Teaching The "How" Of Engineering Innovation

Innovative capacity is a function of ‘knowledge how’, not ‘knowledge what’. In order to create greater value for society, the engineer of the 21 Century needs to build on the traditional content-driven education by becoming fluent in multiple disciplines. Drawing on expertise from multiple fields will enable today’s engineer to become society’s cultivator and harvester of innovations. This pandisciplinary approach is critical in identifying and defining innovative solutions, which are historically discovered at the intersection of disciplines. The “pangineer” – or pandisciplinary engineer – is already at work in the field of smart product design, which integrates a range of disciplines including electronics, mechanics, product design and software. Moreover, the panengineer is leading society in the discovery and application of next generation biotechnology, nanotechnology and alternative energy products.