Xref: utzoo misc.education:688 sci.edu:1001 comp.org.ieee:362 Path: utzoo!dciem!mkg From: mkg@dciem.dciem.dnd.ca (Mike Grasley) Newsgroups: misc.education,sci.edu,comp.org.ieee Subject: Engineering Education Keywords: engineering,education,Waterloo Message-ID: <3374@dciem.dciem.dnd.ca> Date: 26 Jul 90 16:00:59 GMT Followup-To: misc.education Organization: DCIEM, Toronto, Canada Lines: 163 It's good to see that engineers are serious about a new newsgroup on engineering education. The shortage of engineers in Canada is more sevre the in the states. My universtiy (U of Waterloo) is trying to help solve the problem. The University of Waterloo takes a novel (at least here in Canada) approach to engineering education, called the cooperative education program. Based on the belief that engineering is a practical profession (i.e. you can learn the theories in school, but school can't teach you to be an engineer), engineering is a five year program comprised of 8 acedemic semesters and 6 work semesters. On a work semester students are hired by companies to work with professional engineers on a variety of projects. Most of the jobs give a good exposure to what engineering is really like. It seems to me this is on way to alleviate the problem referred to by Russell Lawrence, namely "We sometimes come out of school knowing how to use the book,..., but we don't understand the physics behind the problem...In my work area, a new hire is limited as to what s/he can accomplish on the job until s/he has some sense of the way the thing that is in question works." By alternating acedemic and industry semesters, we are constantly learning to apply what we have been taught in the classroom. Addmittedly the work we can do as junior students is at a fairly low level, but nonetheless it helps teach us to be engineers. I have just completed a study of the last fifteen years of graduates from my program (Systems Design Engineering) and the co-op program was one of the things mentioned as most helpful (and beneficial) to their careers as engineers. Because many graduates wind up working for companies they worked for as students, they are immediately able to deal with a wide variety of tasks instead of needing to take a lot of time to become familiar with the jobs at hand. I think this advantage will become more pronounced in the future as technology becomes more advanced and specialized, which will make longer familiarization periods necessary for newly graduated/hired engineers. I would be interested to hear the opinions of engineers who came from traditional programs as well as those with co-op backgrounds. Do co-op programs provide a better education? Are they worth the extra year? What are the alternatives that will help engineering students prepare for reality? Post replies if they are of general interest, any specific questions or comments can be e-mailed to me. All this is fine and dandy, but the co-op program can't benefit anyone if enrollment in engineering programs continues to drop. And this is exactly what is happening. In spite of the fact that total enrollment in Canadian universities has reached a new peak every year for the last four years, enrollment in engineering (and science) has declined every year since 1986. My feeling is that one of the prime reasons for this is an image problem. Engineering simply doesn't have the appeal to young people that other professions do. Some of this may be due to parental influence--when was the last time you heard a parent brag "My Johnny/Sally wants to become an engineer when he/she grows up."? This influence is particularily harmful for females. I think most educators agree that one of the prime reasons so few females chose a career in a scientific/technological field is that girls are encouraged to play with dolls while boys are encouraged build with LEGO. This is a gross over-simplification, but you get the idea. The following is taken from an article in the Iron Warrior (the Waterloo engineering newspaper) written by Katherine Koszarny, VP of the student engineering society. "Traditionally, engineering issues do not make the news. Every day, we hear about politicians, important officials and backbenchers alike. Business sections [of newspapers] magazines and best-selling books highlight various entrepreneurs and executives, along with their achievements and ideas. Parents encourage their children to be lawyers, doctors, dentists and accountants. Engineering isn't regarded in the same manner." What people fail to realise is how dependent society is on engineers. Without engineers there would be no cars, no radios, no airplanes, no bridges, no electricity, no ... You get the point. Modern society is propped up by and very dependent on a highly technological infrastructure. This may or may not be good, but it is a fact. Engineers are needed to maintain, improve, and expand this infrastructure. Various environmental groups point out the amount of damage we have done to the earth in the name of technological progress. I will admit that some of their points are valid, and I am willing to accept my share of the blame. But let's be realistic--the average person is not willing to give up very many of their creature comforts in order to make the earth a better place. If we are going to stop destroying the earth, environmentally friendly technologies (i.e. better exhaust systems, alternatives to hydro-electric mega-projects) must be developed. Who is best able to provide these developments? Engineers. Obviously we need engineers. But current projections in Canada (and the U.S. as I understand it) predict a shortage of engineers throughout the nineties. There are two places we can get the engineers we need: increased enrollment in engineering programs and immigration. Increasing the number of engineers through immigration is a solution with a number of problems. One of them is the communication problem referred to by Ronald Graham (NASA). He states "The Government continually states in its jobs descriptions that it is looking for personnel with 'good oral and written communications skills.'" The findings of my study seem to provide further evidence of this necessity--much of an engineer's time is spent communicating with other people. What good is a new idea if you can't explain it clearly? New immigrants may be great engineers, but they understandably need years to develop good (English) communications skills. A second problem is attracting immigrant engineers. As other developed countries (Japan, Sweden, U.K., U.S.) begin to act on their own shortages of engineers, it is becoming harder to entice foreign engineers into working here. One last problem with immigration as a solution is national pride. I firmly believe that we must be willing to solve out own problems. I am a Canadian engineer, and dammit, I'm proud of that fact. I'm sure the same is true of American engineers. So the other alternative is increased enrollment in engineering programs at universities. This is a two step process. First we must create a positive public image. We must be proud of what we are; we must let the public know what we do; we must let them know how important we are to society. Secondly, we must encourage young people to get a solid education in science and technology. They must be encouraged from a young age. High school is too late--I have friends who dropped math after grade nine. But we must be careful not to paint engineering as nothing but number crunching. Engineering is more than just a science. It is the art of taking science and applying it to reality. Engineers must have a solid background in the maths and sciences, but they must also be creative. As the advertisment for an exhibition on Leonardo da Vinci said, "They called him a genius, a botanist, a demon, a philosopher, a practical joker, an eccentric, and a visionary. No wonder he was such a great engineer." Engineering is a challenging and rewarding career; we just need to convince the general public of this. The Faculty of Engineering at the University of Waterloo is planning to do just that. A proposal is being put together that would see engineering students on their work semesters speak to local elementary/high school students about engineering--the fascinating work, the varied career possibilities, the rewards, etc. The idea is that young people relate best to young people, so the message is best heard from engineering students. And with students working all over the country, we will have a national audience. The program is still in the planning stages. Any comments as to who our target audience should be, what we should be telling them, etc. would be appreciated. The benefits of this initiative are years away. But we must look at the future as well as our short term needs. If you are proud of being an engineer, go back to your high school. Encourage students to follow a career in engineering. There are more than 2.5 million working engineers in North America. With that many voices surely we can improve our image and encourage young people to become engineers. Mike Grasley (mkg@dretor.dciem.dnd.ca) These opinions are mine. They are not the opinions of my employer. In fact, my employer doesn't have any opinions cause the Canadian government doesn't want to offend anyone.