EA Books

21st Century Engineer: A proposal for engineering education reform

Patricia Galloway

2008, ISBN: 9780784409367, 152pp, $59.95

Patricia Galloway, is chief executive officer of The Nielsen-Wurster Group, a management consulting firm based in Seattle, Washington, and an engineer of 30 years. As a past president of the American Society of Civil Engineers Galloway has had good reason to consider the prospects for engineers and engineering education in the US and around the world.

The end result is the 21^st Century Engineer, a first-rate overview of the current professional environment and issues. Watch out engineering faculties, as the blame for the current inadequacies is pointed right at you and it is not small. As stated in the Preface and inferred throughout the book, engineers were the leaders in the 19^th century, holding their status well above medicine and law, but this has eroded significantly during the 20^th century due to “an engineering educational system that has not kept pace with the demands of the marketplace.”

In fact, the author sees “Engineers by and large have come to be viewed as technicians – as commodities of sorts, not practitioners of a profession engaged in a high calling comparable to the practice of law or medicine, for example.” These are harsh words but it would be hard to argue that the public perception of engineering has not been on a downward spiral for some time as evidenced by the ever increasing struggle to attract students to engineering schools.

The author argues clearly and strongly for the need to broaden current and future engineer’s skills sets to become not only technically competent but also competent in communication and management practices. These later ‘soft’ “fundamental capacities” she believes are still not being taught at either undergraduate or graduate level. The first six chapters: Globalization; Communication; Ethics and Professionalism; Diversity; Leadership; and The Engineer’s Role in Public Policy, argue each topics importance to an engineer today and into the future and the problems caused for the engineering profession when they are not being incorporated as fundamental skills in an engineers formal education.

The final two chapters focus on engineering education reform and a proposed Postgraduate course. In this section, the author presents a very brief summary of the status quo, the inadequacies of the current system, its future needs and what engineering schools around the world are currently doing to meet some of these challenges. Her proposal for a Master of Professional Engineering Management degree is neither a new concept nor a radical one and is presented with a focus on the construction industry. It would seem from the strong arguments earlier in the book that this should be considered only as an interim measure and that a more dramatic change particularly at the undergraduate level is needed to respond to the challenges required of the future engineer, but alternative suggestions were disappointingly lacking.

So are engineers really seen as only technicians today? and, does it all come down to the engineering education system? As an engineer, experienced both as an academic and industry practitioner, I believe that we do need to make some significant changes to the education and training of engineers to adapt to the increasingly technical society that we have been responsible in creating and if not acted on soon engineering could become just a service or commodity as the author states. Engineering education is fundamental to this process but the leadership and willingness to change must come from across the sector. To take a different view on the demise of society’s perception of the engineering professions, I liked Jill Tietjen article in the November IEEE Spectrum 2004 when she wrote: “Engineering’s invisibility began with the environmental movement in the 1960s and reached a crescendo with Earth Day in 1970. Underlying people’s environmental concerns was the feeling that all technology must be bad because some forms of technology caused air and water pollution. Sensitive to these concerns, companies stopped touting their engineering achievements, and technology went underground. Though engineering continued to power our economy, it and its practitioners lost their visibility and allure.”

Engineering education may be where change has to take place but the blame for the professions current situation cannot be laid totally within the engineering education system nor should the expectation for the total solution. It is the responsibility of the whole profession. This book is very well timed and placed to add to the current discussion in Australia on engineering education reform and the soon to be released report of the 10 year Review of the ‘Changing the Culture: Engineering Education into the Future’. I would recommend that all engineers read this book and participate in the discussion on the future of engineering education in Australia.

Reviewed by Gunilla Burrowes,  Researcher School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science The Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment The University of Newcastle Callaghan, and  Engineers Australia, National Vice President Engineering Practice.

This book is available from EA Books.