The Engineering Studies degree at Lafayette is one of unique nature. The degree is one of a kind because of its ability to incorporate various disciplines in the engineering curriculum and “envisioned as a bridge between engineering and the liberal arts, educating socio technical engineers” (Sanford pg. 5). The degree values the importance of the fundamental mindset of engineer problem solving while also incorporating a curious mindset to understand the implementation and importance of solving the problems. It also provides students with analytical thinking and critical understanding of the design process. The degree can be looked at as the supreme liberal arts major at Lafayette College because of its broad expansion across other major disciplines like the humanities, government, policy studies, and environmental studies that are beneficial for real world professions. The curriculum for the degree is designed to be flexible to allow students to diversify their expertise in other departments at Lafayette College.
The Engineering Studies degree began in 1970 when the demand for humanitarian engineering began to help alleviate the obvious non technical issues of the world today. The degree bridged the gap between the tough robust technical aspect and the humanitarian aspect of the world. The establishment of this transformation was the predicted reform needed in the world. Engineers could no longer build and design without incorporating various other disciplines. The answer to just build and implement a design was not the answer. The answer was to become a sociotechnical engineer and ask why and how are certain projects, designs, or builds done and to guarantee that the product will be successful with regards to the social, historical, and technical contexts of the users. The AB Engineering Studies degree proved to be the answer for that as today the degree is still intact and several graduates find various jobs to implement the philosophy of their degree. The ambition is for this degree to continue to be the beacon of light for the engineering world and to continue to force the engineering mindset to consider the community and people they are serving first and foremost. Lafayette will continue to be one of the major universities and colleges to emphasize the importance of a diverse engineering degree.
To many incoming engineering students at Lafayette the degree is hidden behind the BS engineering degrees at Lafayette like Civil and Environmental, Mechanical, Chemical, and Electrical and Computer Engineering. Those incoming students also do not recognize the importance of sociotechnical engineering and the important role it plays in the world of engineering today. As a result, the majority of engineering students entering Lafayette enter the BS Engineering programs and those that enter the Engineering Studies program tend to enter the program at the end of their first year. According to current senior Engineering Studies students, about half of them entered the program during this time. In order for more incoming first years to enter directly into the degree, it is essential that those students understand the importance of humanitarian sociotechnical engineers and the opportunities that the degree has to offer to graduates. The other reason these students do not recognize the opportunities of the degree is because it has a tendency to be associated with a direct connection to construction management. Yes, the degree does have a tendency to produce project engineers and managers, but that is not always the case as the diversity of the degree allows engineers to have a variety of career choices to consider. The ability to notify and market the advantages of Engineering Studies will be critical for more students and initial enrollment to the degree.
The most significant problem involved with the Engineering Studies major is the inability to guide students to a critical path of engineering. The engineering degree and world is so large and so diverse, that sometimes the Engineering Studies degree is so flexible that students are lost in the variety of choices available to them. Students never have the opportunity to provide emphasis on a certain sector outside of engineering that they want to pursue. This is the most important problem and can be a solution for the problems above. Since Engineering Studies often have late enrollment and are not properly informed about the degrees, many times students’ perspective on the degree is blurred and disoriented. This results in students just trying to fill out electives and requirements for the major without appropriately coordinating a selection of classes that can really prepare them to make a difference in the world around them. When in fact, a critical path method can be designed alongside the engineering degree to help create a diverse but yet very efficient narrowed engineer. Students unable to join the degree initially during their freshman and sophomore years don’t have the opportunity to optimize their true potential within a diverse path outside of the degree.
A solution to these problems is being analyzed to help students understand the significance and importance of the engineering studies degree. That in fact it is not a degree to enter late, but instead is the “ultimate liberal arts degree” because of its ability to understand the engineering process, its fundamentals, and its building of a complex interdisciplinary mindset to engage in the effects of the products on society. There are two solutions that are both proportional in helping one another. The first solution is to optimize the curriculum with a comprehensive system that enables students to obtain the engineering degree while simultaneously integrating a critical path in interdisciplinary varieties. The intricate system would contain a Critical Path Personality Test (CPPT) that validates students in choosing a certain discipline to correspond with their engineering degree. Simply, it is no different then taking a career personality test that one may take in high school to determine certain career paths they should consider. The test is multiple choice with 30-50 questions with various responses that correspond to certain disciplines. The response answers are tallied and conglomerated to produce a raw score indicating a critical path an engineering studies student can take. This solution is proportional to the solution to fix the marketing issue because it establishes a motive the engineering studies degree can rely on. The Engineering Studies degree can be the ultimate liberal arts degree that properly prepares students for careers they desire.
The challenges involved in this analysis of the engineering studies curriculum will mostly consist of the curriculum adjustment to help students optimize the engineering studies degree while having a concentration. The challenge will be to establish a Critical Path Personality Test (CPPT) and make sure that the CPPT appropriately reflects the various interdisciplinary paths that engineering branches out to. Inside this, this will require an array of challenges that involve looking at some personalities of the people involved in the various disciplines. For example, most anthropologists may have a more outgoing personality because they are interested in understanding the cultures of people in the world. Another struggle will be to then take the CPPT and then properly streamline the certain critical paths engineering studies students can take. These paths must be streamlined to properly fill all the requirements of the engineering studies degree but also allow students to narrow as close as possible to another discipline they are interested in.
Overcoming these challenges and obstacles will require intricate cooperation between partners and substantial amounts of research to understand past engineering curriculum failures, current curriculums, and the future of engineering as a whole. Understanding these three phases are essential to effectively create a critical path curriculum. On top of this, involvement in the community is another important factor that is necessary to provide validation in the development process. The community will consist of various department heads throughout the Lafayette College staff, students, campus organizations, and potentially some engineering studies alumni. Learning the perspective of community members that are familiar with the engineering studies degree will be beneficial to the research. Combining the various perspectives will provide a foundation for the current state of the degree.
The Lafayette College engineering studies degree is a special and one of kind major that allows the most flexible interdisciplinary experience possible. However, there are misinterpretations of the major throughout the Lafayette campus and the incoming aspiring engineering students. By keeping the flexibility of the degree but also streamlining a critical path with the CPPT, it will allow for a more focused and narrow engineering discipline that will ultimately prepare students for a career path they desire. The remaining sections of the report will emphasize what is the current engineering studies degree along with the engineering history explaining its existence at the College. After knowing the existing conditions of the degree, the new form of the engineering studies degree curriculum path will be explained in greater detail. The last part will emphasize the importance of the change and the outcomes it will produce.
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