 1994)

- Good grasp of engineering science fundamentals
- Good understanding of the design process and manufacturing
- Basic understanding of the social/economic/political context in which engineering is practiced
- Good communication skills
- An ability to think both critically and creatively, independently and cooperatively
- Flexibility:  an ability and the self-confidence to adapt to rapid/major change
- Curiosity and a desire to learn -- for life
- A profound understanding of the importance of team work

## Next Generation Engineering Career Paths

**Sustainable development:  avoiding environmental harm; energy & materials efficiency**
**Life cycle engineering; infrastructure creation and renewal**
**Micro / nanotechnology / microelectromechanical systems**
**Mega systems**
**Smart systems**
**Multimedia and computer-communications systems**
**Living systems engineering**
**Product and process development, quality and control**
**System integration; system reconfiguration**
**Creative enterprise transformation**
**. . . ****??**

## Next Generation Engineering Skill Set

**Systems integration; synthesis**
**Engineering science; analysis**
**Problem formulation as well as problem solving**
**Engineering design**
**Ability to realize products**
**Facility with intelligent technology to enhance creative opportunity**
**Ability to manage complexity and uncertainty**
**Teamwork; sensitivity in interpersonal relationships**
**Language and multi-cultural understanding**
**Ability to advocate and influence**
**Entrepreneurship; management skills; decision making**
**Knowledge integration, education and mentoring**

## Engineering Education Paradigms

**Pre-1950: **Focus on engineering practice; design according to codes and well-defined procedures; limited use of mathematics; many faculty with industrial experience and/or strong ties with industry
**1950-1990: **Focus on engineering sciences; fundamental understanding of phenomena; analysis; majority of faculty trained for academic research
**1990-?: **Focus on teamwork, communication, integration, design, making things, continuous improvement; maintain analytic strength

## Functional Core of Engineering

- Design to meet safety, reliability, environmental, cost, operational and maintenance objectives
- Manufacturing and construction / Ability to realize products
- Creation and operation of complex systems
- Understanding of physical constructs and economic, industrial, social, political, and international context in which engineering is practiced
- Understanding and participating in the process of research
- Intellectual skills needed for career-long learning

## Traditional Undergraduate Sequenced Curriculum

**Science****Mathematics****Humanities & Social Sciences**

- Freshman

**Science****Mathematics**
**Eng. Science**
**H . & S. S.**

- Sophomore

**Eng. Science**
**Disciplinary Eng.**
**H . & S. S.**

- Junior

**Disciplinary Eng.**
**Design Project**
**H . & S. S.**

- Senior

- Passing Through Filters

## Holistic Engineering Curriculum

**Holistic Engineering Curriculum**

**Year 1**

**Year 2**

**Year 3**

**Year 4**

**Integrated Humanities/Social Sciences**

**K-12**

**Hands-on Lab, Design, System Methodologies**

**K-14 Interface**

**Integrated, Unified,**
**Science & Math**
**As Needed**

**Research Experience**
**In-Depth Science**

**Capstone**
**Engineering**

**Functional Core of**
**Engineering Up Front**

**In-Depth Disciplinary**
**Engineering**

**Baccalaureate**
**Interface**

**BS/MS**
**(Practice**
**Oriented)**

**BS**
**(Industry)**

**BS/PhD**
**(Research**
**Oriented)**

## Components of a Holistic Baccalaureate Education 

- Vertical (In-depth) Thinking
- Abstract Learning
- Reductionism - Fractionization
- Develop Order
- Understand Certainty
- Analysis
- Research
- Solve Problems
- Develop Ideas
- Independence
- Technological - Scientific Base
- Engineering Science

- Lateral (Functional) Thinking
- Experiential Learning
- Integration - Connecting the Parts
- Correlate Chaos
- Handle Ambiguity
- Synthesis
- Design / Process / Manufacture
- Formulate Problems
- Implement Ideas
- Teamwork
- Societal Context / Ethics
- Functional Core of Engineering

## Characteristics of Next Generation Engineering Graduates

- Understand the functional core of the engineering process.
- Analyze and synthesize; formulate problems and solve them; become adept at group problem-solving strategies.
- Think across disciplines (laterally) as well as in disciplinary depth (vertically).
- Communicate ideas effectively to influence diverse groups, including non-engineers; act both independently and as a team member.
- Recognize the relationship of the engineering enterprise to the social/economic/political context of engineering practice and the key role of this context in engineering decisions..
- Develop the motivation, knowledge base, and intellectual capacity for career-long learning.

## Engineering Education

**Practice-Oriented**
**Master’s-Level**
**Curriculum**

**Engineering Education**

**Enable**
**Next Generation**
**Engineer**

## Distributed Intelligence

**Online services -- travel, real estate, investing, auto purchasing, . . . **
**Educational software for individual learners**
**Mass production         flexible & agile manufacturing**
**Customer control -- ATMs, salad bars, self-serve gas pumps**
**Total quality management concepts**
**Knowledge networking**
**Learning and intelligent systems - augmenting the capacity to learn and create**
**. . .**
**Creative transformation**

**Power, responsibility, information away from centralized control to the individual**

**Distributed Intelligence**

## Distributed Intelligence Enables Human-Centered Systems

**Digital libraries -- large, broadly accessible knowledge base**
**Data mining -- filtering, integrating, interpreting**
**Convergence of computing and communications**** **
**High-confidence systems -- privacy, security, reliability**
**Machinery for predictability**
**Wireless, low-power, mobile systems**
**Simulation capability improvements**
**Biomedical informatics -- imaging, computational biology, computer-assisted decision making**
**Understanding of human cognition and learning processes**

_**Empowering the Individual**_** -- Augmenting the capacity to learn and create**

## Learning and Intelligent Systems

**Augment the capacity to learn and create through**

**Discovery of underlying principles of human intelligence and learning **
**Creation of intelligent machines with synthetic learning capability**
**Integration of knowledge about human learning processes with learning strategies**
**New technologies and systems to enable learners to harness distributed intelligence infrastructure**
**Design and implementation of seamless human-machine interfaces**

## Learning and Intelligent Systems

**Learning technologies**
**Insights into learning and cognitive functioning**
**Computational tools in learning**
**Collaborative learning across physical and virtual communities**
**Collaborative human-machine learning**
**Using digital libraries in learning**
**Knowledge-on-demand pedagogies**

## Challenges for 21st Century Academe

**See the world whole; sense the coupling among seemingly disparate fields of endeavor**
**Perform synthesis in balance with analysis **
**Build connections between the world of learning and the world beyond**
**Innovate**

**Educate students to:**