Current status of the ASEE Goals Report

Abstract

These are dramatic times of change and challenge in engineering and engineering education. New materials and energy forms are being utilized in increasing complex devices and systems. Society is making increasing demands on engineering for not only the solutions to technical problems utilizing the latest discoveries and developments in science and technology, but solutions that are economically feasible, and socially acceptable as well. Engineering, in the past, could optimize devices and systems, on one or two parameters; today we talk in terms of n parameters where n can range anywhere from one to infinity. Fortunately in engineering, these new demands are being met by the parallel development of new techniques and methods. Custom made materials can be specified and realized rather than adapted and compromised. High speed computers make it possible to try many alternate solutions, rather than compromise on our "best guesstimate." Coupled with this technological and scientific revolution and the information explosion associated with it has been another explosion, an educational and social revolution that extends beyond local, regional and national boundaries. This is especially apparent in the contemporary American higher educational scene today. Society demands that higher education contribute not only a greater number, but a greater proportion of the educated people required in business, industry, and government; society also demands that higher educational institutions make a major contribution to the creation of new knowledge through research and to the dissemination of new knowledge through continuing education and publications. In addition, higher educational institutions are being asked in ever-increasing numbers to contribute to the contemporary problems of society including poverty and disarmament, space travel and international relations, and the Northeast Corridor and Los Angeles' smog. The engineering profession and engineering education sit squarely in the middle of this millieu. As a result, it is both understandable and wise for us to take a moment, sit back, and ask ourselves what are we trying to do, where have we been, and where do we think we should go? The Goals of Engineering Education Project of the American Society for Engineering Education was just such an attempt, and is in its final stages now. Such studies are not new in American engineering education; indeed, we have been on about 10 year investigation cycles since the turn of the century. The general charge of the Goals Study was to conduct a comprehensive study into all aspects of engineering education and to recommend a pattern of engineering education which would result in improved undergraduate and graduate programs. This study has tried to collect information from a wide variety of sources including field studies, surveys, literature search, and study committee reports; and to obtain the views of engineering educational institutions, engineering graduates, engineering managers and personnel representatives, and technical and professional societies.