1 Welcome to TISP Shenzhen Moshe Kam IEEE Educational Activities Board 8 July 2009

2 Here is a question that I hear a lot (especially from young engineering students) l Why should I join IEEE? l “What is in it for me”? l [This may sound like a self serving question… but…it is not]

3 IEEE Revenues From Operations 2007 Preliminary Operating Revenue ~$312 Million ConferenceEvents Periodicals Membership-other MembershipDues Stds Finance & Other ConferenceProceedings

4 One Traditional Answer: “we give you a lot of good stuff” l Access to IEEE Intellectual Property l Information and alerts l Reduced fees in Conferences, various discounts, etc.

5 Not very convincing… l Much of what IEEE offers is available through employers and schools l For example the China IEEE/IET Electronic Library University Consortium l Chinese students and scholars are the largest single group of users l And they do not need IEEE membership to get access l They get it through their universities

6 Another Traditional Answer: “look at our glorious past” Alexander G. BellElihu ThomsonCharles SteinmetzFrank Sprague

7 Not very convincing… l Young people are increasingly unimpressed by claims of past glory l “Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results”

8 A much better argument… l We have important professional challenges that we are facing together l We will not be able to solve them if we do not address them as a community l Young engineers need to join IEEE because this is the best way to address the most important challenges of the profession

9 Four Challenges in the Area of Engineering Education 1. The changing role of computing in the engineering workplace 2. The rise of service-oriented engineering businesses 3. The increasingly multi-disciplinary nature of engineering 4. The Gender Gap

10 1. The changing role of computing in the engineering workplace l Computing has entered all facets of engineering l It is no longer the domain of computer scientists alone l Our educational traditions treat computing as an “addition” to the “core” l The core being anchored in analytical methods and Physics

11 The Civil Engineer Set of Tools Part I

12 The Civil Engineer Set of Tools Part II

13 The Civil Engineer Set of Tools Part II

14 Questions about the education of the Civil Engineer of the Future l How much does the civil engineering student need to know about l Computer architecture l Computer Hardware l Discrete Mathematics l Algorithms, software, and programming l Should we teach civil engineers more computing and less calculus?

15 2. The rise of service-oriented engineering businesses l Many engineering corporations do not focus on products and production l Rather, they provide services l Service oriented approach is used in some of the best known engineering firms l E.g., IBM, Hewlett Packard

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18 3. Service Oriented Engineering l Do we know how to prepare our students to work in Service Oriented Engineering? l Is there an appropriate body of knowledge (BoK) to teach? l If such BoK is not available – who will develop it? When?

19 4. The increasingly multi- disciplinary nature of engineering l We are accustomed to a rigid departmental structure of academic engineering education: l Department of Electrical Engineering l Department of Civil Engineering l Department of Power Engineering l Department of Mechanical Engineering l Department of Chemical Engineering

20 The market requires multi- disciplinary skills

21 How do we address the trends toward multidisciplinary engineering? l Do we have the methodologies to educated engineers who can work across disciplines? l Do we need to challenge the traditional structure of the engineering college l Break down the walls between departments l Put students of different disciplines together in the classroom and in design projects

22 4. The Gender Gap l In almost all engineering schools women students are a minority l The percentage of female graduate students in engineering in the US is less than 20% l Germany: 21% l Spain: 24% l Women members of IEEE: 7%! l A major loss of talent to the profession

23 What is IEEE Doing? Dublin 2010 Transforming Engineering Education April 6-10, 2010

24 What is IEEE Doing? (and a much better reason to belong) Dublin 2010 Transforming Engineering Education April 6-10, 2010

25 Questions, comments, reflections