Engineering in Society (1985)

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THE PRESENT ERA: MANAGING CHANGE IN THE INFORMATION AGE 42 to engineering development. The aerospace field led the way in developing the systems engineering approach, because of the emphasis on high performance at minimum size and weight. In general, systems engineering permits the interfacing of various subsystems and components of a complex product in such a way that performance, weight, cost, and other important parameters can be optimized in selective fashion. The product can be designed as a single, integrated system, rather than as a loose assemblage of separate systems. The interfacing of different areas of knowledge is also essential in new fields such as biotechnology, in which sophisticated scientific methods are used by engineers for production of completely new forms of biological "materials." Even as conventional a project as the design and construction of a modern office building is an exercise in the systems approach; heating and air conditioning engineers, structural engineers, design engineers, electrical, electronics, and environmental engineers routinely participate with civil engineers and architects in the development of a building that functions in many respects like an animate object. The panel believes that such a working environment imparts a flexibility to engineers that allows them to better adapt to the changing environment in which they operate. The Educational System The rapid pace of technological change, the increased degree of specialization, and sharp fluctuations in demand for engineers in various fields have all placed considerable stress on the engineering education system. Over the past 10 to 12 years, as the overall number of students entering college has plateaued and federal subsidies have begun to decrease, engineering schools have had fewer funds available for improvements to existing facilities and equipment—even though at the same time engineering school enrollments have climbed dramatically. Rapid changes in industrial equipment and tools used by engineers—particularly in electronics engineering, but also for computers in general—have meant that schools cannot afford to keep current the equipment they use for training engineers (see, for example, National Academy of Engineering, 1981). Thus, in the most rapidly developing and critical fields, graduates enter industry with a serious lack of some important skills and knowledge. High salaries and attractive benefits offered by industry to young B.S. engineering graduates have led to a severe decline in the number of American students opting for graduate study in engineering—especially at the Ph.D. level. Consequently, there is a shortage of Ph.D. 

THE PRESENT ERA: MANAGING CHANGE IN THE INFORMATION AGE 43 engineers to staff engineering schools. As a result, schools have difficulty coping with larger enrollments and shifting patterns of enrollment. With employment in industry booming, a relatively low-paying faculty position is less attractive to qualified young engineers. More money is not the only consideration here; the nature of the job in general is less appealing under today's constrained circumstances. The shortage of faculty has been a major problem for engineering schools for a number of years (see, for example, Shakertown Conference, 1981). Combined with the generally increased numbers of engineering students in classes, the changing patterns of enrollment, and the scarcity of adequate equipment, the faculty shortage has serious implications for the quality of engineering graduates (see National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges, 1982). Fluctuating demand by industry for graduates in various fields and with specific kinds of training is something that schools in general are not well equipped to deal with—particularly when changes in demand occur relatively quickly. Since the duration of schooling is generally four years, there is a lag time of at least that long before requirements can begin to be met. The high demand for environmental engineers came somewhat suddenly around 1970; some seven or eight years later, that demand declined just as abruptly. Fortunately for many young environmental engineers who had just entered the profession or were still graduating at that point, their training was sufficiently interdisciplinary (usually chemical and industrial engineering with some chemistry and biology on a civil engineering base) that they were still employable by government and industry in other areas (for example, energy systems, safety, occupational health) if environmental jobs were not available. However, not all environmental engineers were generalists and thus so adaptable. And in other disciplines, where greater specificity of knowledge is the rule, such flexibility is not as easy to achieve. In fields where growth is forestalled by stabilized or declining demand, surpluses of engineers occur. At present, for example, civil and chemical engineers are said to be in oversupply. This condition is partly a function of increased demand in other fields—intensive development elsewhere draws capital resources as well as consumer interest away from mature industries. Here again, these shifts often occur more quickly than the student cohort is able to adjust to them. The example of environmental engineering suggests another form of fluctuating demand that has come to affect engineering education in the past 20 years: fluctuations in student demand for engineering as a major. The late 1960s and early 1970s saw a dramatic drop in engineer