As far as I know, I’m the only element14 Do-It-Yourself blog writer who’s still in school. Considering my unique position, I intend to use these blogs as means for sharing news and engineering ideas not only in their relation to the electronics industry, but also as they relate to the “next generation” of engineers. We have some serious tasks to face as my generation takes on the world of engineering – global warming, running out of fossil fuel, increasing global population, and many more things should be able to keep us busy for some time.
You’ll notice that I listed some of the greatest problems that face the planet today. Are engineers really the ones responsible for solving those problems? I’m not sure. Many people would point to politicians and world leaders as the ones who need to address the huge problems that we face. And while I certainly don’t want to imply that all politicians do their job poorly (many are making a huge difference), there is no doubt that the governments of the world could be doing a significantly better job of fixing what ails our planet if they skipped the bureaucracy and actually worked together towards a common goal. Obviously, this is never going to happen… so that leaves the engineers.
Why engineers? Why not CEOs, small business owners and that guy who works at the supermarket by your house? Engineers possess the unique ability to identify a problem, analyze it, and work together until a solution can be fashioned. The mere existence of sites like element14 is proof that engineers are problem-solvers. We get together, experiment, and build things. When was the last time you heard of some senators discussing their budget plans in an online forum?
That brings me to my next point, and this one is aimed at those of you who are either still in school, or between jobs. If you went to school for engineering, get a job in engineering! You have a unique ability, specialized training, and the ability to solve problems that others simply cannot. Don’t get me wrong, we need those others too – engineers can’t do everything. But, plenty of people went to business school – let them handle working for the banks, while the engineers focus on the problem solving that the world so desperately needs. Dave Young, another element14 blogger, wrote a great post about Engineers going into finance recently.
How do we reform engineering education to ensure that my fellow electrical engineering students actually pursue jobs in socially beneficial engineering? I wish I had a perfect answer to that question, but unfortunately I don’t. I have very mixed feeling about the education I’ve received so far, and to be honest, I can understand why many of my classmates are pursing summer internships at banks instead of engineering firms. The vast majority of my classes do not make engineering seem like a glamorous profession. If I didn’t know any better from working on my own projects, I’d gather from my classes that being an electrical engineer consists entirely of solving differential equations, doing seemingly useless 14-hour problem sets, and cramming useless equations into my head for use on an upcoming timed exam.
Thankfully, not all my classes are like that – I have some really great professors, and I tend to excel in my project based classes because I have the opportunity to put my own creative twist on an open-ended problem, as is the case with “real world” engineering work. So, here’s my public service announcement to universities, professors, etc: You will produce much better engineers if you allow your students to pursue their own projects within the realm of a reasonable course outline. The basics are important, but there needs to be a point where the basics give way to a project based curriculum where students can learn all the amazing things that they can do as the world’s next generation of engineers.
My generation has quite the to-do list to face, and the only way we’re going to get everything done is if we have a critical mass of engineers who can really make a huge impact.
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