Education of Architects and Engineers for Careers in Facility Design and Construction (1995) / Chapter Skim
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4 Conclusions, General Discussion and Recommendations
4 Conclusions, General Discussion and Recommendations
Pages 49-64
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From page 49... ...
· Graduates lack experience in teamwork to achieve common goals.
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From page 50... ...
As a consequence, engineering practice experiences a professional and social gulf between those labeled "engineers" and those labeled "designers." Some members of the committee believe schools need to give engineering students experience with the engineering design process such as architectural students get in the design studio approach. Students should understand the way that design problems are handled by practicing engineers, the many technical and nontechnical factors to be considered, the various ways computers are used in design work, and the types and sources of data needed to solve typical design problems.
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From page 51... ...
Cornell University is one school that is attempting to more fully integrate computers with education, introducing students to the design process in structural engineering through case studies of real projects in a freshman engineering course (Sansalone, 1992~. Technology The committee concluded that both engineers and architects leave school with inadequate knowledge of technology.
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From page 52... ...
There are team projects in undergraduate programs but, generally, engineering educators are so focused on technical issues that they may find it difficult to provide opportunities to apply teamwork to projects. In graduate programs and advanced studio classes, there seems to be little opportunity for true teamwork.
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From page 53... ...
The committee also concurs that the writing and speaking skills of recent engineering and architectural graduates fall short of desired levels; however, the committee does not believe the situation is as bleak as some have painted it. For example, at the academic institutions represented on the committee, the verbal Scholastic Aptitude Test scores of students entering architectural and engineering programs are on par with other students, which indicates that student architects and engineers are no less literate than their fellow students.
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From page 54... ...
The committee concludes that engineering and architectural schools could expand their students' education and place architectural and engineering design in a cultural context by integrating the liberal arts with the architectural and engineering curricula. Ample material now exists to develop and teach such courses, including many books on the history of technology, engineering, and architecture, and publications of the Society of Architectural Historians, the Society for the History of Technology, and other organizations.
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From page 55... ...
Such subjects could fulfill the present humanities requirements by replacing current liberal arts courses, which are often of both limited value and interest to the students, with courses that allow students to understand the meaning and purpose of design and the ambiguities of professional practice in the real world, as opposed to the fixed answers of the classroom. These integrated curricula would also go far to alleviate the contention that architectural and engineering education is lacking in ethical and humanistic content.
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From page 56... ...
One of the fundamental objectives of engineering education, as of all liberal education, is to help people understand their own lives and the world in which they live, but particularly to prepare them to take their place as effective practitioners in their chosen profession. There is a widespread belief that there is a general crisis in higher education due to a failure to achieve this first objective, and that a crisis in engineering education exists in particular as a consequence of the loss of sight of the second objective.
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From page 57... ...
The committee's consensus is that many of the problems currently facing engineering and architectural educational programs have been caused or worsened by the increasingly academic and research orientation at the expense of practical course work. The need to be responsive to industry concerns was recognized at an ABET meeting in 1990 by National Science Foundation Acting Deputy Director John White (White, 1990~.
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From page 58... ...
Should the definition of engineering be expanded beyond applied science, applied mathematics, and the pursuit of truth for its own sake to include the creation of constructed facilities for the benefit of mankind? In this definition, the application of scientific principles, mathematics, and other knowledge assures that these facilities are safe, efficient, economical, and environmentally sound, and the creative or design element distinguishes engineering from applied science.
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From page 59... ...
Some practicing professionals feel that while their professional societies are represented on ABET and NAAB, the accreditation organizations are dominated by academics and the practitioners' views are not adequately advocated.4 They also note that the curriculum criteria of NAAB are so vague that architectural schools have great latitude in developing curricula, and that, since ABET is considering the adoption of similarly vague criteria, engineering schools may soon have similar latitude. The problem is compounded by the fact that even the engineering faculty often has little control over the content of required courses taken in other departments.
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From page 60... ...
colleges and universities since the 19th century, the programs and instructors frequently have been treated as second-class members of the faculty. Some professional education programs still are held in low esteem in many universities; however, engineering programs and to a lesser extent architectural programs have gained stature in the academic world in the last three decades.
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From page 61... ...
In becoming more academic, however, engineering education programs and to a lesser extent architectural programs have grown apart from the professions for which they train students. Louis Guy, a consulting civil engineer and former president of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers, has been a very vocal critic of the current academic orientation of engineering programs, expressing the view that academics now control ABET and dominate the educational committees of many professional societies (Guy, 1986~.
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From page 62... ...
Project-oriented engineering education also implicitly addresses the problem of graduates lack of understanding about business operations. lust as the Junior Achievement program offers high school students an opportunity to learn about business by running small manufacturing companies, project-oriented engineering education gives undergraduates experience in managing projects, allocating resources, meeting budgets and schedules, evaluating economics, and dealing with others involved in similar enterprises.
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From page 63... ...
While change must come from within academia, industry organizations can play an active role in creating change from outside educational institutions. Federal agencies and other employers could focus on making the educational marketplace work for them by identifying universities that share their educational principles, working with these universities to revise curricula, providing the personnel to assist in developing and teaching these project courses, and, above all, hiring the graduates of these programs.
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From page 64... ...
Unlike internship offices under the current inter development program, teaching offices would be allied with an architectural school whose faculty would participate in training activities. Inevitably, schools and professions, as well as students themselves, must share responsibility for training future professionals.
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