Book chapter from Sheppard et al, 2008; week 10

I would like to devote my comments to the book chapter of Sheppard et al, 2008, which I read with pleasure, and which we discussed today in class. The authors described many aspects related to engineering practice and engineering education, and I am going to touch some of them. The chapter begins from identifying what is engineering. A couple of “official” definitions of engineering practice were presented. One of them was made by the U.S. Department of Labor, and second one- by ABET. Department of Labor describes engineering as the application of the “theory and principles of science and mathematics to research and develop economical solutions to technical problems…the link between perceived social needs and commercial applications” p.3. ABET gives similar definition: “Engineering is a decision –making process (often iterative), in which the basic sciences, mathematics, and engineering sciences are applied to convert resources optimally to meet a stated objective”p.3.
Then, authors divided engineering knowledge in three major categories: knowing that (declarative knowledge), knowing how (procedural knowledge) and knowing why (strategic knowledge). “The knowledge that engineers must bring to bear in their work includes knowing how to perform tasks, knowing facts, and knowing when and how to bring appropriate skills and facts to bear on a particular problem” p. 5.
Later, Sheppard et al. discussed the aims and components of engineering education:“although engineering schools aim to prepare students for the profession, they are heavily influenced by academic traditions that do not always support the professional needs” p.2. The authors stated that for at least a century, the U.S. engineering education was strongly influenced by the French model, when curriculum of science, technical subjects and humanities were taught before application.
Three major components of contemporary engineering education are:
•Learning about science (concepts & phenomena) , and accumulation of deep theoretical knowledge;
•Learning engineering concepts (e.g. problem solving, design, analysis), and accumulation of procedural knowledge with practical skills in lab environment,
•Learning ethical and humanity aspects.
The authors noticed that Ethical responsibilities became a feature of engineering recently. The focus on ethical consequences of engineering practice was not critical for the past. But in the present time, ethics and humanity issues can significantly influence on engineering decision-making. “Because engineers’ work directly affects the world, engineers must be able and willing to think about their ethical responsibility for the consequences of their interventions in an increasingly interlinked world environment” (p.8). But from the other side, talking about college level courses devoted to ethics, humanities, and social science, the author presented some kind of contradiction: too often students are forced to choose certain human science courses to satisfy curricula requirements. “The courses and their content remain largely disconnected from the technical education program, and it is largely up to the student to bring them together, if they brought together at all”. I liked the Figure 2.1, where the authors represented components of engineering education. Analysis, lab work, and design activities somehow intersect with each other; but the ethics component is opposite from other components. Ideal model for engineering education is presented on the Figure 21.1, “Networked Components Model”, where all parts/components are bind together and represent an entire model.