Beyond the engineer of 2020 - what is the future for engineering education?
Professor Daniel Hastings, formerly Dean for undergraduate education at MIT
Monday 07 October 2013
Read Lecture Theatre
Level 5, Sherfield Building
South Kensington campus
In 2003, the US National Academy of Engineering initiated a series of studies on the attributes for engineers in 2020 driven by the widespread sense that engineering education in the US needed to change. Now ten years after these seminal studies, a great deal has happened in engineering education. The changes can fairly be characterized as islands of success. Professor Hastings' talk reviewed some of the changes towards more design in the curriculum, more emphasis on globalization and on serious pedagogy, the creation of more flexible engineering degrees etc. The recent development of massive open online courses and their potential impact on engineering education was also discussed. In spite of all the change, there are challenges in terms of the demographics of engineering students in the US. These and other challenges were outlined.
Daniel Hastings was Dean for Undergraduate Education at MIT and a Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and of Engineering Systems. He is the incoming director of the Singapore MIT Alliance for Research and Technology. He earned a master's degree and a PhD in aeronautics and astronautics after completing his undergraduate education in mathematics at Oxford University in 1976. From 1997 to 1999, he served as chief scientist to the US Air Force. Upon his return to MIT, he was director of the MIT's Engineering Systems Division before serving as Dean. He serves on the boards of MIT Lincoln Laboratory and Draper Laboratory as well as the Aerospace Corporation. He has served on several national panels in the US on engineering education and the growth of the global science and technology enterprise.
Watch a video of Professor Hastings' talk.