Technical Session Schedule

Thursday, April 18

Engineering Education
(Session Code: B600)

Room D3-26  8:00 a.m.

There has never been a time when the demand for engineers has been greater. The skills shortage has afflicted the Auto sectors in particular, but no branch of engineering has been untouched. With the demand for engineering skills in general comes a specific requirement for skills in systems, electronics, power management and new design methods and processes. At the same time engineers are expected to be accomplished in project and team skills in addition to demonstrating a substantial technical depth. In this session we will consider the factors that cause change in the requirement for engineering skills, and how both employers and higher education is meeting those needs. Factors that influence the complete pipeline from early education to graduation are of great interest. Topics will include: how the demand for skills develops as industry changes; of particular interest is how companies are addressing the lack of graduates in electrical and systems disciplines, how re-profiling of skills is being done in order to bring then engineering function up to date, how the higher education sector is addressing new skills needs, what new teaching and learning methods are under development, benchmarking with other industry sectors, and observations on the acquisition of soft skills.

Organizers - Richard K. Stobart, Loughborough Univ.; Massoud Tavakoli