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Abstract
In recent years, various professional societies or individuals such as the American Society of Civil Engineers (2008) or James Duderstadt (2008) have put forth statements outlining how engineering and engineering education should adapt to better meet the needs of society several decades in the future. Often, these studies do not specifically address engineering technology's role as a part of the educational and professional spectrum. Building on these previous works, this paper presents suggestions for changes to improve mechanical engineering technology education for the future. However, while focused on mechanical engineering technology, many of the points in the paper apply to all types of engineering technology education. The strengths of engineering technology graduates as engineering practitioners and as implementers of technology, job-ready, and focused on applied engineering are answers to what industry has told academia about the current needs of industry.
1. Introduction
There have been numerous calls for curricular change from various constituents of engineering educa- tion. Even though these studies and publications have not explicitly spoken to engineering technology, engi- neering technology educators can draw insights from these publications towards curriculum validation and improvement. For example, "Educating the Engineer of 2020" (2005) suggests an earlier and stronger intro- duction to engineering practice within undergraduate programs, with the students experiencing an iterative process of design, analysis, building, and testing. The American Society of Civil Engineers provided an outline of the knowledge, skills, and attitudes it believes neces- sary for successful professional practice as well as rubrics (based on Bloom's taxonomy) for assessment of those outcomes (ASCE 2008). Crawley et al. (2007) argue for educating engineering students via the "Conceive- Design-Implement-Operate" paradigm so that they will be able to produce value-added engineering products in a modern team-based environment. Sheppard et al. (2009) assessed current engineering education practic- es and then argued in support of an educational model where components of engineering science, laboratory work, and design activities interact with one another in an approximation of professional practice. The Seer- ing study (2009) surveyed 30-year-old alumni of MIT's mechanical engineering program, and, as a part of that survey, graduates were asked which topics within their curriculum they had used and what topics they had to learn after graduation. Essentially providing support for a more...