Shaping Our World: Engineering Education for the 21st Century

A look at engineering education today— with an eye to tomorrow

Engineering education is in flux. While it is increasingly important that engineers be innovative, entrepreneurial, collaborative, and able to work globally, there are virtually no programs that prepare students to meet these new challenges. Shaping Our World: Engineering Education for the 21st Century seeks to fill this void, exploring revolutionary approaches to the current engineering curriculum that will bring it fully up to date and prepare the next generation of would-be engineers for real and lasting professional success.

Comprised of fourteen chapters written by respected experts on engineering education, the book is divided into three parts that address the need for change in the way engineering is taught; specific innovations that have been tested, why they matter, and how they can be more broadly instituted; and the implications for further changes. Designed to aid engineering departments in their transition towards new modes of learning and leadership in engineering education, the book describes how to put into practice educational programs that are aligned with upcoming changes, such as those proposed in the NAE’s Engineer of 2020 reports.

Addressing the need to change engineering education to meet the demands of the 21st century head on, Shaping Our World condenses current discussions, research, and trials regarding new methods into specific, actionable calls for change.

Grétar Tryggvason was the head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), before accepting his present position as the Viola D. Hank Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame. He is well known for his contributions to computational fluid dynamics, particularly the development of methods for multiphase flows and for direct numerical simulations of such flows. He is the Editor in Chief of the Journal of Computational Physics, and a Fellow of the APS and ASME.

Diran Apelian is the Howmet Professor of Engineering and Director of the Metal Processing Institute at WPI. He is well known for his contributions to the field of solidification processing of light metals. During the past decade, he has focused on sustainable development, and is the founding director of the NSF Center for Resource Recovery and Recycling. He is past president of TMS, an NAE member, and a Fellow of TMS, APMI, and ASM.