Top 5 Areas of (Future) Focus for Engineering Education

Arthur Ball, Collegiate Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Virginia Tech

In the future we're going to be gathering data, vast quantities of it, on virtually everything. Our students are going to be a big part of that, trying to parse through the data to figure out what's useful and what's not. The bigger picture is: what is the data? Do we want to be collecting it? Who knows that we have this data? These are questions that are really sort of a big picture that a lot of students today aren’t considering.

Patrick Cunningham, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Rose Hulman Institute of Technology

A colleague was showing me an AI tool that can take what you type in, like, “I want to compute computer code that does this in Matlab,” and it writes the program for you. OK, that's stunning, but somebody had to be critical thinking and have a deeper understanding to be able to create the tool to do that. If we over rely on those tools and forget to develop a deeper understanding to be able to interpret, to make decisions based on that information, if we miss that, we’re stuck. These are wonderful tools, but let's leverage them as tools. Let's not use them as crutches and, let's help our students to do the same.

Sreyoshi Bhaduri, Senator at the Society of Women Engineers and Scientist at Amazon

Artificial Intelligence and automation is all around us - from virtual assistants on our smart devices, to self-driving cars, and even automated grading bots. The World Economic Forum anticipates that by 2025, 97 million new jobs will emerge in the global economy, fuelled by greater interaction of humans and machines. Engineering educators are uniquely positioned to lead the narrative on and interaction with emergent technologies, including AI and other automation. Knowing how to code or analyze data will no longer be a specialized skill, and engineers need to be equipped with resources to evaluate, use and develop responsible and ethical tools for inclusive problem solving. Research and education for the engineers of the present (and thereby, the future) will define the teams that will continue innovating on the technologies that society will increasingly adopt.

Maria Bothwell, Chief Executive Officer of Toffler Associates

One of the things we've spent time thinking about is that idea of human-machine trust and trusting machines in society, whether it's automatic vehicles or automatic weapons and the soldiers working with them. Whatever system we're talking about, there's the aspect of the human-machine trust, and building on that; to me, it’s such a complex issue that gets into so many aspects beyond engineering. But engineers need to be very aware and that's why a multidisciplinary, collaborative group needs to be working on it.

Brian M. Kleiner, Bogle Professor and Director, Myers-Lawson School of Construction

Human-machine trust relates to human-machine interaction more generally and one area of future concern as automation increases across sectors is the safety, health and wellness of humans. A more automated system is not necessarily a safer one. In fact, many devices and pieces of equipment designed to decrease risk may reduce one type of risk, but inadvertently create another. An example from the construction industry is falls from heights. This is the most prevalent cause of death. To reduce the hazards associated with scaffolding and ladders, small boom or scissor lifts have been used. These can create risks such as “caught between”. Another example is the use of drones to inspect bridges or buildings. Fall risks are eliminated but “struck by” risk is increased. Engineers need to learn not to automate for the sake of automation, but rather to support the human experience.

Ken Walker, Partner & Portfolio Chairman, Falfurrias Capital Partners

Back when I was a young engineer, everyone was kind of on your own. Team projects were few and far between. Now, as we think about it, to be competitive in a global world, it's definitely a team sport. Problems get solved not by the smartest individual in the room, but by the collective thoughts, solving them together. The important nature of teamwork, collaboration, contribution, accountability of each participant in a solution in a team-based environment is something that's going to be more important going forward.

Arthur Ball, Collegiate Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Virginia Tech

Systems today are becoming heavily intertwined. Many disciplines are regularly involved in trying to come up with an optimized result, system or outcome, but a lot of students are siloed. They don't quite realize how important it is to actually know a little bit about everything and not just a lot about something. I know Engineering Education has a very good program called the Interdisciplinary Capstone – I'm involved in that – and I think that that's a great idea.

We need to expand on that significantly, but I don't think we're going to do enough fast enough. The systems we're going to be looking at in the next 10 or 15, 20 years down the road are going to require large amounts of knowledge across a very wide breadth and the current process that we're doing is not really going to satisfy that condition. It's good to have multidisciplinary teams and disciplinary teamwork, but students need to have a bigger picture view of the world.

Courtney Smith-Orr, Teaching Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, UNCC

We teach our students what it is to be a professional engineer; the level of focus and concentration they have to have; and how we learn and continue to learn to collaborate with others in a space. But having worked in silos for so many years now, getting students to collaborate and talk to their peers has become more and more of a challenge. I’m a huge advocate for active learning, but we have to continue to develop new ways to engage our students on their journey to becoming future engineers.

Laura Bottomley, Director of Engineering Education, North Carolina State University

I see engineering becoming much more multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and in fact, going beyond just the engineering disciplines. I think if we’re going to succeed, we're going to have to recognize there's expertise in other disciplines besides engineering that can help us solve engineering problems. Innovation lies at the boundaries of the disciplines.

Ken Walker, Partner & Portfolio Chairman, Falfurrias Capital Partners

I would say the shift we've seen and continue to see is the global nature by which business is being run and will be run in the future. Decisions around where products get produced, and how they get made; decision points around how to invest for innovation, quality, safety, etc. These are all points that I think are paramount in leadership of larger manufacturing companies. I think having engineers understand not only how to think about building and scoping projects, but also the tides of business and decisions made around those points is something that will be additive to their position to their work and development going forward.

Rick Albee, Hiller Avenue Partners, LLC

What I have found through the years is that engineers tend to rise into positions of leadership, because they're smart people and they're willing to take some initiative. Unfortunately, many of the folks who rise up as leaders get there and have a tendency to communicate poorly, and some of them have a very difficult time influencing, or leading people. Leadership guru Patrick Lencioni says the point of leadership is “to mobilize people around what is most important.” The whole area of leadership is vitally important, and part of this is thinking about what life and success looks like after college.

Courtney Smith-Orr, Teaching Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, UNCC

What I’m also noticing more, is COVID has made more apparent the inequities of incoming students’ education. I have some students who say, “I want to do this advanced motion detection training,” and I have other students who ask what classes they should take. They have access to very different types of things based on where they are from, or resources their high schools have. When you get them at the college level, the patience and resources required to meet the needs of both types of students has evolved. Additionally, the level of involvement that universities are having with K-12 needs to expand to aid in preparing our future students for engineering careers.

Patrick Cunningham, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Rose Hulman Institute of Technology

As I've studied the learning process, recognizing how complex the space is with each student bringing an individual preparation, individual background, individual contexts, and any of the factors from that can impact their ability to engage in the classroom, or as a professional, can affect their ability to perform, whether in the military or in the workforce, whether it's in engineering or otherwise. It’s knowing how to work best with themselves and to be able to function healthily and productively. I think that greater awareness, being able to teach and help students to have those skills, and even to model those in the education process to make it a welcoming and supportive environment for everyone to grow, not just particular individuals.

Brian Novoselich, Associate Professor, Director of Strategic Plans and Assessment (G5) for the United States Military Academy at West Point

If we look at climate change and global threats to security, we really need to engineer solutions across disciplines that are resilient to transnational threats – we need to design resiliency into our systems moving forward. The question then becomes: how do we train engineers to have empathetic design thought? Thought that takes both really refined people skills, and the ability to identify all the different ways that a system or product needs to be resilient.

Anne Waldmiller, Business Control Manager at Wells Fargo

I don't know if it's new or different necessarily, but when you go outside of traditional manufacturing, or perhaps an engineering career, it's the soft people skills I think are really important. It’s going to raise our students up a level and differentiate them from other other candidates. Being able to lead projects, putting yourself in the shoes of your customers – those soft people skills versus traditional, linear engineering skills.

Sreyoshi Bhaduri, Senator at the Society of Women Engineers and Scientist at Amazon

Thinking about supporting students should also include learners in the industry, looking to transition into newer roles, upskill, or advance in their careers. Whether it is through certification courses, part-time degrees, non-traditional learning paths are becoming increasingly common. As engineering educators we have an opportunity to provide support to a diverse range of learners and needs, to best equip everyone for a changing economy and workforce.

Brian Novoselich, Associate Professor, Director of Strategic Plans and Assessment (G5) for the United States Military Academy at West Point

One big shift is in talent management. The way we think about managing talent in the engineering profession is going to be critical and needs greater emphasis because the workforce is starting to age out. We as a profession have well-recognised, persistent barriers to entry for a lot of different folks for many different reasons. Any lingering barriers to entry and persistence – we need to get rid of them, because we need all folks in the workforce. With the increased demand for STEM-related career fields and the talent to go into them, we need to work together to make sure we can fill the jobs moving forward.

Sreyoshi Bhaduri, Senator at the Society of Women Engineers and Scientist at Amazon

The changing nature of work and the workforce is not incremental - the ecosystems of the past are being questioned and completely overhauled to give way for the new due to several parallel disruptions. There are several factors at play and flexibility seems to be a primary driver. Technology is being increasingly leveraged to connect global teams and deliver results asynchronously.

Consequently, skills have evolved. What it meant to be a software development manager 10 years ago is very different from what the role may entail today as a manager of global teams. As systems rapidly evolve and work and workplaces take on new definitions, there is a need to examine impact and recommend best practices. Who decides what is “flexible”? How are the changing systems helping or harming those already marginalized in tech? While engineers, and consequently engineering educators, need to constantly upskill on technical skills, they need to  equally commit to lifelong learning, bettering of interpersonal skills, and seeking to ask and answer difficult questions to bring about changes that are truly equitable for all.

José Torero, Professor of Civil Engineering and DH of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering at UCL, UK

I've read a lot of Alvin Toffler’s work and he has one quote that I find absolutely brilliant about tomorrow's illiterate:

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”

Our lifelong learners are part of every definition of engineer we need to create. We need to change the way in which we look at engineering education, and make it a partnership between the academic world and the students in a manner such that we give them agency and enable them to become lifelong learners. The evolution of technology is too fast and the amount of knowledge that they have access to now is too large. Unless they know how to learn, our students will become very rapidly obsolete.