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Title: Is It Time for a New Pedagogy for Engineering Education?
The activity that most distinguishes engineering from mathematics and the physical sciences is the design of technologically challenging devices, products and systems. But, while ABET recognizes design as a decision-making process, our current educational system treats engineers as problem-solvers and delivers a largely deterministic treatment of the sciences. Problem solving and decision making involve significantly different considerations, not the least of which is that all decision-making is done under uncertainty and risk. Secondly, effective choices among design alternatives demand an understanding of the mathematics of decision making, which rarely appears in engineering curricula. Specifically, we teach the sciences but not how to use them. Decision makers typically earn 50-200 percent more than problem-solvers. The objective of this paper is to make the case that this gap in engineering education lowers the value of an engineering education for both the students and the faculty, and to provide suggestions on how to fix it.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1923164
PAR ID:
10416848
Author(s) / Creator(s):
Date Published:
Journal Name:
2023 ASEE Southeastern Section Conference
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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