The Birth of Engineer Education in Finland

Formal engineering education has about 150 years of tradition in Finland, but engineering as a profession has more than 200 years of tradition. The first Finnish engineers were men of practice, trained by the apprenticeship system, and used the title The Factory Master. In the year 1849, formal education began, but Finnish industry did not begin to employ formally trained engineers until the beginning of this century. The first formally educated engineers were, themselves, not interested in working in industry. The success of formally trained engineers in Finnish industry was reflected later on in the increasing value attached to research and new technologies. This view of science as an important force for production was strengthened further when the Helsinki University of Technology established and expanded its own laboratories.     

Engineering Education in West Germany in view of the Future European Market

The West German education system for engineers offers two routes of studies. Both lines form the engineering sector in higher education realised at ‘Universitäten’ and ‘Fachhochschulen’. These colleges confer the academic degree of ‘Diplom-Ingenieur’ (Dipl-Ing.), when the students have passed the prescribed examinations and the hurdle of writing a diploma-thesis. The contribution explains the distinctive features of training engineers in West Germany and draws conclusions for the procedure in the European Community.     

Online engineering education for manufacturing technology: Is a remote experiment a suitable tool to teach competences for “Working 4.0”?

The demands of modern industry contexts (so‐called Industry 4.0) are going to reshape the working world of future engineers. It seems obvious that these technological developments will affect higher education institutions with increasing intensity. For years, there has been a vivid discussion on the IT competences, which need to be developed by students in order to face emerging technology changes. To tackle the question regarding industry expectations towards future engineers, in this article a remote laboratory at a German university is analysed to identify potentials for future‐oriented teaching and learning in the light of the required competences for “Working 4.0”. Current scientific studies and industry agendas about Working 4.0 competences are identified, connected learning objectives are derived and the focused remote laboratory is linked to these objectives. As a result, it can be shown that this educational setting has the potential to reflect the complexity of Working 4.0. However, the results also show that the examined laboratory addresses only some of the competences in the context of Industry 4.0. Furthermore, it is argued in how far industry demands serve as the only basis for educational development efforts. The scientific studies and the industry agenda offer a limited and more political perspective on educational development. Nevertheless, based on the research in this article, it can be argued that remote labs (and online labs in general) have the potential to lift traditional laboratory‐based engineering education to a modern engineering education 4.0.     

The Paradox of Education in Industry

To some, the fact of engineering education in industry may represent a paradox. It has been introduced in order to make it practical for the engineer to find a satisfying division of effort between pursuing immediate job goals and longer-term knowledge objectives. When one considers the economic objectives of industry, the objectives and responsibilities of engineers, and the effects of scientific and technological progress, the continued broad education of engineers seems a necessity. The discussion is intended to be helpful to individual engineers in determining their own knowledge objectives in connection with "engineering" their own personal development.     

The Role of Industry in the Education of Mechanical Engineers

Engineering education should be relevant to the needs of our industry as industry absorbs the large majority of our engineering students, either directly or indirectly. The contact between industry and engineering students has therefore to be stimulated. As no legal obligation exists in Belgium, this is left entirely to the initiative of the professors and the engineers in industry. We will explain how at our university those contacts are developed for the mechanical engineering students. We will explain our aims, our working conditions and circumstances, our results and the role of the research. The art however is to stimulate the students, and to convince the industry of the importance of those contacts in the education of our and their future engineers.     

A renaissance in engineering PhD education

This paper addresses the role of engineering PhD education and its relationship to innovation and technology, and the need to reconsider how we educate PhD engineers. Much of the effort on engineering education in the last two decades focused on undergraduate education with a few exceptions that relate to masterdegree programs. Doctoral education in engineering prepares the next generation faculty, researchers, and technology leaders and warrants our attention. Whilst current education has been largely responsible for technological advances, there is a need for a new model of engineering PhD education that prepares renaissance engineers. This paper focuses on the doctoral education and its role in the USA; however, the issues addressed are universal among the countries that offer PhD degrees in engineering.     

The effects of the changes in postmodern pedagogical paradigms on engineering education in Turkey

The aim of this research is to determine to what extent the postmodern pedagogic changes have reflected engineering education in Turkey. A total of 781 students were taken as a poll for this purpose. The findings showed that engineering education in Turkey is affected by the positivist philosophy and behaviourist approach. At these schools instruction focuses on mental development and depends on presentation of knowledge. Cooperation of school and industry is not functional. Instructors are pedagogically insufficient. The problem is rather that Turkish engineering schools are still continuing their education according to the Industrial Age, in Postmodern Information Age. These schools are far from graduating those engineers having the qualities of postmodern age. A reconstruction is inevitable.     

工程教育的未来:寓工于乐,寓教于乐——2009年全面工程教育国际研讨会述评

在21世纪第一个十年里,接踵而至的金融危机、气候变化等问题给人们提出了诸多新的挑战。工程教育也因此承载着对未来的更多希冀,工程教育家和工程师们必须更好凝聚智慧、加强合作。2009年10月在上海召开了全面工程教育国际研讨会,就全面工程教育理论、产业需要和合作教育、跨学科和多学科工程教育、远程工程教育、工程伦理、工程教育课程重构等方面进行了广泛深入的研讨。从激发受教育者对工程的兴趣、培养创造精神和实践能力的角度出发,并协调工程与自然、社会的关系,会议提出:未来工程教育应寓工于乐,寓教于乐,形成和谐的全面工程教育。     

Microprocessor-compatible Engineers and Embedded Software in Industrial Products

Demand for engineers trained in software development and applications has outstripped supply in Sweden (and many other industrial countries) in recent years. This is partly due to the phenomenal growth of embedded software in the industrial sector. Because ‘software’ is so often associated with computers and telecommunications only, and not with embedded software in industrial products, the economic growth of the latter is traced from 1981 to 1995 to show its importance. Sectors studied include computers, machinery, electronics, transportation equipment and telecommunications. While the computer industry accounted for about 75% of all Swedish software in 1981, in 1995 it only accounted for not quite 30%. The Swedish machinery, electronics and transportation equipment sectors combined accounted for more software production than the Swedish computer sector. The drivers of this development (ever larger and faster microprocessors) continue to form the future of high technology, which by definition consumes university-educated engineers and scientists at a high rate. The demands this puts on university technical education are not currently being met, either in terms of quantity or of content. Modern developments in software engineering may make it possible for engineering and science departments other than computer science and its equivalents to produce ‘microprocessor-compatible engineers’ who can develop and use software to solve engineering problems more efficiently and reliably than before. This new view of engineering education must be embedded in traditional engineering and science departments.     

Educational Foundations for Environmental Effectiveness

The paper combines findings from three sources: an international workshop on the environmentally educated engineer, research on the characteristics of the effective engineer and an early-level undergraduate course for civil engineers which aims at laying down an educational foundation for the education of environmentally effective engineers. The main findings are that there is a need for a more general education for some engineers, that an ability to understand and deal with complex systems is a key element for environmental effectiveness, that there is no correlation between engineering effectiveness and the degree of educational attainment, and that the characteristics of effective engineers can be learnt, but are not normally taught in engineering institutions.     

Verbal-visual preferences of working engineers

ABSTRACT

Many have argued for increased continuing education for working engineers, but relatively little research has been done on how to most effectively teach that group. Many have also recommended using learner characteristics to enhance learning, but relatively little is known about the learner characteristics of working engineers. In the study reported here, 116 engineers at a medium-sized US manufacturing company were surveyed to determine their verbal-visual preferences as defined by the Verbal-Visual Learning Style Rating instrument. There was a much higher percentage of visualisers in the engineering sample compared to the general population. This suggests that instructional designs for continuing engineering education should be highly visual.     

Engineering education - finding the centre or 'back to the future'

In this paper I attempt to list the body of knowledge and skills which future young engineers will need and how such knowledge and skills can best be transferred to students during the engineering education process. The educational environment should stimulate students and encourage them to develop the capacity for lifelong learning as a preparation for tackling the unknown problems which will occur in future decades. The formation of an engineer should comprise both education and practice. Some of the problems facing higher education today are discussed and some ideas for cross-border harmonization of engineering education are given. Finally, there is a brief comparison of today's current ideas on engineering study programmes and the course that I followed more than 50 years ago.     

Engineering Education Today: The Need for Basics or Specialization

The Engineering profession is as old as mankind itself. It evolved from the work of the mason, the blacksmith and the millwright; but the modem profession was shaped mainly during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The profession itself and the professional bodies played vital roles in the development of the education and training of new engineers. They set standards for competence to practise, which the educational establishments followed by necessity. In a rapidly changing world and a swiftly evolving technology, ideal educational curricula are difficult to establish. Nevertheless, most educators support the thesis that the emphasis of the curriculum should be on the basic and engineering sciences and on humanities, in order to create open-minded engineers, capable of adapting to the new challenges of technology. Training in specialized topics should be left to industry (on-the-job training) and advanced courses. But some professionals do not agree with this, advancing the theory that the new engineer should be able to cope with current industrial problems. The current trends in engineering education appear to be; a broad educational approach in science and technology as well as in the humanities, together with an emphasis on computer applications in every engineering discipline, both for education and for design. More consideration should also be given to engineering design and applications throughout the whole curriculum. In those countries with well-developed technological infrastructures, it is better to keep the basic engineering degree (BSc) to 4 years and enhance the advanced level and specialization degrees (MSc, PhD, etc) to promote the technology appropriate to the country. In less developed countries with limited employment markets and without developed technology, over-specialization may lead to unemployment and an unjustified waste of money. Participation of the students in design and/or research projects should always be encouraged, A comparison between the European and the North American engineering educational systems shows that in Europe undergraduate education is stressed more, whereas in North America advanced courses are better developed. Some comments on the Greek engineering education system are also made.     

Questioning a tradition: A French way of excellence

The following article was written in French as a keynote speech at the IGIP Symposiumat the Biel School of Engineering (University of Applied Sciences, in Biel, Switzerland), held in March 2000. The topic of this symposium was 'Unique and Excellent'. It aimed to show that engineering education cannot really head towards unification, but will reach uniqueness and excellency if there are many different ways of educating engineers. What happens on the spot, in each technical university, in each course, is much more important for excellence than the fact that all curricula can be compared directly at an international level. Owing to the very particular way of educating engineers in France, it was considered most important to learn about this particular organization. André Béraud accepted presenting it to the audience. His contribution had a very lively echo. The text presents a short outline of the history of French engineering education and its very particular ways and means. Engineering is not taught at technical universities but at Grandes Ecoles (Grand Schools), which represent a very high level of education open only to the very best. They will form the élite of the public servants of France, much more than what is generally considered the task of an engineer. In consequence, the education is broadly based with humanities as an important element in it; it is also very scientific, with mathematics and theoretical physics as central topics. The disadvantage of such a system lies in the fact that it is most rigid, not very open to the needs of industry and of foreign students. There have been, however, some changes.     

“卓越工程师培养计划”下的软件工程专业实践教学研究

软件产业的迅速发展对行业从业人员提出了更高的要求,但我国高校现有的软件工程专业实践教育并不能很好地满足这些要求.对此,本文以安徽大学为例,阐述了“卓越工程师培养计划”下的软件工程专业实践教学改革.文中根据软件工程实践教育特点,并结合卓越工程计划的培养要求,提出从树立工程化实践教育理念,构建一体化实践教育体系,采用多样化实践教学方法,突出能力化实践考核方式,建立创新型实践教学团队等多个角度进行实践教育改革.为研究新形势下,软件工程专业实践建设做出积极的探索.     

The Role of the Technical Institute in the Next Decade

During the next ten years, technical institute education in the United States should be expanded ten times while other forms of higher education are doubled. Only in this way will we be able to get efficient utilization of our scientists and engineers. The many developments in science and technology that will take place in the next decade will call for a greatly expanded technical manpower team, and the largest potential source of 1957. supply is the manpower pool composed of individuals with aptitudes that qualify them to become engineering technicians. We can produce twice as many engineering technicians as engineers for the invested educational dollar, for the engineering technician is graduated in two years while the engineer needs four years. Through better acceptance of the engineering technician by industry and the engineering profession, this much needed expansion is bound to be realized.     

The renaissance engineer: educating engineers in a post-9/11 world * Presented at the SEFIrenze Conference, 11 September 2002, Florence,Italy.

Technology that fuels the economy and adds to the quality of life can also bring with it unexpected complexities. The events of 11 September bring into sharp relief some of the vulnerabilities that exist in the world, and also challenge us to re-examine the role of engineers in society. To date, the traditional responsibilities of the engineering communities in preventing future catastrophes have been defined purely in terms of technological advances. However, it is clear that engineering must go beyond pure technology to consider also the causes of vulnerabilities and examine if and how engineering can address matters that are often embedded in the social and economic fabric of society. Moreover, engineers must go beyond being technical experts who understand and consider social, financial and political factors in their work, and become leaders in all arenas of society. These expectations call for renaissance engineers and the need for a renaissance in engineering education. Recommendations to cultivate a new generation of renaissance engineers centre on recognition of individual talent and customizing education accordingly.     

Research and exploration for operational research education in industry and engineering subject

On the basic of exploring the relationship of industry engineering and operational research technique, the thesis analyzes the location and utility of the operational research education in the whole industry engineering subject education. It brings forward the system design about operational research and relative class among industry engineering subject and the imagine of concrete class design for industry engineering operational research class, it puts forwards the view of optimizing operational research teaching, and it also makes some exoloration and research on ooerational research education of industry engineering, subject     

How engineers perceive the importance of ethics in Finland

Success in complex and holistic engineering practices requires more than problem-solving abilities and technical competencies. Engineering education must offer proficient technical competences and also train engineers to think and act ethically. A technical ‘engineering-like’ focus and demand have made educators and students overlook the importance of ethical awareness and transversal competences. Using two Finnish surveys, conducted in 2014 and 2016, we examine how engineers perceive working life needs regarding ethics. The data consider different age groups. We research whether an engineer’s age affects their perception of the importance of ethics in their work and if there are differences between young experts and young managers in their use of ethics within work. The results indicate that practising engineers do not consider ethical issues important in their work. This especially applies to younger engineers; the older an engineer, the more important they consider ethics. No statistically significant difference was found between young engineering experts and managers.     

Educational planning for engineering schools: A study of Iran between 1962 and 1982

The money from oil which enjoyed a fourfold increase in late 1973, enabled Iran to import more and more sophisticated technology. This created a huge demand for engineers. However, supply never equalled demand, and the discrepancy caused shortages of engineers throughout the country. This article is an attempt to investigate the state of educational planning for engineers, a critical ingredient for the industrialization of Iran from 1962 to 1982. Some selected findings were: (1) In the Third Development Plan, 1962–1967, the demand for engineers was 5,600 while the supply reached 3,065. The shortage totalled 2,535. (2) In the Fourth Development Plan, 1968–1972, there was a shortage of 7,707 engineers. (3) In the Fifth Development Plan, 1973–1978, when demand reached 36,400, the supply of engineers was 20,300. This plan was short by 16,100 engineers. The study also takes up the issue of engineering education in the post-Revolution period of 1979–1982. From the study, it was concluded that for educational purposes in Iran, there was never an adequate survey of markets and industries. Therefore, in establishing new engineering schools or expanding existing ones, the needs of the market were never properly taken into account. In cases where a plan existed, implementation did not correctly follow. The recommendations for solving the problem under the present circumstances conclude the research.