New technologies in engineering education: biomedical engineering

Almost everybody involved in engineering education has, at some time or another, been faced with the alternative of broad spectrum engineering education versus specialized education. It seems as though, at least in Europe, the trend has been towards the first solution. The point is to first generate an engineer and then let him get an outlook on feasible options at a pregraduate level. Afterwards, either with the use of postgraduate education or professional experience, he may be able to deepen into specialized knowledge using the basis he was previously taught. It is a rational solution in a society where the rate of technological innovations is tremendous and where solutions must be given to very complex and interdisciplinary problems in a context of socio-economic crisis.     

Ethics and engineering education

In the US, Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) recommends the study of ethics so that students acquire ‘an understanding of professional and ethical responsibility’. For the most part, teaching of the subject relies upon the use of scenarios – both hypothetical and ‘real’– and open discussion framed by the codes. These scenarios and this framing are seriously deficient – lacking in their attention to the complexities of context, almost solely focused on individual agency, while reflecting too narrow and simplistic a view of the responsibilities of the practicing engineer. A critique of several exemplary scenarios, and consideration of the demands placed upon today's professional, prompt reflection on the need for, not just a more expansive reading of the codes of ethics re what it might mean to be ‘responsible’, but a substantial reform of undergraduate engineering education across the board.     

安全工程专业实验教学体系的研究与探索

该文首先分析了目前安全工程专业实验教学中普遍存在的问题。结合国内部分高校实验教学经验,研究了安全工程专业实验教学体系,主要包括实验教学内容和方法、实验考核、实验教学环节和实验室安全管理,该实验教学体系既能突出安全工程专业特色,同时对于安全工程专业学生综合能力和素质的培养具有重要的作用。     

Environmental engineering in mining engineering education

In this paper, the current profile of the environmental engineer and the programming of the subject “Environmental Engineering and Technology” corresponding to the studies of Mining Engineering at the University of Oviedo in Spain, is discussed. Professional profile, student knowledge prior to and following instruction as well as available teaching time, are taken into account in order to define the subject objectives. These objectives were the starting point for the design of the program. Information regarding the student perspective is gathered by means of anonymous surveys at the beginning and end of the teaching period. Some of the results are collected in this paper.     

ASEA与高校的工程教育

讨论了开展自动化系统工程师资格认证（ASEA）工作的意义,认为它将对高等工科教育产生导向性的影响,高等工科教育必须重视“工程教育”。     

Training complete engineers: Global enterprise and engineering education

For the past few years a discussion has been going on about the specific skills and knowledge a complete engineer should possess. Apart form this discussion, a separate debate has focused on the content of an engineer's education. This article is a combination of two joint papers (De Graaff and Ravesteijn 2000, Ravesteijn and De Graaff 2000) bearing on these respective subjects, presented by the authors at the SEFI 2000 conference in Paris. The demands from industry that engineers of the future will have to meet are summarized and related to characteristics of modern training methods. It is argued that a new view on the content of the engineer's education implies, at least to a certain extent, a new set of educational tools.     

Interdisciplinarity and Systems Thinking: some implications for engineering education and education for industry

AS developments in science and technology accelerate the processes of social change, it becomes necessary to redefine educational objectives in engineering education. This paper examines some of the reasons for dissatisfaction with the limitations of single-discipline approaches to education, analysing these from a systems perspective. The paper considers the development of systems thinking in relation to engineering and raises some of the implications of systems thinking and systems methodologies for the planning of an interdisciplinary course. Finally, it refers to the course in technology and management at the University of Bradford, which is unified by a systemic philosophy and methodology, and considers the value added by such an approach, in human terms.     

Mathematics in engineering education

Mathematics has long been at the core of engineering education. In more recent years its teaching has come under many pressures, including the effects of a less mathematically homogeneous entry. The problems that these pressures bring to the mathematics lecturer are described in the paper and some steps that are being taken to alleviate them are outlined. A brief introduction to the papers by members of the SEFI Mathematics Working Group is given.     

Geometry in engineering education

In this paper, a few examples are given of the importance of mathematical geometric education for engineers. The newly established information civilization, utilizing new information media, requires an abbreviated form of delivering enormous amounts of information at incredible speed. We use and relay models and involve them in our communication in almost all branches of science, culture, education, or social life. Models are strictly based on some graphical information. They are independent and almost perfectly understood at all levels of human literacy. Different scientific branches invented different models with respect to different needs and applied techniques, while the basic original idea of creating an'image' remained. Engineering education today is a complex knowledge base composed of several separate parts of different scientific and professional technical branches of the complex human knowledge, where geometry plays its definite important role. It is the basic platform to get involved with the creation of models in the form of images. Geometry can offer an unprecedented basis for logical reasoning supported by practical applications. Good three-dimensional visualization, spatial capabilities and geometric understanding are invaluable components of creative work in all kinds of human activities. An information society using communication techniques concentrates nowadays on creating models of an object in the form of computer images. Creative processes of modelling objects in scenes are related basically to the synthetic geometric reasoning and depend on the skills and geometric knowledge of the users. We must take this fact into consideration when speaking about teaching geometry to engineers.

Geometry is not just a simple science, nor the way to knowledge. It is an intellectual arrangement. From the arrangement, all European culture originated.     

Theme D: interaction between engineering education and industrial development

Within a conference devoted to the interaction between engineering education and society, it was only natural to give a place to the contribution of engineering education to industrial development. This rich and undoubtedly delicate topic has been dealt with from three viewpoints:

— the contribution of educational establishments to the actualization of engineers' technological knowledge.

— the participation of industry in the precise definition of curricula.

— the contribution of engineering education to the industrial growth of developing countries.     

美国斯坦福大学电子工程专业本科培养方案研究

介绍并剖析了美国斯坦福大学电子工程专业本科培养目标、推荐课程方案与课表以及暑假实践培养项目,总结了对我国高校电子工程专业人才培养的若干启示。     

土木工程类高职实践性教学模式研究

高等职业教育的目的在于是为国家和地方经济发展培养适合生产、服务和管理第一线高等技术型、应用型人才。实践性教学模式是一种以培养学生创新精神和学习能力为目标的教学模式。目前,土木工程类专业实践性教学模式的教学效果并不大理想。为此,土木工程类高职实践性教学模式要从正确定位培养目标、注重培养创新能力、加强教师队伍建设、注重实践理论统一和完善实训中心功能等方面进一步完善。     

Expected benefits of web-based learning for engineering education: Examples in control engineering

This paper presents how 'teaching and learning with technologies' may improve academic education and corporate training for engineering sciences. It particularly details examples of web-based learning tools for control and open distance learning experiments developed at the Grenoble National Polytechnic Institute (INPG, France). The paper describes the observed improvements brought by information and communication technologies in the academic context at different levels: the academic institution, the teacher and finally the user. Then it presents four significant approaches to web-based learning developed at the INPG. The first three approaches are intended to enrich and complete the traditional face-to-face teaching and learning in control with highly interactive, self-learning tools, including hypertext, exercise bases, simulations, and virtual and remote laboratories. The fourth approach is seen as a substitution for traditional face-toface teaching and learning, providing open distance learning in the context of continuing education. The benefits and limits of the four approaches are discussed. Prospective developments in university teacher status and staff evolution are explored and the role of university in the international context is discussed in a generic context. Finally, advantages of distance learning for industry are presented. Benefits of e.learning are shown from the point of view of the individual and the company.