Electrical Engineering Knows Where It Is Going

The challenge posed by the need for change in engineering education, in a changing technical world, is being answered by the largest of our engineering fields with programs which reflect a unanimity of purpose rarely encountered in educational circles and realistic appreciation of the factors bearing on this need. A number of underlying factors have enabled electrical engineering to choose a direction, and to unify its efforts in that one direction, at a time when other engineering areas seem to lack such unity. The philosophies and goals upon which this unified effort has been based are reflected in the programs which have been initiated and which electrical engineering believes will result in the realization of its objective of preparing the graduates to be electrical applied scientists as well as electrical engineers. If each field of engineering education can develop similar goals and philosophies, adapted to suit its individual needs, we can save engineering from becoming just another vocation. Indeed, if we agree that we are educating in continued learning in learning to learn and to keep on learning throughout life, we can take over the leadership which engineering education should long ago have assumed.