ECS-9619312 Wollenberg There Is a looming crisis in power engineering education, which if not addressed, will leave the nation with far too few engineers with adequate training to run the nation's power systems. This crisis is fueled by revolutionary changes in the power industry, declining student enrollments, and the lack of resources for curricular reform at universities. The future employment picture for engineering graduates in power-related areas is very promising and encouraging. A carefully crafted partnership between universities and the electric power industry, with a small investment of funds from the government can meet the unique technical human resource needs of the electric power industry that is vital to national well being. At the University of Minnesota, we have been studying the restructuring of our power engineering curriculum. In response, a nine-point initiative is proposed whose components are listed below. 1. Early (high school - college freshman) elicitation of student interest. 2. Broad-Based Power Engineering Education. 3. A major revision of undergraduate core courses in power engineering. 4. Innovative Hardware and Simulation Laboratories. 5. New Graduate-Level Courses. 6. Industrial Participation. 7. Continuing Education (Life-Long Learning) for Practicing Professionals. 8. Development of Educational Material and Plans for Dissemination. 9. Periodic Evaluation of our Program by Outside Experts.
