Cliff I. Davidson

Cliff Davidson is Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. His research and teaching interests are in the area of air quality engineering. Professor Davidson earned his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in 1977, and has been at Carnegie Mellon for 26 years.

Chapter 6, selection: Changes in Engineering Education: Past, Present, and Future
Cliff I. Davidson

The discipline of engineering has changed rapidly in the past several decades and, not surprisingly, engineering education has also changed. Many of the most significant changes have come in my own lifetime and have been pioneered at Carnegie Mellon. Contributions to this volume by Adnan Akay, Granger Morgan, and David Dzombak and Cliff Davidson focus on changes in the areas of mechanical engineering, environmental engineering, and technology and public policy. In this chapter I offer a general overview of engineering education in three distinct time periods: before 1950, 1950-1990, and 1990-2000.

Throughout that discussion, I highlight the role of our university in providing leadership in educational innovations. I also consider what the future is likely to bring for the education of engineers at Carnegie Mellon and elsewhere in this country.

The United States expanded rapidly in both land area and population in the early 1800s, and with this development came the need for construction of housing, factories, roads, bridges, and railroads. The first technical schools in the country were established in the 1820s and 1830s in an attempt to provide a highly trained workforce for these projects. However, the demand for workers could not be satisfied by the few existing technical schools; most engineers at this time were educated by self-study or on the job training (Layton, 1971).
Formal technical education gained momentum by the middle of the nineteenth century. Especially important was development of the railroad as a large and powerful industry; this ultimately helped engineers to be recognized as professionals (Chandler, 1965). Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, originally founded in the 1820s, was re-organized as an engineering school in 1847. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology was founded in 1861 with a focus on engineering. Programs of study in these early institutions included courses in mathematics, geology, physics, chemistry, hydraulics, and mechanics (Bledstein, 1976). By 1870, there were 21 engineering colleges; this number grew to 110 by 1896 (Layton, 1971). Unlike the first technical schools, which focused on the practical side of getting the job done, the new programs emphasized engineering as a profession with considerable social status, high salaries, and service to society. They emphasized craftsman and artisan skills. The establishment of the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1852, and its rapid growth after the Civil War, reflect these changes (Bledstein, 1976). The engineering discipline further expanded by the end of the century to include mining, metallurgical, electrical, and chemical engineering (Layton, 1971).