Challenges of engineering education in a global world

The purpose of this paper is to highlight relevant challenges of engineering education, in a rapidly changing world. Our views are the consequence of 40 years' experience performing education, research and training on electrical and computer engineering mainly at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) University of Lisbon, but also in two other Higher Education Institutions in Portugal — ISCTE (Lisboa) and EST (Setúbal). We have learned that professor and student need to be motivated to perform their active roles in the learning process. They both need to become educated listeners. We have also learned that beyond the mission subjects of an engineering program, there is a large set of knowledge that must be acquired, if someone will reach a really “high” education. The professor's role remains essential, although man-made computer-based learning methods and tools can ease the dissemination of knowledge and increase the opportunity to educate a large set of people. The importance of project-based learning, using engineering design as test vehicle, is highlighted. Finally, challenges in quality assessment are pointed out, in order to guarantee that too many statistics and indicators do not smash creativity and efficiency.