Challenges in engineering education: A view towards the future

Abstract

Opinion about the impact of future developments at undergraduate and postgraduate level of engineering education in the current adverse economic downturn can diverge widely. Thus, predicting the exact nature of the future of this education with any certainty is difficult. Certainly, the current economic situation and the consequent uncertainties in the global market are going to affect a wide spectrum of our society and thus engineering education.This paper highlights some of the challenges at undergraduate as well as postgraduate, i.e. Master's and Doctoral, engineering education. The Author believes that existing engineering education has contributed to the vast majority of technological advancements and prosperity in society. However, the material presented in this paper is a view on the role of engineering in society and an attempt to make engineering education more attractive in the future.

Flexible learning in engineering education: A reflection on the model

“…It is apparent that the issues of Doctoral education in engineering require an extensive rethink of the present approach and more serious reflection is required for the future [18] and [19]. Thus, it is reasonable to suggest that an active engineering network/organization "without boundaries" should be established worldwide in a collaborative online fashion using the latest web and IT technologies.…”

“…Although the attempt to apply flexible learning and teaching methodologies is very popular at Level 6-8 in engineering courses, there is almost silence on this subject at Level 9-10 engineering courses. However, there has been promising attempt to use the web technologies at Level As discussed in [18], the current model of a PhD in engineering lacks certain 'boundaries' when it comes to global demands for engineers. Fig.…”

“…It takes into account the latest application of Web 2.0 and other relevant techniques as well as components of delivery and material and resources needed. The content of this paper is part of ongoing research in engineering education and is a revised and expanded version of a lead paper [18].…”

The Master's Thesis: An Opportunity for Fostering Presentation Skills

“…Using this web application, students can upload videos of their presentations so that they can be assessed by the other students and tutors at any time. This application also has the important advantage that it 1 A web account has been created to test the proposed web tool (seehttp://pels.edv.uniovi.es/WebPres/index.php). This web account can be used by anyone and provides access to one of the groups recently created.…”

“…Engineers are commonly expected to have the necessary technical and scientific knowledge to be able to solve problems or optimize systems in many fields [1], [2]. Bearing this in mind, in many countries engineering degrees are planned so that the first years of the programs impart basic knowledge that is mainly focused on mathematics and physics [3], and the later years focus on topics specific to the engineering field the student will specialize in.…”