Teaching engineering practices

Many-in-depth studies of engineering education have been performed over the past 35 years. It is noted that, surprisingly, the results of these studies possess a consistent thread; in general the engineering education programs in this country fail to prepare the students to practice engineering. The author reviews candidate practices course topics. He discusses their implementation as curriculum content, investigates the attendant problems and solutions, and describes a 'capstone' design course, taught at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) since 1986, which has addressed these concerns with a good degree of success.<
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