The project team is organizing and conducting a one and one-half day workshop that focuses on the impacts that engineering curriculum structures have on how students (1) learn fundamental mathematics and sciences necessary for the engineering profession, (2) connect these fundamental skills to specific engineering theory and practices, and (3) retain an interest in engineering as a major course of study. The National Academy of Engineering is utilizing a committee of experts to assist in planning and executing the workshop. The committee members are recognized for their effectiveness and interest in developing curricular models and for their leadership in all aspects of engineering education. Additionally, they represent a diversity of disciplines, viewpoints and areas of emphasis. As a framework for the workshop, the committee members are developing the questions and discussion topics for the workshop around the skills and attributes described in The Engineer of 2020: Visions of Engineering in the New Century and around the recommendations put forward in Educating the Engineer of 2020: Adapting Engineering Education to the New Century. The workshop is extending the discussions generated during these earlier study efforts in order to provide additional direction to those faculty and administrators that are actively working to improve and revitalize their engineering education programs. The broader impacts of the project include the definition of new curricular models that emphasize an early introduction to engineering design and to societal impacts -- characteristics that reportedly appeal to individuals in underrepresented groups.
