Core Engineering Renaissance At Rensselaer: Engineering Discovery A Pilot First Year Course

and Motivation Are engineering schools meeting the needs of today’s young women and men not just to study engineering, but to become engineers? Are they showing young students, even before they enter college, what it means to be an engineer and how engineers can help people and contribute to society? Do our young students share with us in the responsibility for their education and are they prepared for a process of lifelong learning necessary for the technical leadership required to face an unpredictable future? Do engineering students view the required fundamental courses in science, mathematics, and social science as disconnected courses that must be taken as part of some rite of passage into the study of engineering, or as the interrelated fundamental body of knowledge essential for the practice of engineering? These questions are being asked nationwide by students and parents, university faculty, government administrators, and industry executives. Unfortunately, the answers indicate an urgent need for a systemic change – incremental change is not an option. Recent times have seen no clear path forward and an apparent absence of focused, action-oriented leadership. New generations of students, with different backgrounds, interests, skills, and needs, must be enthused about the profession of engineering and better prepared, in both technical and non-technical areas, to creatively advance technology and solve the problems the 21 century will present. Renaissance engineers, men and women who get involved in public policy, stand for practical and cooperative solutions, work to change the world to make it a better place, and improve the quality of life for all the people of the earth, are needed. To create them requires a new approach to engineering education.