Education of Architects and Engineers for Careers in Facility Design and Construction (1995) / Chapter Skim
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3 Capabilities of Graduates of Architectural and Engineering Schools
3 Capabilities of Graduates of Architectural and Engineering Schools
Pages 25-48
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From page 25... ...
It is feared that graduates lack knowledge in design, practical skills involving the technology of building, business skills, communication, teamwork, and the liberal arts. In this chapter the committee primarily examines concerns expressed about architectural and engineering schools' programs and the capabilities of their graduates.
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From page 26... ...
Design is a creative process in which an individual or group of individuals with special technical and analytical knowledge consider a wide range of factors, including function, aesthetics, economics, technology, social, environmental, and legal requirements. Design involves the integration and coordination of multiple disciplines and often requires management, marketing, and communications skills.
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From page 27... ...
These changes include restructuring to emphasize the engineering sciences as a coherent body of knowledge, the introduction of new disciplines, the creation of an extensive system of research and graduate programs, and the partial integration of computers into curricula. While these improvements were taking place, the state of engineering design education was steadily deteriorating with the result that today's engineering graduates are poorly equipped to utilize their scientific, mathematical, and analytical knowledge in the design of components, processes, and systems.
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From page 28... ...
Industry continues to be dissatisfied with the design education of engineering students. Though a great deal has been said and written over the years about design education problems, there has been no real infrastructure change in engineering design education in at least the last 40 years that comes close to matching the dramatic and intellectually solid developments in .
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From page 29... ...
A 1990 survey of Arizona State University faculty and students provides further evidence that design still is not receiving much emphasis in engineering schools (Engineering Curriculum Task Force, 1991~. In the survey, seniors in the engineering program were asked to indicate the number of courses they had taken that required "creative problem solving skills" applicable to "design." More than 60 percent of the students indicated that such work had been required in four or fewer courses.
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From page 30... ...
The current state of that foundation is attested to by employers who find recent engineering graduates to be weak in design. Reasons for the inadequacy of undergraduate engineering design education include weak requirements for design content in engineering curricula.
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From page 31... ...
One possibility is to increase the design and management content of the undergraduate curriculum and defer some engineering science courses to a master's degree year, for those who choose to pursue it. Another possibility is a paradigm change to integrated, problem-based learning, as has been done in some medical and business schools, as well as in some engineering schools; for example, the Gateway Engineering Education Coalition (Fromm, 1992~.
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From page 32... ...
In a 1991 survey by the American Consulting Engineers Council, chief executive officers of approximately 1,200 consulting engineering firms found recent graduates to be "well prepared for the work place from an academic standpoint [but] the minimal emphasis on practical experience in today's engineering curricula is reflected by the students' lack of technical knowledge" (Lewis, 1991~.
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From page 33... ...
For example, a 1990 article in the Engineering News Record reflected a desire on the part of industry for graduates who can "hit the ground running" and civil engineers who know infrastructure but with "a higher degree of specialization" (Schriener, 1990~. The article also stated that "students who emerge from school with a thorough knowledge of high-tech systems and equipment will have their choice of jobs and companies." There has also been considerable discussion in recent years of the desirability of introducing engineering students to practical engineering subjects early in their college years.
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From page 34... ...
Critics generally note that as technology has become more sophisticated, specialization has increased in all fields, and as a result design work increasingly requires the joint efforts of many people. Among architects, one of the foremost concerns is that architectural students do not get experience in dealing with the various engineering and construction specialties that play key roles in the design process or with the nontechnical entities that can influence a project, for example, zoning boards and financial institutions.
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From page 35... ...
Business Skills Both architectural and engineering graduates have been criticized for lacking knowledge in business, economics, and management. In particular, critics charge that most students leave school with little awareness of business practices, especially relating to the manner in which business considerations affect the design of facilities.
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From page 36... ...
Graduates as well as clients have voiced some dissatisfaction with graduates' professional preparation. A recent civil engineering graduate was quoted in a 1991 Engineering News Record article as saying that it wasn't until he was on the job as a staff engineer at a consulting firm that he gained an appreciation for the extent to which cost considerations drive projects (Rubin and Rosebaum, 1991~.
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From page 37... ...
· Stanford University developed a graduate course that teams mechanical engineering students with business students in order to expose the former to the real world economic factors constraining designer's and manufacturer's and to give the latter an appreciation of manufacturing processes (Mechanical Engineering, 1992~. The University of Pennsylvania established the Executive Master of Science in Engineering Program in 1988 "on the premise that the successful management of modern technology requires a broadening of executive knowledge, skills, and perspectives, particularly for leading edge firms in highly competitive markets." A partial aim of the program is to give students "a comprehensive understanding of economic, ethical, political, and social factors" affecting engineering (Bordogna et al., 1990~.5 · At Kansas State University, architectural students are introduced to the business aspects of architectural practice by being required to form a hypothetical design firm and undertake the processes associated with a typical project, including preparing contracts and correspondence and conducting bid meetings.
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From page 38... ...
Communication In recent years the importance of good communications skills drawing, writing, and speaking to the careers of engineers and architects has been widely recognized,6 for example: · Respondents to Design News magazine's 1992 annual salary and careers survey identified writing skills and public speaking as two of the seven most important skills needed for a successful career in engineering. In fact, skill in writing was judged to be second only to design skill in importance.
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From page 39... ...
Further, the Gateway Engineering Coalition of 10 engineering schools recognized the importance of graphical, written, and oral communication skills to engineers and has incorporated training in such areas in its model curriculum (Fromm, 1992~. Surveys conducted by ASCE found that the percentage of schools requiring students to take a technical writing course increased from 31.3 percent in 1978 to 81.9 percent in 1989, and that the percentage of schools with a required engineering graphics course increased from 81.3 percent in 1978 to 98.7 percent in 1989.
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From page 40... ...
Instead, most engineering schools became primarily professional schools, for which the following explanation is offered: Perhaps the most crucial event in the social history of American engineering was the passage by Congress of the Morrill Act the land grant college act in 1862. This law authorized federal aid to the states for establishing colleges of agriculture and the "mechanic arts." The founding legislation mentioned "education of the industrial classes in their several pursuits and professions in life." With engineering linked to the "mechanic arts," and with engineers expected to come from "the industrial classes," the die was cast.
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From page 41... ...
The Hammond Report, the result of another broad SPEE study of engineering education initiated in 1939, concluded that colleges serve diverse functions and prepare students for a broad range of responsibilities, and it recommended that the undergraduate curriculum be made broader and more fundamental, emphasizing the basic sciences, humanities, and social sciences (Bower, 1993~. · The Grinter Report, a 1955 SPEE report on engineering curricula, recommended, among other things, that engineering colleges increase the number of mandatory liberal arts credit hours.
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From page 42... ...
The Gateway Engineering Education Coalition (a consortium of 10 engineering schools) has proposed major changes in the engineering curriculum to ensure that baccalaureate engineering graduates are educated to recognize among other things, the relationship of engineering enterprise to the social, economic, and political context in which they live and work (Fromm, 1992~.
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From page 43... ...
That schools are taking industry's complaints seriously was indicated in a 1993 article in Business Week magazine stating that "one-third of the nation's 330 engineering schools are revising their programs to make them more practical and responsive to industry" (McWilliams, 1993~. Programs The insularity of the academic world is valuable to a certain extent in contributing to the larger development of the student as an individual rather than stressing simply his or her professional career development.
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From page 44... ...
A 1991 Engineering News Record article advanced the notion that construction management and construction technology programs have been successful because of dissatisfaction in the industry with the graduates of traditional engineering programs, (including civil engineers; see Rubin and Rosebaum, 1991~. Teaching The structure of an education program helps determine its success.
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From page 45... ...
The high attrition rate after an increase in admissions standards indicates that engineering schools are losing many students who begin college with an interest in and an aptitude for engineering. The seriousness of the drop-out problem was reflected in a recent study sponsored by the National Science Foundation to identify factors that affect a student's interest in studying science and pursuing sciencerelated careers (Astin and Astin, 1992~.
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From page 46... ...
The following views on the subject were recently expressed in an editorial in the Journal of Engineering Education: Perhaps the change in relative weight between teaching and research has gone too far and, rather than strengthening education, the significantly greater attention now accorded faculty research activities has eroded the quality of the undergraduate program. There seems to be much agreement that the culprit is the reward system that recognizes research and publications as the primary often only criteria for promotion, tenure and salary increase.
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From page 47... ...
Yet, despite this healthy financial picture, parents and students have been forced to pay a continually increasing price throughout the 1980s and now into the 1990s. The growing importance of research in civil engineering programs was documented in the previously mentioned ASCE survey, which showed that the percentage of programs in which some faculty members are appointed solely to conduct research had increased from 8.2 percent in 1978 to 13.1 percent in 1989 (Ardis, 1990~.
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From page 48... ...
Bassem Khafagi, in a student essay discussing the influence of foreign teachers on U.S. education, observed: Another problem that may need careful monitoring is the current tendency of the graduate curriculum to stress engineering science rather than engineering practice.
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