Courses for engineers considering the age of virtual engineering

Abstract

Engineering for products has been changed dramatically. In the leading industries, the conventional way of engineering will be over soon. Engineers define products in large teams including high number of fully integrated subsidiaries in virtual product information environments at leading industries. Virtual engineering systems accumulate knowledge and engineering results for decades of experience. During product definition engineers can not decide results those break previously verified results or a minimum level of knowledge. Engineers are faced with computing intelligence and high level verified knowledge in product representations. Result of engineering work is based on proven verified solutions and it is accumulated in product model. While this new situation urges change for an absolutely new way of higher education in engineering, the knowledge intensive environment provided by virtual engineering systems is a fantastic new possibility for the establishment courses to fulfill the new demands in engineering. In this paper, first the new scenario of virtual engineering is characterized. Following this, a possible way for course management in the new environment is conceptualized. Finally, implementation of virtual engineering in higher education courses is discussed and connection with existing product lifecycle management (PLM) systems is outlined.