Viewpoint: An Industry View of Engineering Design Education*

Abstract

The US industries are being beaten to the marketplace by foreign competition with a better quality product. What industry needs is clear: engineering graduates with a better design experience. American engineering schools respond to this need by producing great scientists but mediocre engineers. More priority must be given to developing engineers rather than research scientists if the schools are serious about meeting the needs of American industry. This will require a major restructuring in most engineering faculty and administrations in terms of attitudes and priorities. This will not be a major restructuring of current engineering curricula, but rather, more open-ended problems inserted into the engineering science courses with frequent and spirited discussions of the design process. The tools of design can be woven into existing curriculum courses. This design experience must occur all four years and be capped off in the senior year with a `Capstone' design course(s).