The Local Company Project: Involving Local Companies in Undergraduate Environmental Engineering Education

Technology is changing rapidly and industry needs to adapt continuously. Based on demands expressed by industry, Brunei University in the U.K. has developed a new and challenging undergraduate engineering programme. The programme is designed to address the two major concerns revealed by collaborating companies concerning the education and training of university engineering graduates. Firstly, there is a great need for environmentally aware engineers to help industry to cope with the increasing environmental pressures. Secondly, all engineers need to possess transferable skills, be capable of lifelong learning and of using a flexible approach to problem-solving. Personal as well as professional maturity are seen as the keys to success as a professional engineer. The new programme called Special Environmental Engineering (SEE) employs project-based learning in the educational process. This paper summarizes lessons learned from project-based learning using the SEE Local Company Project as an example.     

Management Education for Engineers: the case of Saudi Arabia [1]

This paper investigates the continuing education needs and career path development of engineers in Saudi Arabia. A survey of practising engineers in the Kingdom teas conducted. This was supplemented by in-depth interviews with experts in industry. The paper focuses on three issues: (i) the changing job responsibilities as engineers move into management; (ii) the actual, recommended and required undergraduate preparation for engineers in management topics; and (iii) the specific topics in management of merest to engineers. It is recommended that universities and private/public organisations should join together in providing continuing education to the professional engineer. This is necessary for the engineer to fulfil both his technical and managerial responsibilities.     

Engineering Training and Careers for Women in Britain: an overview of the initiatives undertaken by the Engineering Industry Training Board

The Engineering Industry Training Board of the United Kingdom has been heavily involved in special projects to increase the number of women in engineering careers in manufacturing industry, both at technician and professional level. The scope of these initiatives is outlined and the research carried out into their implementation and outcome is reviewed. The projects have had considerable success in themselves, in bringing young women into engineering careers in increasing numbers and have also been influential in changing the climate of opinion concerning the appropriateneness of professional and technician engineering careers for women. Research has thrown a great deal of light on to the issues still to be solved, if women are to enter the engineering field of employment in satisfactory numbers. Recently, the issue of how to help older women engineers cope with the dual roles of career and family, has been addressed and especially how to reduce the impact on careers which can result from breaks in full-time work due to family commitments.     

Long-term Objectives of Development of Environmental Engineering Education in Latvia

The programmes of environmental education for engineers at Riga Technical University have been developed since 1980, but the concept of this education is still the subject of discussion. The recent restructuring of the programmes of environmental engineering education has occurred as a consequence of the specific needs of Latvia. The present situation in Latvia—the changes towards democracy and a free market economy—demands a deep understanding of sustainable development. From September 1996, the common compulsory course ‘Principles of environmental engineering’ will be added into the programmes of all eight faculties of Riga Technical University. Consequently, all the graduates—Bachelors, Engineers and Masters—will be able to implement knowledge of environmental science into other scientific fields, real technologies and technical projects.     

A skills development framework for learning computing tools in the context of engineering practice

Informatics is a first-year subject in the new Bachelor of Engineering/Graduate Diploma in Engineering Practice degree at the University of Technology, Sydney. All undergraduate engineering students must do this subject irrespective of their intended engineering discipline (civil, mechanical, environmental systems, electrical, telecommunications, computer systems). The focus of this subject is to introduce students to computational tools (such as spreadsheets and programming languages) and information retrieval tools (such as the World Wide Web), which support engineering, as well as looking at the effective and professional use of these tools. Informatics has three core elements: the development of specific skills which will assist students in both their studies and their professional practice; the development of an ability to continue to develop further skills independently; and consideration of a wide variety of issues related to the computational tools that the students are using. Examples of the issues covered include: privacy; accuracy of content; fraud; security; the professional and ethical responsibility of engineers for the results of their calculations; selecting the best tool for the job; and limitations of computational tools. This paper will review the activities and challenges the students faced, describe the approaches that we adopted and the various issues we raised, the expected and actual outcomes arising from the activities, and our plans for the future of the subject.     

试论工程师伦理责任的生态转向

在当前工程哲学和环境伦理学的话语中,似乎都缺少对工程师在环境中伦理责任问题的关注。早期工程师把对雇主保持忠诚放在首位,但这种伦理观念在生态危机愈演愈烈的今天已变得过于狭隘。工程师的社会角色地位、循环经济的价值诉求、人类的可持续发展以及人与自然的和谐都呼唤工程师承担更多的环境伦理责任,这必然导致工程师传统伦理责任的生态转向。探讨这些问题对深化工程哲学、环境伦理学的研究以及落实我国的科学发展观具有重要的理论价值与现实意义。     

Does engineering education need to engage more with the economic and social aspects of sustainability?

This paper questions if engineering educators are producing engineers that are accelerating humanity along an unsustainable path. Even though technology and engineering are important drivers in trying to move humanity towards an environmentally sustainable paradigm, the paper suggests that maybe the most important levers and challenges lie in the economic and social domains. Short case studies of energy efficiency, the experience of the industrialist Ray Anderson and the authors own reflection of teaching chemical engineering students are used to highlight this. Engineering/technological innovation may not be enough and is often counteracted by the rebound effect and the current dominant neoclassical economic paradigm. The paper discusses what engineering educators can do to produce sustainability informed engineers who are better able to engage with the economic and social dimensions of sustainability. Some suggestions for engaging engineering students with the economic and social dimensions of environmental sustainability are provided. Engineers must somehow find ways, not just to influence technological levers (which are very important) but also to influence economic and social levers so that changes in economic and social behaviours can complement and facilitate technological change in moving humanity to an environmentally sustainable paradigm.     

高职工程监理专业教学与教育管理方法的探索与实践

随着监理行业的不断发展和新的需求,社会对工程监理专业技能型人才的综合素质的要求也越来越高。就高职工程监理专业教学与教育管理方法进行探索,并在教学中进行部分实践。为了培养出高素质的工程监理人员,专业教师除了具备理论教学能力之外,还应注重自身的实践教学能力。     

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.     

高校图书馆员角色组合变化及角色压力调适

文章探讨了高校图书馆员职业角色组合的成分、特征及其与高校可持续发展之间的关系,分析了图书馆员角色压力的压力源及其产生的职业倦怠与调适方法。     

新工科背景下应用型本科物联网专业培养模式研究

随着以互联网为核心的新一轮科技和产业革命的快速发展,社会对物联网工程专业人才的需求日益增加,培养满足需要的物联网人才意义重大。通过构建“文化、服务、制度、理念”顶层制度,营造“卓越工程师”的工匠精神文化氛围,组建富有活力的教学团队,深化全方位协同培养以及创新和改革实践教学平台、体系与方法,实现可持续发展与不断改进的应用型本科院校物联网工程专业培养新模式,为高质量应用型人才培养提供借鉴。     

Continuing Engineering Education and Environmental Management: How to Satisfy New Demands by New Settings—AnExample/Zusatzqualifikation 'Umweltmanagement in Bahia’—für Ingenieure und diejenigen,die mit ihnen zusammenarbeiten

The need for a more sustainable development is commonly acknowledged, but there are considerable problems for meaningful operationalization. This is still true today, even though relevant legislation is increasing, more suitable technologies are available and more financial resources can be called upon. Thus, the real stumbling blocks seem to be a lack of knowledge in various aspects: knowledge of new demands regarding one's own professional activities: comprehensive understanding of complex (eco)systems; and networking knowledge of how to secure inter-institutional and interdisciplinary communication and cooperation. To transfer the lacking knowledge—in most cases during an individual's working life and not before—requires both new contents and dimensions of flexibility and effectiveness not common to traditional teaching structures. Therefore, suitable learning infrastructures and methodologies have to be developed. Also, traditional knowledge selection and acquisition behaviour and established roles in knowledge transfer have to be questioned. As an example for tackling the problem in an innovative and efficient way, this article describes an environmental management course in the Brazilian state of Bahia. Participants have to hold an academic degree and have to be economically active to take part in the course. Learning on the course and working are interlinked so that one benefits the other. The keys for achieving this goal are the modular structure of the course, and a modified role of the participants, their employers, the tutors and professors. Many participants have an engineering and technical background, but they also have natural and social scientists, administrators, journalists and teachers as classmates.     

How to Teach Engineering and Industrial Design: a U.K. Experience

Within the U.K. there has, over recent years, been a strong correlation between the lack of total design literacy of graduate engineers and the decline of the U.K. manufacturing industry. With the formation of the Engineering Council and the mandatory requirement of design studies in undergraduate courses, this trend is being reversed. Unfortunately the inclusion of industrial design is being ignored. The paper explores the possibilities of teaching engineering, whatever the discipline, through an open-ended design project approach at all years of a course. The use of CAD and professional facilities are recommended to be appropriate 'within a student-centred learning environment. However, staff attitudes to a total design activity—not engineering or industrial design only—have to change radically for the engineering graduate to leave higher education with an appropriate toolkit of knowledge and skills. The paper concludes that specific engineering/product design undergraduate courses are essential to meeting the immediate and future needs of U.K. industry.     

‘Oh you must be very clever!’ High‐achieving women,professional power and the ongoing negotiation of workplace identity

This paper uses a gender perspective to problematise the connection between high educational achievement and a fulfilling professional career. Drawing data from an Australian study of women working as professional engineers in a range of locations, the paper investigates the ways in which the identities produced in the women’s educational experiences require further negotiation in dealing with the realities of their divergent workplaces. Through a deconstruction of the power relationships that form a key feature of the women’s reported workplace experience, the women are shown to engage in a range of tactics in the effort to achieve a degree of workplace acceptance and some professional recognition. The paper concludes by urging renewed attention to changing engineering education and workplace culture if the profession is to attract and retain able women.     

The Use of Video for Training Engineers in the Presentation of Technical Information

The effective communication of complex information is a key task for professional people in general and for engineers in particular. The education of engineers often, therefore, contains studies designed to show the context in which physical systems will be used and to offer students the opportunity to explain their ideas in writing and speech. This paper describes an activity of skills training for engineering students in which a simple video system gives a sense of occasion to spoken presentations; offers the possibility of instant feedback about performance; and proves useful in increasing students' confidence in their powers of communication. Notes are included on some additional uses of video in the education of engineers.     

专业学位研究生教育与工程师职业资格认证衔接的思考——以水利工程领域为例

通过对现行水利工程领域工程师职业资格设置情况进行总结,分析了水利行业专业工程师职业资格制度存在的问题,对水利行业推进专业工程师职业资格制度提出了具体对策,并对水利工程专业学位研究生教育与专业工程师职业资格认证衔接给出几点思考。     

Global Financial and Economic Impact on Science,Engineering and Technology Development and Engineering Education in the 21st Century

The science academies of the world are mounting a global initiative on the solutions to problems of sustainability transition in the 21st century. With population and environment as over-arching themes, they have identified food, energy, health, consumption, water and education and information as the six most important issues. The author argues that education should really be an over-arching theme, citing the experience and lessons from the Asian economic crisis and the social, economic and behavioural issues involved in achieving sustainable consumption in the developed world and sustainable development in the developing world. The efforts of science, engineering and technology (SET) in helping the world to a sustainable future must be underpinned by equity, morality and higher human values. The author appeals for a new SET unity and a return to engineering unity with a humane face, and urges engineering educators and practitioners to devote time to community service and involvement and to focus on lifelong continuous engineering education and continuous professional development leading to global reach and mobility of the professional engineers.     

软件工程专业实践育人模式探索——以合肥工业大学为例

学生工作对指导和激励学生学习,提高学生在专业学习方面的投入程度,促进学生专业素质、认知思维、创新能力的发展都起着至关重要的作用。文章以合肥工业大学软件学院为例,从实践育人思路入手,坚持将实践教育贯穿大学四年,设计软件工程专业的实践育人模式,探索如何将学生工作融入软件工程专业的实践育人模式,并最终培养出具有"大工程"意识和技能的优秀软件工程师。     

I still wanna be an engineer! Women,education and the engineering profession

Women's low enrolment in post-school engineering degrees continues to be a problem for engineering faculties and the profession generally. A qualitative interview-based study of Australian women engineers across the range of engineering disciplines showed the relevance of success in math and science at school to their enrolling in engineering at university. However, for a significant number of the women the positive self-image connected with school success was not maintained by their workplace experience. Using a mixed methods approach, further investigations of the attitudes and experiences of working engineers at three large firms suggest that engineering workplaces continue to be uneasy environments for professional women. Particular issues for women working as professional engineers are identified in this paper and some educational strategies are suggested in order to better prepare engineers for an inclusive and participatory professional life.     

‘Human nature’: Chemical engineering students’ ideas about human relationships with the natural world

While importance of environmental ethics, as a component of sustainable development, in preparing engineers is widely acknowledged, little research has addressed chemical engineers’ environmental concerns. This study aimed to address this void by exploring chemical engineering students’ values regarding human–nature relationships. The study was conducted with 247 3rd–4th year chemical engineering students in Israeli Universities. It employed the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP)-questionnaire to which students added written explanations. Quantitative analysis of NEP-scale results shows that the students demonstrated moderately ecocentric orientation. Explanations to the NEP-items reveal diverse, ambivalent ideas regarding the notions embodied in the NEP, strong scientific orientation and reliance on technology for addressing environmental challenges. Endorsing sustainability implies that today's engineers be equipped with an ecological perspective. The capacity of Higher Education to enable engineers to develop dispositions about human–nature interrelationships requires adaptation of curricula towards multidisciplinary, integrative learning addressing social–political–economic–ethical perspectives, and implementing critical-thinking within the socio-scientific issues pedagogical approach.