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An Engineering Crisis or Renaissance

Posted March 18, 2008 8:17 AM

The Princeton Review says seven schools with the worst professors are engineering schools. But a recent Design News found that engineering students and grads are pretty satisfied with their classroom days. Engineers need a technical foundation, but the time of the 'vertical' engineer has passed. Engineers who want to stay competitive need a broad non-traditional skill set as well. Communication often tops that list, but it means more than writing a technical report or preparing a promising PowerPoint. Do you think there is a crisis or simply a change in course in engineering education?

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#7 "Re: An Engineering Crisis or Renaissance" by betomachine on 03/19/2008 9:57 AM (score 2)

High Lander Commentator Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Everywhere, but nowhere. Posts: 88	#1 Re: An Engineering Crisis or Renaissance 03/19/2008 12:31 AM
	Less mediocre people (student) !!! There is no crisis. Communication problem is caused because these students have difficulty passing their communication/english/humanities subjects. If they flunk, they deserve it. Engineering is for the elite only, not for the technopeasants!!! __________________ "It is only when we die that we become Immortal."

Guest	#2 Re: An Engineering Crisis or Renaissance 03/19/2008 2:41 AM
	We get paid to think and monkey with tools and occationally spend an obscene amount of company money on a project. I believe the means justify the end. Work hard, play hard! This is a case of sensational journalism by the Princeton Review.

High Lander Commentator Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Everywhere, but nowhere. Posts: 88	#3 In reply to #2 Re: An Engineering Crisis or Renaissance 03/19/2008 3:02 AM
	Exactly my point, I agree with you. But they have to earn it first. __________________ "It is only when we die that we become Immortal."

Del the cat Guru Join Date: May 2007 Location: Harlow England Posts: 10338 Good Answers: 207	#4 Re: An Engineering Crisis or Renaissance 03/19/2008 5:06 AM
	Engineers who want to stay competitive need a broad non-traditional skill set as well. Yeh..that's what the pencil pushers and bean counters keep telling us, and we're pig sick of it. Hey, we must all learn to lie and brown nose better, tell 'em what they want to hear and to hell with the engineering, let's just all learn how to nod, grin and say 'yes'. __________________ health warning: These posts may contain traces of nut.

Del the cat Guru Join Date: May 2007 Location: Harlow England Posts: 10338 Good Answers: 207	#5 Re: An Engineering Crisis or Renaissance 03/19/2008 5:09 AM
	The Princeton Review says seven schools with the worst professors. Who says they are the worst pofessors...some pratt with a clipboard and a bunch of management targets or the students or some engineers? Del (Defensive? Moi? ) __________________ health warning: These posts may contain traces of nut.

ramorrison1 Active Contributor Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Va Beach Posts: 23	#6 In reply to #5 Re: An Engineering Crisis or Renaissance 03/19/2008 8:56 AM
	Who says they are Engineering Professors. It just says they are Engineering schools. __________________ "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do." - Mark Twain

betomachine Power-User Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Austin, TX Posts: 296 Good Answers: 9	#7 Re: An Engineering Crisis or Renaissance 03/19/2008 9:57 AM
	My school was routinely ranked at the top or near the top of "least happy students" but I wouldn't trade my education there for anything. I think engineering course work should stay the same; it should be difficult, demanding, and humbling. Learning all the physics, chemistry, etc. is important but learning how to think through a problem is what you really should be learning at school and you only learn that struggling through it by yourself. I think if the professor is ranked as the worst, there is a pretty good chance that he/she is doing a good job of getting his/her students prepared for the real world of engineering and not the "vertical" engineering world of driving a spreadsheet and saying "yes". Do you need to communicate? Surely, but if you can't solve the problem in the first place, all you communicate is that you can't cut the mustard. __________________ Money doesn't talk, it screams in your face.
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#7 "Re: An Engineering Crisis or Renaissance" by betomachine on 03/19/2008 9:57 AM (score 2)

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