A Dialogue about Engineering

In July 2006 the University of Notre Dame hosted the inaugural First Year Engineering Workshop: Dialogue. During the conference, sponsoring institutions (Notre Dame, Princeton University, the American Society of Engineering Education, and IBM Corporation) led discussions focusing on engineering education, specifically the role of the first year.

Topics covered first-year programs and curriculum, the nature of today’s students, the place of humanities in engineering curriculum, and the challenges future engineers will face. Speakers included Raymond Landis, dean emeritus of engineering and technology at California State University at Los Angeles; Michael Littman, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton; and Ernest Smerdon, dean emeritus and professor of civil engineering at the University of Arizona.

John J. Uhran Jr., most recently the senior associate dean in the College of Engineering at Notre Dame, and Cathy Pieronek, director of academic affairs, served as the organizing chairs. Vincent Poor, the Michael Henry Strater University Professor of Electrical Engineering and the Director of Princeton’s Center for Innovation in Engineering Education, and Sheri Sheppard, associate professor of mechanical engineering at Stanford University, also served on the organizing committee.

A total of 144 people attended the conference. The next workshop is scheduled for July 29-31, 2007. Speakers will include Gerald S. Jakubowski, president of Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, and Joseph Cuseo, associate professor of psychology at Marymount College.