Engineering Education: A View Ahead

The forces acting on engineering education are discussed, and it is shown that all these seem to point to a need for further movement away from technician training, and toward much further study of the fundamental sciences of nature in the education of all engineers for the future years. The place of mathematics in a computer age is also reviewed, and it is mentioned that the importance of the "physical model" decreases as the use of mathematics increases. A simplification of the definition of engineering is proposed which places emphasis on the separation of science and art, showing the former to be the duty of a university, the latter of the industrial employer. The basis for an electrical engineering curriculum to treat the subject as a science is outlined and discussed as now being applied at one school.