The Research Flavor

Research should be made a significant part of undergraduate engineering education in order to orient the student toward the solving of new problems. He should learn of the frontiers of his field of study, and should know of the people who are pushing back these frontiers. An increase is needed in the number of courses designed for guiding a student to define problems, to make assumptions, to search for his own methods of solving them, and to develop a way to report his findings. Almost as a dividend, new ideas and the exercise of originality provide a strong motivation to learning.