Traditional Engineering Curriculum Research Articles

Organizational Flexibility in the Digital Age: The Stakes are Higher Than You Think

Guest editorial It is not uncommon for today’s reservoirs to be modeled in three or four dimensions with high-end computers such as those used by NASA, and a modern production system can be monitored by “smart” sensors that allow engineers to observe almost any aspect of its performance in real time. Indeed, few people would argue that the dawn of the digital oil field has arrived. It therefore follows that this exciting new chapter in the history of the industry will give rise to a new breed of oil and gas professional. A large and increasingly loud chorus of voices in the industry is calling for the training of more “digital petroleum engineers” (Mahdavi 2008) who are familiar with both petroleum engineering fundamentals and information technology (IT) systems. To meet this demand, the University of Southern California is now offering post-graduate programs that link more traditional petroleum engineering curriculum elements with “smart” oilfield technologies and the IT skills that underpin them. And as reservoirs and production systems become ever more data-intensive, it is clear that this integrated approach to developing oil and gas curricula will almost certainly become more widespread. But it is not enough. The oil and gas companies of the future will not only need armies of multiskilled employees but they will also need to adapt their organizational structures. Several groups within the industry—most conspicuously, the “digital oil field of the future” community—have made similar kinds of observations, and some have suggested that companies in the oil patch can more fully reap the rewards of the data revolution if they undergo some kind of organizational transformation that unleashes the true potential of the newly minted digital petroleum engineers (Jacobs and Ward 2006). More at Stake There might, however, be far more at stake for these firms than just modest improvements in efficiency. Several other industries have experienced organizational growing pains on account of new technologies, and their stories suggest that these kinds of organizational issues are often much more serious than they seem at the outset. In fact, some new technologies carry with them profound organizational implications that can have disastrous effects on industry incumbents. Far more alarming, however, is the fact that these threats are often virtually invisible to these companies until it is too late. The technology-management community noticed several years ago that longstanding categorizations of innovations such as “radical” or “incremental” were no longer sufficient to explain what was happening in some situations. A different type of technological dislocation had emerged: architectural innovation. Whereas incremental or radical innovations are typically diagnosed according to the new-ness of the engineering and scientific principles that go into a product’s key components, architectural innovation occurs when there are major changes in how the components are linked together while leaving the core design concepts—and thus the basic knowledge behind the components—more or less untouched (Henderson and Clark 1990).

Knowledge Strategy to Incorporate Public Health Principles in Engineering Education and Practice

There is evidence that engineering products, processes, systems, and infrastructures are causing human illness in industrialized societies. A possible cause is the technical focus of engineering education and practice and their lack of emphasis on human health considerations in design and decision making. In this paper, the knowledge strategy of Vanderburg is proposed as the pedagogical basis for training undergraduate engineers in identifying and understanding human health problems to preventively address these problems in design and decision making. The knowledge strategy motivates changes to the traditional engineering curriculum to broaden the vantage point of engineering design and decision making, and to integrate principles from public health fields into design and decision making to prevent human illness. The import of public health principles from relevant life science and social science fields for inclusion in engineering education is discussed. The paper is concluded by discussing what public h...

Acting diverse: target group orientation as key competence in engineering education

International companies are recognised by equity between men and women as well as between other different groups (Diversity) as an economic factor and incorporate it into their company visions. Mixed teams are set up to design target group-oriented products, for example in automotive engineering. Therefore they need employees who represent the different target groups, leading to a better integration of women and minority groups into their work force. The Managing Diversity approach is entering the German or European labour market via internationally working companies from the US, where Managing Diversity has been on the agenda for many years. At the same time, industry and universities in Germany face a huge problem: the lack of personnel in technical professions, especially the absence of women and of technically gifted, but not technically interested men. Additionally, during recent years, industry claims that the non-technical basic knowledge of graduates is very poor—and these are the competences that are important for successful cooperation processes. The current article will first describe the theoretical basis of teaching and learning diversity as a key competence and then show an example of implementing diversity and key competences in the traditional engineering curriculum.

Developing environmental awareness in engineers through Engineers Without Borders and sustainable design projects

Today’s engineering students recognize the importance of environmental issues, but the traditional engineering curriculum is weak in opportunities for students to experience the link between the practice of engineering and the ideals of environmental sustainability. To meet this need, we attempt to offer multi‐disciplinary knowledge early in the university course. We suggest a means for educating engineering students to understand environmental problems by viewing them through the eyes of the affected inhabitants. The vehicle for this educational model is Engineers Without Borders. By exposing undergraduate engineering students to real world projects presented by Engineers Without Borders in the first year of their program, the importance of considering the social and environmental issues can be more firmly ingrained in the problem solving process.

Review of Fundamentals of Environmental Engineering by James R. MihelcicFundamentals of Environmental EngineeringWiley0-471-24313-2$78.95

The book is not new but was recently brought to my attention. As the field of environmental hydraulics becomes increasingly popular, how can we educate our hydraulic engineers to gain basic knowledge in environmental engineering? Can we combine knowledge from various sciences like chemistry and biology with the knowledge of physics and mathematics that is also required in the traditional civil engineering curriculum? This book provides a reasonable answer to these questions. It is the outgrowth of team teaching for a course required of all civil and environmental engineering students at Michigan Technological University. Several coauthors share partial credit for this text besides the primary author. The faculty members from MTU include M. T. Auer, D. W. Hand, R. E. Honrath, J. A. Perlinger, and N. R. Urban. M. R. Penn at the University of WisconsinPlatteville also contributed to the biology chapter. The course is intended to provide a bridge between basic sciences and math courses and upper-level engineering courses. The material is divided into four main chapters: concentrations in air, water, and soils; chemistry; physical processes; and biology. The brief preface uses practical examples to illustrate the need for a strong command of the fundamentals in chemistry, biology, and physical processes. The examples of municipal wastewater treatment, acid rain, and fate of chlorinated aliphatic hydrocarbons in groundwater clearly state the need for an integrated multidisciplinary approach to environmental problems. Chapter 2 delves into the nitty-gritty details of unit conversions and sets the tone for the quantitative approach of the authors. The reader is exposed to all possible units used in measuring contaminant levels in soils, water, and the atmosphere. Chapter 3 covers about 100 pages and explains the chemistry of pollutants in a variety of engineered and natural systems. This chapter includes a nice and detailed presentation of chemical kinetics, thermodynamics, equilibrium processes, oxidation/reduction processes, and photochemistry. Chapter 4 provides a 60-page discussion of mass and energy balances. There is also a brief presentation of advection and dispersion, along with a review of the movement of particles in fluids

Systems Engineering: A Practical Approach for Junior Engineers

This paper discusses a recent engineering graduate's viewpoint(s) about his career with the United States Air Force. He discusses the importance of undergraduate engineering disciplines being taught with respect to systems engineering guidelines and how systems engineering should also be taught from a practical viewpoint. If the systems engineering process is added to the traditional engineering curriculum, it should highlight the war-fighter's or customer's needs, specifications, standards, and requirements. This paper stresses the idea that requirements engineering methodologies, a subset of systems engineering, should be taught and discusses the use of requirements engineering to derive software and hardware requirements for avionics subsystems. Definitions and applications of systems engineering methodologies to develop a technological product that succeeds from one milestone decision to another and from one life-cycle phase to the next are also covered. Finally, recommendations are made on how to better prepare pre-graduate engineers for such a workplace

The Pavement Enterprise at Michigan Technological University

A project-based student Enterprise program was established at Michigan Technological University as part of a National Science Foundation effort related to reform of engineering education. The Enterprise program represents a separate degree track available in all departments of the College of Engineering. The Pavement Design, Construction, and Materials (Pavement) Enterprise was established in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in conjunction with the Thompson Scholars program. The Thompson Scholars program is an asphalt paving industry supported scholarship program. The Pavement Enterprise is composed of a team of students that work in a businesslike setting on projects related to the asphalt paving industry. In addition to their project activities, students are required to participate in paid summer internships in associated industries and organizations. An Advisory Board composed of industry and government leaders meets 3 times/year to provide advice, guidance, and feedback to students and associated faculty. The team project activities of the Pavement Enterprise prepares graduates for careers in the pavement engineering field with knowledge and skills well beyond their peers in the traditional civil engineering curriculum. These team projects incorporate active learning techniques into the program. Performance of the Pavement Enterprise is demonstrated using student attrition as well as a peer review. Lessons learned in program's operation are presented for those institutions considering such a program.

Integrating mechatronics into a mechanical engineering curriculum

We present what we believe is a more manageable approach to enhancing a mechatronics-based mechanical engineering program-a stepwise method to restructure a traditional mechanical engineering curriculum with a mechatronics theme. The result can be a curriculum with contemporary emphasis, enhanced content, and improved sequencing and coupling of traditional topics including modeling and analysis, computing, electrical circuits and machines, measurements and instrumentation, control theory, and design. Mechatronics provides a natural focus for this restructuring and creates an opportunity to better connect and utilize interesting exercises and design experiences throughout the curriculum. The proposed restructuring method consists of four evolutionary steps that allow manageable incremental changes that can be reasonably coordinated with faculty and laboratory development.

Reliability, Maintenance and Risk Assessment in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering Education in the US

Advances in information technology provide new tools and resources to optimize total life cycle of ships in terms of reliability, safety and the control of operating costs. Regulatory agencies and classification societies are moving towards risk-based/reliability-centered rule-making in the shipping industry. However, reliability, maintenance and risk assessment were not considered to be a part of the traditional Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering curriculum in the US. In this paper, the current status of existing curricula, accreditation requirements and new developments are presented. Finally, emerging needs of the maritime industry are discussed.

A three-dimensional engineering curriculum

This paper examines the recent developments affecting engineering education. The introduction of ABET 2000 criteria, the proliferation of engineering fields, and the changes in the characteristic of engineering teams are considered. It concludes that the traditional engineering curriculum, which is organized almost exclusively along thefields of engineering, is no longer capable of producing engineers for the twenty-first century, and therefore proposes a three-dimensional engineering curriculum, which is based onfunction andemployment sector, in addition to thefield of engineering. Philosophically, this proposed 3-D curriculum shifts engineering education from knowing to doing, from fragmentation to integration, and from convergence to divergence. On the practical level, the strength of the proposed 3-D curriculum lies in it being flexible, adaptable, diverse, and resource-sensitive. The diversity of possible programs resulting from the added dimensions enables engineering programs to develop a niche market, which has become an essential survival strategy.

Developing a Market-Sensitive Intelligent Transportation Systems Educational Program

Results of research undertaken to evaluate the educational needs of the emerging field of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSs) are presented, and whether course offerings in academic programs meet these needs is ascertained. A survey was conducted to determine needs for ITS education among public- and private-sector entities and to assess the perception of the academic sector on the type and level of ITS education to be offered. The results indicate that academic programs are aware of the educational needs of the private and public sectors in ITS and have been reacting to those needs. A traditional civil engineering curriculum is inadequate to educate engineers in ITS, thus the ITS educational program must be inter-(or cross-) disciplinary. Focus should be on the areas that are not traditionally part of civil engineering education such as communications, traffic surveillance, systems analysis, and social and institutional issues. The results are intended primarily to provide a guideline for universities to develop the content of an ITS program by identifying the type of program structure as well as the topics to be covered in the courses. A case study is presented of how such a program was implemented at the graduate level at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Revitalising the engineering curriculum: the role of information technology

The traditional engineering curriculum, based for the most part on classical science and nineteenth century mathematics, is inappropriate for educating engineers for the 21st century. Modern computer tools can be used both to shift the emphasis of the curriculum and to improve the quality of learning, but are rarely exploited to best effect. This paper reviews the potential of IT in engineering education with reference to different aspects of the learning process.

Revitalizing the Engineering Curriculum: The Role of Information Technology

Summary The traditional engineering curriculum, based for the most part on classical science and nineteenth‐century mathematics, is inappropriate for educating engineers for the twenty‐first century. Modem computer tools can be used both to shift the emphasis of the curriculum and to improve the quality of learning, but are rarely exploited to best effect in engineering departments. This paper reviews the potential of information technology in engineering education with reference to a model of the learning process.

Evolution of Mechanical Engineering Education at the University of Tokyo.

The history of mechanical engineering education at the University of Tokyo is surveyed and the trend of evolution in the curricula and their requirement conditions is studied. The survey covers the past 106 years between 1886 and 1991, and ten representative curricula are selected from that period. Courses of each curriculum are classified into seven categories and listed for comparison. The history of curricula indicates that the traditional mechanical engineering curriculum, which features heavy concentration in applied mechanics education, took its present form half a century ago and continued until the mid 1980s. The shift from power-driven machines to information-driven ones required qualitative change in mechanical engineering education, and a new generation of curriculum with the combination of natural and artificial sciences appeared in recent years.