Bridging the gap between education and practice in the design and development of engineering systems

In this essay, the author focuses on the challenge of educating engineering students to be successful and ready to face the challenges posed in product design and development problems they will face in industry. He is concerned with design beyond just component design and design process courses. He focuses on the design of systems; systems that are designed, developed, manufactured and produced. He first proposes the challenge and then discusses his response to this challenge by detailing his educational philosophy and specific initiatives he is undertaking.