TEMPE, Ariz. – Engineering frequently expands technological boundaries, but Brad Allenby says engineering education is often less pioneering.
"The way we are teaching engineering now is not sufficiently responsive to the rapid technological change we're seeing in the world around us," says the Arizona State University professor.
Today's engineering students need not only a broader palette of technical knowledge but a finely tuned cultural literacy and competency as communicators, he explains.
He'll expand on those ideas in the presentation "Educating Sustainable Engineers: From Batch Processing to Personalized Education" on Feb. 19 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Allenby is a professor in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, a part of ASU's Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.
He's also a professor of ethics and engineering in ASU's Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics, and founding director of the Center for Earth Systems Engineering and Management, and chair of the Consortium on Emerging Technologies, Military Operations, and National Security.
A sustainable engineering education in the 21st century requires educators and students to break out of the box of convention more radically than ever before.
Every engineer – no matter their specialty – needs to know the fundamentals of emerging fields such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, robotics, information and communication technology, and cognitive science.
Beyond more extensive technical proficiencies, they also must understand the evolving global context to which modern engineering must respond, Allenby says.
This means developing business savvy, along with keen awareness of the social and environmental implications of emerging technologies.
"We're talking about the engineer not just as a techie, but as a leader, a competent designer and manager of complex systems, who can adapt to rapid societal and technological change," Allenby says.
In his presentation, Allenby will critique current engineering education methods and propose ways to create new learning environments to provide the type of education he outlines.
Source: Arizona State University