Engineering education: Challenges, opportunities, and future trends

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Engineering contributes significantly to the economic wellbeing, social stability, and cultural development of the society. Engineering also plays an important role in global human development, sustainability, and preservation of the environment. Importance of high quality engineering education is therefore self-evident. Based on the authors' experience as professional engineers and university educators, this paper highlights the recent challenges, opportunities, and future trends in engineering education. Major challenges currently facing engineering education relate to curriculum, teaching and learning, and the educational environment. As to quality, balance needs to be maintained between general excellence and targeted areas of excellence. In terms of pedagogy, focus should be on improvement of students' problem-solving and learning skills, ability for continued learning throughout their careers, and soft skills (leadership qualities, team work, communication skills, and an understanding of economics, business, management, and innovation and entrepreneurship). Good support should be available in terms of qualified technical personnel and well equipped workshops, laboratories, and computing facilities. Some of the emerging trends in engineering education include hands-on learning labs, industry-centric curriculum, upgradation of classroom environment and facilities (to support active learning and group-based learning), and use of interactive learning technologies (such as adaptive learning software, e-learning, distance learning, etc).

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)629-637
Number of pages9
JournalProceedings of the International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management
Issue numberNovember
Publication statusPublished - 2019
Event1st GCC International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management, IEOM 2019 - riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Duration: Nov 26 2019Nov 28 2019

Keywords

  • Challenges
  • Curriculum
  • Engineering education
  • Future trends
  • Opportunities
  • Pedagogy
  • Support environment
  • Teaching and learning

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Strategy and Management
  • Management Science and Operations Research
  • Control and Systems Engineering
  • Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

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