Transforming Undergraduate Education in Engineering
By Colleen Flaherty
February 9, 2018

The American Society for Engineering Education published two new reports as part of its Transforming Undergraduate Education in Engineering project. A previously published report from the society focused on input from industry, while the new reports offer “Insight From Tomorrow’s Engineers” and “Voices on Women’s Participation and Retention,” respectively. The society’s project seeks to advance undergraduate engineering education by building consensus among different groups as to what it should entail.
Student insights from the Phase II report include that the discipline isn’t doing enough to produce “T-shaped” professionals, or those who have technical expertise, adaptability and so-called soft skills. Students also say they want real-world applications and design-based projects. Recommendations from the Phase III project on women in engineering include creating an online “diversity dashboard” for the field that shows the demographic makeup of engineering schools, making gender diversity an institutional value and promoting the idea that diversity translates to value in industry. The society’s final, Phase IV report, focused on professional engineering societies, will be published later this year.