Forum Charles M. Vest 

Engineering Education 
for a Changing World 

I believe that engineering education must now return closer to the roots of engineering 
practice. I do not say this easily, because I have spent most of my own career at the 
boundary between engineering and applied science. Starting in the late fifties and 
sixties, the engineering science revolution occurred. The remarkable tools of modern 
science, mathematics, and, later, computing became major components of what and 
how we taught engineers. The results were phenomenal and of great value to the 
nation and the world. We produced engineers capable of creating the revolution in 
computing and communications, developing vehicles to explore outer space, and 
leading in many ways in scientific and technological innovation. 

But the curriculum has been essentially unchanged for thirty years. It has, of 
course, been continuously improved and fine-tuned, but its basic structure and 
philosophy have been rather constant. The world in which engineering is practiced, 
on the other hand, has changed rapidly in recent years. 

Take, for example, the decline in the United States' ability to compete in the 
world marketplace for many manufactured goods. The reasons for this are complex, 
but a major issue has certainly been the attitude of industry and of engineering 
schools toward the design and manufacture of consumer products. If we are to 
compete in the international marketplace, we need to place a new emphasis on basic 
engineering for design and production. We must, of course, do so armed with the 
tools that engineering science has provided for analysis and simulation, but we must 
instill a respect for-indeed a passion for-effective, efficient, and socially responsive 
design and production. 

In the process, we must recognize, teach, and participate in the development of the new 
techniques of lean production, total quality management, and continuous quality improvement. 
Beyond these buzz words lies a core of important new concepts. We must expose our 
students to these concepts and to more teamwork, as well as educate them in the 
basic and applied sciences. We must prepare engineers who have self-discipline, 
analytical skills, and problem-solving abilities, and who are also prepared to work 
and lead in the management sector. To put it curtly, we need to educate students 
who combine the attention to precision, design, and manufacturing that is often 
associated with German and Japanese engineers with the innovative and analytical 
skills that characterize American engineers. 

I want to strike a further theme that is very important in my view. All of higher 
education, and especially engineering education, requires a growing diversity of 
programs and of kinds of institutions ... .I believe that for too long we have all been 
striving for a single model-the comprehensive, Ph.D.-grantingresearch university. 



82 Metropolitan Universities/Winter 1992 

We need different styles of education to meet the needs of different students. We do 
not all need to be the same. Similarly we need a wide variety of [programmatic] 
experiments ... and we need the flexibility to develop new educational approaches 
for the twenty-first century ... .I view the accreditation process of the Accreditation 
Board for Engineering and Technology as a hindrance to the educational innovation 
and experimentation that the nation needs. The process must become sufficiently 
flexible to promote change and experimentation, or it will be left in the dust. 

Acknowledgment 

The following is excerpted, with permission of the author, from an address by Charles M. 
Vest to the American Society for Engineering Education 1992 Annual Conference, June 23, 
1992. 

THE ILLUSION OF A 
CONSERVATIVE REAGAN REVOLUTION 
Larry M. Schwab 
This book presents a new and provocative perspective on the debate over 
the impact of the Reagan administration. Schwab denies the thesis that 
the 1980s has been a period of fundamental conservative change. He 
demonstrates how policy developments and the political system have 
actually moved in the opposite direction. 

"Lawrence Schwab's challenging, perhaps even plausible, thesis that 
there never was a conservative Reagan revolution, demands the most 
serious response and counteranalysis from conservatives. If Dr. Schwab 
is correct, then the policy differences between Republican and Democratic 
parties from 1981 to 1989 were matters of detail rather than substance." 

-Arnold Beichman, Research Fellow, Hoover Institution 

ISBN: 0-88738-413·7 (cloth) 243 pp. $21.95 

Order from your bookstore or direct from the publisher. Major credit cards 
accepted. Call (908) 932-2280. 

mJ 
transaction 

Transaction Publishers 
Department 492R7 
Rutgers-The State University 
New Brunswick, NJ 08903 

transaction _________ ____. 


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