The Phoenix-A Challenge to Engineering Education

Engineering education is presented with a unique opportunity for improvement due to the interruption caused by the war. This improvement can only be obtained by a clear determination of the fundamental goals of engineering education and the application to its curricula of the engineering design processes it claims to teach. A distinction should be drawn between the problems of Science, which are those of analysis, and the problems of engineering which are those of Synthesis. Engineering and nonengineering students both should be taught what engineering really is, its philosophy and what it can do. The importance of its humanistic aspect should be stressed. A program is proposed for participation in the discussion and design of engineering curricula by the Institute sections.